8. Transferring funds via bridge

Jan 30, 2023

In this chapter, we will show you how to transfer coins / tokens (assets) from one mainnet to another using the bridge service (bridging). We will show you how to convert $USDT from BSC to Avalanche chain, so that we can then invest in a project operating on this blockchain. When using the bridge service, you don't need to use a centralized exchange (CEX) to send your assets to another chain. There is no KYC and the fees are often even lower than if you were transferring funds via a CEX.

DeFi projects are built on large and small blockchains, both well and less known, and thanks to decentralized applications (dApps) called bridge services, you can move your resources between these chains. If you want to send cryptocurrency from a CEX to a chain that is not supported by the exchange, then you have no choice but to send it from a supported chain, then use a bridge to wherever you need to go. Ultimately, this means you are likely to need to use a bridge service at some point on your DeFi journey.

Let's look at an example.

We added the Avalanche mainnet to our wallet in a previous step of the tutorial. So now, we will send $USDT from the BSC to the Avalanche mainnet using a bridge, which will result in us receiving $USDT.e (the representation of $USDT on the Avalanche chain). We will do the bridging using the cBridge service and to do this, we will pay a fee in $BNB that we have sent from the exchange.

Cbridge-celer-network

Choose $USDT from: 'BNB Chain' (BSC chain) to Avalanche'. We have the chain ('Networks') in the MetaMask wallet switched to the BSC mainnet, and if you are using Ledger (HW wallet), we have it set to the Ethereum mainnet. So, enter the amount, click on 'Approve USDT' and 'Confirm.'

When you click on 'Confirm,' you have to also manually confirm the transaction on the Ledger if it is connected to a HW wallet.

Clicking the 'Transfer' button will display 'Confirm Transfer' in the browser, and confirming with the 'Confirm' button in the MetaMask wallet will transfer $USDT from BSC to the Avalanche chain.

After clicking on '1 pending'

You can see the progress of your transaction.

A confirmed transaction.

Now, we simply need to switch the mainnet in our MetaMask wallet to the Avalanche mainnet and check that the bridging has been done successfully. Now, we have $USDT.e on the Avalanche chain.

In the event of a transaction getting stuck on the bridge service side, you can contact the bridge service's support, or you can ask us for help in our Premium section, and we will be happy to help you.

Analyst opinion

We have shown you how to bridge from BSC to Avalanche. We also showed you how much the fee was and how we can see the transaction’s progress. We checked that the transaction worked and verified that we credited $USDT.e to the Avalanche mainnet.

So with that, we have completed the Charlie DeFi Beginner's Guide tutorial. Congratulations! You have successfully completed your first interaction with the world of decentralized finance! You've been introduced to DeFi, created your first software wallet, and linked it to a hardware wallet for better security. You already have your first digital assets on your MetaMask wallet in addition to your mainnets. You've even accomplished a cross-chain transfer between blockchains using a bridge. And it wasn't nearly as complicated as it seemed, was it?

If you want to continue to improve, you can take a look at other content on Charlie DeFi. You can choose from a variety of categories where you'll find descriptions and explanations of a range of DeFi projects, a glossary of DeFi terms, and explanations of technical terms you might not understand - we recommend you save this glossary as a bookmark in your web browser so you can access it whenever you need something explaining.

Finally, we'd like to invite you to our community Discord server, where we’re all taking our decentralized finance journey together.