How intent-based architecture makes DeFi trading faster, safer, and more composable

From Fragmentation to Flow

In the early days of DeFi, users experienced something rare: open, permissionless, composable financial tools that worked. One wallet gave you access to everything–lending, swaps, yield farming–all without middlemen and without paperwork. But as the ecosystem expanded across dozens of chains and rollups, that simplicity collapsed into fragmentation. Today, using DeFi across chains means switching wallets, juggling gas tokens, navigating multiple UIs, and bridging assets manually. The user experience became the problem.

Crosschain trading is where this fragmentation is most visible and most costly. Moving assets between chains isn’t just slow, it’s risky. According to Cointelegraph, over $3.3 billion worth of crypto assets were lost to hacks targeting crosschain bridges between 2021 and 2022. Every manual step introduces friction, delays, and exposure to price shifts or failed transactions. The result is an ecosystem with massive liquidity potential, trapped behind technical bottlenecks.

What should have been a composable ecosystem now feels like a scattered one. But that’s changing.

A new model for crosschain trading built on intent-based architecture and execution agents is making the experience feel whole again. Standards like ERC-7683, paired with production-ready protocols like Across, allow trading protocols like Velora to deliver crosschain swaps that feel native. No bridging. No network switching. Just one intent, fulfilled.

This article breaks down how intent-based crosschain trading works, why it matters, and how Velora is setting a new benchmark for crosschain trading in DeFi.

What Is Crosschain Trading?

Crosschain trading refers to swapping one asset for another across two different blockchain networks, such as trading ETH on Ethereum for USDC on Base. It’s a foundational capability for users who want to move capital, access liquidity, or execute trading strategies across the broader DeFi ecosystem.

The challenge is that blockchains aren’t built to talk to each other. Each network maintains its own consensus, state, and transaction model. There's no native mechanism for passing assets or messages between them. That’s why early solutions relied on bridges, protocols that simulate crosschain transfers by locking tokens on one chain and minting synthetic versions on another.

While effective in theory, this approach introduces complexity at every layer:

• Users must initiate a bridge transaction, often via a separate UI.

• Once assets arrive on the target chain, they need to approve and execute a separate swap.

• Native gas tokens are required on both chains, which adds funding and operational friction.

The result is a multi-step process prone to delays, errors, and poor execution, especially when network conditions fluctuate.

Yet demand for crosschain access continues to grow. Liquidity is distributed. Yield opportunities vary. As of early June 2025, the combined TVL on L2s was over $10.8 billion, with Base leading at $3.85 billion and Arbitrum second at $2.45 billion. 

DeFi protocols are increasingly moving towards being multichain by default. For DeFi to remain viable at scale, crosschain trading can’t remain a patched-on workaround. It needs to feel like a native capability.

That’s the role of intent-based execution, converting fragmented workflows into unified, protocol-level outcomes. Velora builds on this architecture to make crosschain trades as simple and reliable as single-chain swaps.

The Old Way: Why Traditional Bridges Fell Short

Before intent-based protocols, crosschain trading meant stitching together a manual sequence of actions across different apps and chains. The typical process looked something like this:

1. Use a bridge to lock your tokens on the source chain.

2. Wait for confirmation, often several minutes or longer.

3. Receive a wrapped or synthetic version on the destination chain.

4. Switch networks in your wallet.

5. Approve and execute a swap through a local DEX.

Each step introduced friction. Each delay created risk.

Most crosschain bridges use a lock-and-mint model. Assets are locked in a smart contract on the origin chain, while a new token representing that asset is minted on the destination chain. The reverse process involves burning the synthetic and unlocking the original. This architecture works, but it’s fragile. A bridge isn’t just a message-passing protocol; it’s a coordination mechanism across different security domains, making it a prime target for attackers.

And the data backs it up: the largest incidents (Ronin, Wormhole, Poly Network) all followed the same pattern–security assumptions breaking down at the point where chains interact.

Image source

But security isn’t the only issue. Bridges also amplify:

• Slippage: slow execution increases price variance.

• Transaction failure: bridging delays often lead to stale quotes or insufficient liquidity.

• UX abandonment: needing gas on the destination chain, switching networks, and using multiple apps deters all but the most committed users.

