What is Agglayer & how does it work? Agglayer defined.
Remember the early days of the Internet? It wasn’t the connected world we know today…it was limited. The web was a bunch of digital islands – isolated, clunky and hard to navigate. Then came unifying protocols (such as TCP/IP) and boom—the most explosive growth in technology we’ve ever seen.
Blockchains today feel just like the early Internet. Disconnected. Confusing. And let’s face it—most people have no idea how to use them.
New blockchains are launching every week. In the future, there will be thousands–maybe even millions–of them. We don’t live in a one-chain world anymore. Every chain has its own tools, tokens, bridges, and wallets. And right now, users are left to figure it all out.
That won’t scale. And it won’t work.
If crypto is going to reach billions of people, it needs to feel simple — like one connected system where everything just works.
Enter Agglayer.
Agglayer fixes the current fragmented Web3 experience.
So, what is Agglayer? Agglayer is a crosschain settlement layer that connects the liquidity and users of any blockchain for fast, low-cost interoperability and growth.
Most users don’t care what chain they’re on — and they shouldn’t have to.They just want to move assets, access apps, and capture opportunities, wherever they exist.
Agglayer makes that possible.
By connecting chains through shared standards, unified proofs, and seamless settlement, Agglayer unlocks a new kind of Web3 experience: One where users interact effortlessly, liquidity flows freely, and developers can build for scale without fragmentation.
With Agglayer, blockchains work together instead of separately. This means a connected Web3 that feels like the Internet today.
ELI5
Let’s say you’re taking a trip to another country (another blockchain). You’ve packed your favorite clothes in your suitcase (your assets). But at the airport, the staff stops you. “Sorry, you can’t take your suitcase.”
Instead, you have to write down a list of what’s inside. When you land, a hotel helper (called a solver) reads your list and tries to find lookalikes of your things. Sure, it might look the same… but it’s not actually yours. This is how cross-chain intents and solvers work right now.
Now imagine there’s a new kind of airline that says: “Yeah, you can bring your suitcase. The real one.” You land, and your actual stuff is there—instantly. Just like you packed it. No need to wait, no chance of loss, no fakes.
This is how Agglayer works. You can just bring your suitcase. No need to worry about wrapped synthetic assets, risky bridging, or fee extraction trying to get from one chain to another. It’s seamless, easy, and low-cost.
Why is Agglayer important?
- For users: A new Internet that feels like the Internet. No more risky, complicated, and fee-extracting bridges. No more slow transactions. You won’t even know what chain you’re on, for an experience that can really feel like the internet you already know.
- For builders: Build wherever, and tap into existing liquidity and a unified user base. Agglayer is chain and tech agnostic, so builders can make interoperable apps without worrying about security.
- For the industry: Brings true scale to web3 for the first time. No reason to fragment liquidity or sacrifice security. Agglayer is setting a new standard for cross-chain interop that will forever change what web3 feels like.
What value does the Agglayer bring?
Agglayer makes it super easy to send assets across chains. That’s because, for chains connected to the unified bridge, it enables cross-chain asset fungibility.
Today, moving assets between chains means dealing with wrapped tokens, fragmented liquidity, and complex bridges.
Agglayer removes this friction by enabling chains to use a secure, unified bridge where native L1 assets are locked and remain fungible chains on the unified bridge.
No more wrapped tokens
Users interact with native assets across chains.
Safer transactions
The pessimistic proof ensures safety for cross-chain operations.
Better liquidity
Chains no longer compete for liquidity;
it’s shared.
For a truly unified web3, cross-chain transactions need to be fast. When Agglayer spins up fast interop, it will provide safe, sub five second interoperability between chains.
Sub-five second transactions
Move assets and send messages between chains fast.
Better experience
for apps
Cross-chain experiences, at nearly the speed of the moment.
No manual
bridging required
Transactions feel as seamless as staying on one chain
How does Agglayer work?
Here’s what the state of crypto looks like today:
Suppose there’s a cool new DeFi protocol that’s launched on another chain, and you want to use it. Let’s say that chain is an L2, though it could be an L1, in which case your options are even more limited. You can:
- This process is slow, expensive, and, in the case of optimistic rollups, can require a seven-day withdrawal delay.
