Polkadot parachain Acala and its Kusama-based counterpart Karura are integrating with cross-chain bridge Wormhole, bridging its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems with eight major Layer 1 blockchains. 

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Fast facts

  • The Wormhole integration will bridge Acala and Karura to Ethereum, Solana, Terra, Avalanche, Polygon, Oasis, Fantom and Binance’s BNB chain. 
  • With cross-chain interoperability, users of Acala and Karura, which serve as DeFi hubs for the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems, can access over US$200 billion in liquidity.   
  • Post-Wormhole integration, Kusama’s kUSD stablecoin will merge with Acala’s aUSD to enhance liquidity in Polkadot and Kusama.
  • While they share the same underlying architecture, Kusama acts as Polkadot’s canary network, providing an experimental environment for developers before implementation on Polkadot. 

See related article: Polkadot DeFi hub Acala wins first Polkadot auction after collecting over 32M DOT