Even when bridges work as intended, the user experience sucks. There’s too much to manage, too much that can go wrong, and too little visibility into execution.

For DeFi to scale across chains, this model doesn’t hold. Traders don’t want to bridge. They want to trade. That shift, from steps to outcomes, is where intent-based protocols fundamentally change the game.

The New Architecture: Intents and Execution Agents

Intent-based architecture redefines how crosschain actions are executed. Instead of guiding users through a series of discrete steps—bridge here, swap there, confirm gas again—intent-based systems allow users to express a desired outcome. The system takes care of the rest.

At its core, an intent is a signed message that describes what the user wants to achieve, not how to achieve it. For example:

“Swap 1 ETH on Ethereum for USDC on Base.”

This intent is broadcast to a network of execution agents, also called relayers, solvers, or agents, who compete to fulfill it. Each agent determines whether it can profitably execute the request based on available liquidity, routes, and fees. If it can, it commits capital to front the transaction and fulfills the user’s intent across all necessary chains.

Execution happens atomically or reverts. The user doesn’t need to bridge, approve tokens on the target chain, or even switch networks. The intent is fulfilled or not. There is no partial fill, no transaction caught in limbo.

Protocols like Across have helped standardize this model through ERC-7683, a crosschain intent format now supported by a growing number of applications and L2s. This standard enables composability between solvers, dApps, and wallets, meaning an ecosystem of crosschain interactions can be coordinated without recreating logic on every stack.

By shifting complexity from the user to the protocol layer, intent-based systems solve the real bottlenecks in crosschain DeFi:

• No more multi-step bridging flows

• No more gas token juggling

• No more failed trades due to changing conditions mid-process

For users, it means executing advanced crosschain trading strategies without thinking about infrastructure. For developers, it means building apps that treat Ethereum and its L2s as a unified environment.

And for platforms like Velora, it’s the foundation for making DeFi composable, efficient, and usable again.

How to Make Your First Crosschain Swap with Velora

Why Intent-Based Crosschain Trading Is Better

Crosschain trading doesn’t just need to work, it needs to be fast, fair, and accessible. Intent-based execution solves the structural problems of legacy crosschain systems by offering clear, user-focused improvements. 

Better Pricing Through Competitive Execution

Traditional bridging introduces latency. That delay often means worse execution: prices shift between the time a user sends funds and the moment they can complete the swap. Slippage becomes unavoidable.

Intent-based protocols fix this by introducing competition. When you submit an intent on Velora, a network of agents evaluates your order in real time. These agents compete to fill the trade at the best available terms. You’re not waiting for a bridge to finalize or manually chasing the right route, pricing is optimized upfront and execution happens quickly.

Less latency. Less slippage. Better outcomes. ✅Intents for the win.

Gasless UX and Chain Abstraction

Managing gas tokens across multiple chains is one of DeFi’s most persistent UX failures. You may need ETH on Ethereum, MATIC on Polygon, ARB on Arbitrum, and so on, just to move assets. If you don’t already have gas on the destination chain, your transaction is effectively blocked.

Velora eliminates this problem through gas abstraction. When you initiate a trade, the agent fronts gas on your behalf. You don’t need to top up balances or pay out-of-pocket. Gas fees are included in the trade quote and settled as part of the transaction.

This makes crosschain trading accessible not just to power users, but to anyone with a wallet and a goal. ✅Intents for the win.

MEV Protection and Transaction Guarantees

Crosschain transactions are especially vulnerable to MEV (Maximal Extractable Value). Because they often span multiple blocks and include public steps (like bridging), attackers can frontrun or sandwich trades with little effort. Worse, if a crosschain execution fails midway, the user is left exposed or partially filled.

Velora’s intent-based system addresses these risks directly:

• Atomic execution or safe revert: no hanging or stuck transactions

• No onchain signaling prior to fulfillment: reducing visibility to MEV bots

• Solver accountability: agents are financially incentivized to complete the trade accurately

The result is a more predictable, protected experience, where trades either go through under agreed conditions or don’t happen at all.

✅ Intents for the win.

Intent-based infrastructure meaningfully improves the trading experience and improves execution. Better pricing, smoother UX, and safer trades aren’t add-ons. They’re the baseline. And they’re already live on Velora.