- These rely on wrapped tokens, liquidity pools, and intermediaries. Even “standardized” cross-chain protocols introduce additional trust assumptions and intermediaries, increasing risk and complexity.
- With Agglayer, in one click you can move assets, access an app, or execute a trade across chains — all without switching wallets, bridging manually, or even thinking about what chain you’re on.
In the Agglayer design, there is a single bridge contract on Ethereum. When chains connect to the Unified Bridge, they’re tapping into the best of what Agglayer offers. Where users see many chains, Ethereum sees one. No synthetic assets. No redundant bridges. No liquidity fragmentation.
What is the aggregated approach to blockchains?
Right now, crypto is caught between a scaling debate with two sides.
On one side, the monolithic approach believes everything should live on a single, unified chain — apps, users, liquidity, all sharing the same state. It’s simple, familiar, and easy to coordinate. But it also creates a hard limit on blockspace. No matter how optimized, a monolithic chain will always face contention for resources and limits on growth.
The modular approach takes the opposite path: split up the stack. Let chains specialize — execution here, settlement there, data stored elsewhere. It unlocks flexibility and scale, but comes at a cost: fragmentation. Every chain becomes its own silo, with its own users, tokens, and bridges. Moving between them is clunky, slow, and risky.
The Best of Both Worlds: Aggregation
Agglayer introduces a new model – the aggregated approach.
It combines the flexibility of modular chains with the seamless UX of a monolithic design. Chains can still be independent, with their own execution environments, governance, and design choices, but now they plug into a shared settlement layer.
Agglayer is the pioneer of this new model. With zero-knowledge tech, Agglayer brings chains together. It aggregates chain states, and enables chains to share liquidity, users, and state. All this, while maintaining independent execution environments.
Instead of forcing every chain to operate in a silo, Agglayer brings chains together in a common framework.
→ For users: think one-click transactions across chains. No need to bridge manually. It will feel like using a single blockchain, even as assets and messages move between different networks.
→ For developers: tap unified users, liquidity, and state. Fungible assets for chains on the unified bridge mean a depth to liquidity and users that mean developers don’t have to worry about boot-strapping users from scratch. Focus on building the best possible application, without worrying about fractured ecosystems or liquidity competition.
As Agglayer grows, apps gain network effects.
Cheaper to use.
Seamless withdrawal, no wait time.
Swap, trade and buy assets in one click.
Don’t worry about a rugged or hacked bridge
No longer need to wrap or unwrap assets
Use your wallet as-is. No switching, no new setups.
A more Internet-like feel.
As Agglayer grows, apps gain network effects.
Devs can focus on what they do best: building things.
Build new things across chains, with new features.
Shared across all connected chains.
Low barrier to entry, build what you want.
No governance mechanism to join.
Amortized gas fees bring overall costs down.
Core Components of Agglayer
Agglayer consists of five key components: unified bridge, pessimistic proofs, Agglayer CDK, proof aggregation, and fast interoperability. Together, these elements ensure liquidity, security, and efficiency across all connected chains.
- Acts as the canonical bridge for assets moving across Agglayer.
- Allows chains to issue and settle transactions in native assets.
- Supports seamless liquidity flow between different blockchain environments.
- Tracks all assets entering and leaving a chain.
- Enforces strict accounting to prevent unauthorized withdrawals.
- Works across different proof mechanisms (ZK proofs, fraud proofs, consensus-based security).
- Customize your chain, picking and choosing the specs to fit your needs
- Build without compromise, from ideation to launch
- Native interop through Agglayer, through tech you know and love (CDK OP Stack, CDK Erigon, and more soon) without the tax
- Aggregates ZK proofs, pessimistic proofs, and execution proofs.
- Batches them together before submitting to Ethereum.
- Reduces gas fees for all connected chains by amortizing costs.
- Optimizes settlement speeds to be faster than Ethereum finality.
- Uses lightweight messaging protocols to streamline execution.
- Enhances UX by removing long wait times for transaction confirmations.
How do I use Agglayer?
What’s Live Today?
Unified bridge goes live.
Pessimistic proof goes live, the foundation for cross-chain security.
Agglayer goes multistack.
Fast interop
(sub 5 second finality).
