By
Temitope Olatunji
April 26th, 2024
The timing for the launch of the ShimmerEVM Bridge is a perfect one, considering the broader expansion underway in the IOTA ecosystem.
The ShimmerEVM protocol from IOTA is advancing an impressive cross-chain interoperability protocol with the integration of LayerZero’s technology to enhance its bridging capabilities. As reported by Coindesk based on the scoop from the network’s developers, the Shimmer Bridge through which associated protocols can connect to other non-IOTA-based chains resident on LayerZero has officially gone live.
As part of the Shimmer network, a testing ground for applications before they go live on IOTA, ShimmerEVM has been testing new capabilities with its Ethereum compatibility, opening the broader IOTA network to more robust liquidity that can be harnessed via the bigger smart contract hub.
The decision to integrate with LayerZero is strategic as the Layer-2 scaling protocol aids the cross-chain messaging between smart contracts. At the moment, LayerZero enables as many as 50 blockchain protocols to seamlessly interoperate with one another. Riding on this, the Shimmer Bridge will be able to link up with Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Arbitrum, and Fantom to mention a few.
The importance of interoperability cannot be over-emphasized as a bigger reach will imply the potential for bigger liquidity flow across all of these networks. Developers building new applications on ShimmerEVM and ultimately the IOTA network will no longer need to worry about adoption as users can typically gain incentives from other protocols with the speed and low-cost transactions that IOTA offers.
Perfect Timing for IOTA’s ShimmerEVM Bridge Launch
The timing for the launch of the ShimmerEVM Bridge is a perfect one, considering the broader expansion underway in the IOTA ecosystem. As reported earlier by Coinspeaker, IOTA established a Web 3.0-based DLT Foundation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for which it bagged fresh funding in late November.
The IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation was seeded with the sum of $100 million to empower any innovator who might be interested in building applications on the IOTA network. While the capital incentive may be attractive, the potentially closed ecosystem was not favorable. The Shimmer EVM bridge and LayerZero partnership will ultimately help to entice developers and as such, push the IOTA ecosystem into the limelight concerning its peers.
The implication of the opened bridge and its impact on the price of IOTA is also worth mentioning. At the time of writing, IOTA is changing hands for $0.2953, up by 4.24% in the past 24 hours on the news of the ShimmerEVM bridge launch.
Despite this bullish outlook, IOTA is still considered relatively undervalued as it boasts of only a market capitalization of $908,384,539. In the year-to-date period, the coin has only grown by 70.97%, a figure that pales in comparison to the 159.21% recorded by Bitcoin (BTC) in the same period.
The projection is that the launch of this bridge and the adoption it will stir will help bolster the demand for IOTA and ultimately impact the coin’s price growth in the long term.