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Token bridging overview

Token bridging is a fundamental aspect of any Layer 2 (child chain) protocol. Arbitrum uses its ability to pass messages between parent and child chains (see Cross-chain messaging) to enable projects to move assets between Ethereum and an Arbitrum chain trustlessly, and vice versa. Any asset and asset type in principle can be bridged, including ETH, ERC-20 tokens, and ERC-721 tokens, among others.

The following sections provide a series of conceptual documents that explain how asset bridging works and the options available to bridge ETH and other types of assets between layers. Additionally, a series of how-to guides showcases the different methods for making your token bridgeable.

This section has three parts:

  • ETH bridging: explains how Arbitrum handles bridging ETH, the native token of Ethereum and the Arbitrum chains, between the parent and child chain.
  • ERC-20 token bridging: explains the architecture of the token bridge for this type of asset, describing the different options available to make a token bridgeable.
  • Bridge tokens programmatically: goes over the process of making an ERC-20 token bridgeable using the different types of gateways available in the token bridge.