Shapeshift: max interoperability on the Metamask crypto wallet

Yesterday, the decentralized crypto exchange provider Shapeshift announced the launch of a “multichain snap” feature that allows users to natively exchange and custody compatible non-EVM assets such as BTC and ATOM directly from their Metamask wallet.

This innovation takes crypto interoperability to the highest level, allowing users to manage their operations on a single wallet and with a single application.

The integration of Shapeshift makes the user experience in the blockchain world significantly more simplified, contributing to the development of this industry.

See all the details below.

Shapeshift and the integration with Metamask wallet: maximum crypto interoperability

Yesterday, Shapeshift, a decentralized crypto exchange application, announced the launch of the “multichain snap” feature and integration with the Metamask wallet.

It is a tool that allows users to natively store and trade, without going through bridges, compatible non-EVM assets such as BTC and ATOM directly from a single wallet.

The announcement follows that of Metamask, which yesterday simultaneously launched a section called “snap,” dedicated precisely to interoperability between blockchains, which leverages some third-party services such as those provided by Shapeshift

It is amazing to think that as of now it is possible to use a single wallet like Metamask to be able to perform swaps from a myriad of tokens that until recently were only accessible from other wallets and with other upstream processes.

BTC for example, could not be “swapped” natively for ETH or other assets via a dApp, and its use was tied to a bridged version such as wBTC and ckBTC, or directly to a centralized exchange.

The “multichain snap” feature is still in beta but new enhancements will soon be made that will make the service even more convenient and secure to use.

For now, it cannot be accessed via hardware wallets but the project team has already made it clear that more robust wallets will be integrated in the coming months, hinting that they will launch their own self-custodial wallet.

The chains supported so far (not originally available on EVM wallets) are Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Cosmos, Binance Chain, Bitcoin Cash, THORChain, Osmosis, and Secret Network.

In particular, Shapeshift uses THORChain’s router to make transactions from BTC to other networks.

Starting to natively exchange BTC, ATOM, DOGE and other crypto assets on Metamask with Shapeshift is very simple and only takes a few steps:

1. go to the snap section of Metamask and search for the Shapeshift application;
2. install Shapeshift on the wallet. To do this you need to update Metamask to the latest version;
3. go to the official Shapeshift website and connect your Metamask wallet; and
4. accept the terms and conditions;
5. start making trades/bridges by taking advantage of maximum interoperability.

If you still have doubts you can have a look at this video tutorial provided by user “Pluto9r”, a THORchain developer.

Interoperability between multiple blockchains: a trend set to grow

With the latest launch of “snap” on Metamask and the integration of Shapeshift’s service that allows BTC to be natively exchanged and stored in compatible EVM wallets, we can see that the blockchain world is making great strides on the interoperability front.

Until a few years ago, thinking about such a simple and fast connection between assets belonging to different infrastructures was considered madness while today it has become a reality.

Innovations like these are so important because they simplify the user experience and make the gap between decentralized self-custodial wallets and centralized exchange-managed wallets less distant.

Users in the crypto world are beginning to familiarize themselves with all of the myriad of decentralized applications that exist and have come to realize that in order to have full control of their assets, it is necessary to hold the private keys of the wallets themselves.

The fact that more and more crypto assets are being managed on private wallets indirectly leads to a growth of transactions on decentralized exchanges, which are growing in quantity and quality.

If until June 2020, the volume ratio between DEXs and CEXs was less than 1%, today we can see a ratio of 14.13%, with a peak recorded in May 2023 of 22%.

Focusing on the interoperability sector, on the other hand, it is curious to note how more and more providers are moving to offer innovative solutions to users in the DeFi world.

Indeed, there is not only Shapeshift in the list of advanced technologies in this context but we can also count that of LayerZero, which allows connecting two different chains in a totally innovative way relying on two parts, oracle and relayer.

Then there is an increasing number of bridges that help transfer assets between compatible EVM chains: however, this category of decentralized products are very vulnerable to hacks or exploits and therefore very dangerous for those who use them.

The future of blockchain will depend a great deal on how interoperability becomes an innate factor within decentralized wallets: we cannot imagine a future made up of a thousand different applications and a thousand different wallets, but we hope that it will all be concentrated within a few services.

For now we are on the right track, but we need to continue to innovate and find increasingly convenient, simple and cheap solutions to reach the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.