Ethereum Watch

Portal, a true cross-chain DEX that makes atomic swaps between Bitcoin and other digital assets fast, secure, and private, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with the blockchain infrastructure platform Ankr.

Both Portal and Ankr believe in connecting users, developers, and enterprises to a self-sovereign and censorship-resistant trade & communication.

Since they have both been paving the way for an open financial Internet of the future, it was only a matter of time before they joined hands.

Ankr’s CEO Chandler Song (and Bounce Token co-founder) personally invested in Portal. Teammates joining him are COO Ryan Fang and former head of Crypto Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, Gaurav Budhrani. The investment and partnership comes on the heels of Portal’s recently announced $8.5M raise from Coinbase Ventures, ArringtonXRP Capital, OKEx, others.

Ankr plans to run a facilitation node to provide ongoing liquidity for atomic swaps between ANKR and other assets on Portal DEX. Portal plans to make ANKR’s token available on Portal.

Portal’s Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology simplifies building censorship-resistant communications, media and one-click execution of cross-chain swaps on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Portal facilitates the private, off-chain execution of “smart contracts” for asset issuance, swaps, staking, liquidity, derivatives, and more, all peer-to-peer, without third-party custody or control.

Chandler Song, Ankr’s CEO, said:

“Portal brings a highly differentiated and much awaited capability of DeFi on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Ankr is really excited to partner with the Portal team in furthering our combined mission to promote applications of Web 3.0 technologies.”

Ankr’s platform combines node infrastructure, staking, and DeFi to make developing new projects and monetizing crypto assets easy for participants. It provides one-click API solutions for developers to build Web3 products on more than a dozen blockchains and Layer 2 protocols.

Portal is DeFi built on Bitcoin. It makes trade unstoppable with anonymous, zero-knowledge swaps via the first true cross-chain DEX that’s trust-minimized. It eliminates minting wrapped coins (ie wBTC, wETH) or risky staking with intermediaries. With Portal, DeFi becomes a service that anyone can provide, maintaining anonymity within open, transparent markets with a security model as robust as Bitcoin mining.

Portal’s Layer 2 and Layer 3 technology enables building censorship-resistant communications, media and one-click cross-chain swaps, all on Bitcoin.

Ankr provides Web3 infrastructure for easy, accessible and affordable deployment of blockchain nodes, API’s, decentralized staking infrastructure and Layer 2 scaling solutions, designed to lower the entry barrier for everyday people, enterprises, and developers to contribute to blockchain ecosystems.

Ankr offers node solutions for over 40 different chains and a “1-click” API service for Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche and more.