Wormhole Launches Aptos NFT Bridge

We are thrilled to announce that it is now possible to bridge NFTs to (and from) the Aptos network!

Our team has been hard at work to make this happen, and we are excited to now offer developers and users the ability to bridge their NFTs to Aptos.

"With the Aptos NFT bridge, Wormhole brings a new level of interoperability to the network. Aptos welcomes millions of assets, thousands of creators and artists from across the many chains accessible via this bridge." – Mo Shaikh, Co-Founder & CEO @aptoslabs

I. How exactly does this work?

The NFT bridge supports transferring NFTs back and forth between any of the supported chains while preserving their metadata. Under the hood, when an NFT is transferred out of its origin chain, this is what happens:

1. The NFT gets locked up in the NFT bridge smart contract.
2. An equivalent wrapped NFT is minted into a corresponding collection on the destination chain.

This wrapped NFT has the same name, looks the same as the original one, and behaves exactly like other NFTs on the chain. On EVM chains, the wrapped NFTs are ERC721 tokens, on Solana, they're SPL tokens with Metaplex metadata, and on Aptos, they're instances of the Aptos Token standard.

In addition to the name and look, what makes the wrapped NFTs unique is the ability to send them back to the original chain and unlock the original NFT. This means, for example, that an NFT that originates from Aptos can be bridged to Ethereum, subsequently sold on Opensea and then transferred back to Aptos by the new owner.

II. What chains currently support NFT bridging?

Via the Portal bridge, users can currently bridge NFTs from Arbitrum, Aurora, Avalanche, BSC, Celo, Ethereum, Fantom, Karura, Klaytn, Moonbeam, Oasis, Optimsm, Polygon, and Solana to Aptos — or, vice versa.

In the past, several high level NFTs, like dozens of Cryptopunks and a Beeple, have been bridged via Wormhole.

III. Outlook

Because NFTs are an important and growing segment of the blockchain ecosystem, we are thrilled to offer our users the ability to bridge their NFTs to Aptos. This new capability will enable users to unlock new possibilities for their NFTs, and we can’t wait to see what exciting new use cases emerge as a result.

IV. Aptos Contact & Socials

Stay up to date with Aptos by following their social channels:

Website | Twitter | Discord | Blog

V. Want to learn more?

Wormhole is open source from the start. Dive into our docs and begin developing on the cutting-edge of cross-chain: Start right here.

VI. Wormhole noob? No problem!

If you’re new to Wormhole, here’s what you need to know:

Wormhole is an interoperability protocol that allows projects to build on top of its generic message-passing layer. It connects to multiple chains, including Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Algorand, Fantom, Karura, Celo, Acala, Aptos and Arbitrum. Wormhole does this by emitting messages from one chain to another, which are observed and verified by a Guardian network of nodes. After verification, this message is submitted to the target chain for processing. This simple message-passing primitive enables xChain functionality. Users interact with xDapps (xChain decentralized applications) to transfer xAssets (cross-chain assets) between networks or access their xData (xChain data) to provide them services on their current network.

VII. Some Wormhole stats

⚬ The protocol’s total volume stands at over $35B.

⚬ Hundreds of millions of messages have successfully been transmitted.

⚬ Currently, millions of messages are submitted each day.

⚬ More than 60 protocols currently build on top of Wormhole’s generic message-passing layer. See who they are.

VIII. Wormhole’s supported networks

Applications built with Wormhole allow users to send assets to and from any of the 20+ supported chains without double-wrapping the asset. It enables seamless access to each network’s vibrant DeFi and NFT ecosystems!

Check out the Portal bridge to see which chains you can bridge to!

IX. Join the ever-growing Wormhole community

If you have questions, need support, or simply want to connect, join the Wormhole community and keep up-to-date with our upcoming announcements. We’re always happy to hear your feedback. Join our Discord, and drop us a comment!

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