Avalanche Bridge Launches Native Bitcoin Support; AVAX Surges 7.4%

The #AVAX token is beginning to gain some upside momentum despite a drop-off in #DeFi activity.

Smart contracts platform #Avalanche added support for native #bitcoin (#BTC) in its cross-chain bridge, according to a blog post.

The network's native token, #AVAX, surged 7.4% outperforming #bitcoin and #ethereum (#ETH) which are up 0.64% and 2.34% respectively.

The addition allows users to bridge native bitcoin and gain exposure to Avalanche's DeFi ecosystem by using the newly-launched 'Core' wallet.

The #BTC pool on decentralised finance (#DeFi) protocol Platypus has $11.7 million in total value locked (TVL) and offers yields of between 23.72% and 62.84%.

A #BTC.b to #AVAX pool has also opened up on rival platform TraderJoe with yields of 17.5%.

The #Avalanche bridge launched last August, supporting transfers of #ERC20 tokens between the #Ethereum and #Avalanche networks.

There is currently $2.68 billion in #TVL across the #Avalanche ecosystem, according to #DefiLlama, which marks an $11 billion drop from December as the DeFi sector recedes amid concerns over lending protocols.