Advanced Features: Super Hooks and New Primitives

Intent-based architecture doesn’t just simplify existing DeFi workflows, it enables entirely new ones. By abstracting execution and routing into programmable components, Velora introduces a level of composability that traditional DEX aggregators simply can’t match.

Composable, Multi-Step Actions

In legacy DeFi apps, complex strategies require complex coordination. Bridging, swapping, depositing, and collateralizing are all separate steps, often across different interfaces, contracts, and chains.

Velora collapses this into a single transaction. With support for multi-step intent flows, users can execute compound actions like:

• Swap ETH on Ethereum, then deposit the resulting USDC into Aave on Base

• Bridge funds to Optimism, open a leveraged position, and set a trailing stop

• Exit LP positions and reallocate liquidity across chains based on yield targets

Each of these is treated as one request. Execution agents coordinate the entire flow and settle it crosschain, unlocking trading strategies that weren’t possible before intent-based architecture.

Super Hooks: Onchain Logic for Custom Execution

Super Hooks are Velora’s programmable execution modules. They allow intents to include conditional logic, like only executing a trade if a certain price is hit, or routing the result into a downstream protocol.

Think of Super Hooks as smart contract plugins that customize how an intent is fulfilled. Examples include:

• Crosschain limit orders with price checks and fallback conditions

• Auto-staking rewards after a swap

• Redirecting liquidity to a Curve pool once thresholds are met

Super Hooks are executed trustlessly by agents as part of the transaction. Users define the logic; the system enforces it.

What This Unlocks

• Advanced strategy automation: No need for bots or scripts. Just define your goal.

• Crosschain composability: Assets and logic move together.

• Time-to-finality compression: One click replaces four apps and five approvals.

Most DeFi products today are limited by the need to wrap functionality in siloed UX flows. Velora flips that model, giving users modular, programmable access to an ecosystem of protocols with one intent.

Standardization and the Future of Interoperability

Crosschain trading is rapidly scaling because the DeFi ecosystem is converging around shared standards that make interoperability native, not bolted on.

At the core of this movement is ERC-7683, the standard for expressing crosschain intents. Co-authored by Across and Uniswap Labs, ERC-7683 defines how users can specify an outcome—like swapping tokens across chains—without dictating the execution path. It enables wallets, protocols, and relayers to speak the same language when coordinating crosschain actions.

More info: Across Protocol: ERC-7683 unlocks new levels of benefits for users, developers, and Fillers.

Velora implements ERC-7683 as part of its core execution engine. That means:

• Intents from Velora can be interpreted by any compliant filler or solver network

• Composability with other apps becomes a function of shared format, not integration work

• Developers can plug into a broader intent-based ecosystem without rebuilding the stack

But ERC-7683 is just one part of a broader interoperability framework emerging in Ethereum:

• xERC20: A unified token standard for native crosschain assets

• EIP-4337 (Account Abstraction): Enables programmable accounts that simplify interaction across contracts and chains

• EIP-7702: Temporarily upgrades EOAs with smart contract functionality, key for delegated crosschain actions

• ERC-7786: Messaging standard for contract-to-contract communication across chains

Together, these standards create a foundation where crosschain activity can be secure, composable, and invisible to the end user. Apps no longer need to hardcode bridges or wrap tokens in brittle middleware. They can rely on shared formats, trusted infrastructure, and programmable execution.

This is what it means to unify Ethereum. Not by collapsing everything onto one chain, but by making the boundaries between chains functionally irrelevant.

Trading Crosschain Like It’s One Chain

The promise of DeFi was never about chasing yield or memecoins. It was about permissionless access to financial services. The ability to move, trade, and build freely wherever there is an internet connection. But as Ethereum scaled horizontally through rollups and L2s, the user experience fractured. What should have been fluid became fragmented. What should have been permissionless became complex.

Intent-based crosschain trading restores the original promise of DeFi. It strips out the scaffolding—the bridges, wrapped assets, gas juggling—and replaces it with a direct path from goal to outcome. You say what you want. The network fulfills it. That’s it.

Backed by standards like ERC-7683 and powered by execution networks like Across, Velora makes DeFi feel like magic again: simple, permissionless, and composable.

This isn’t the end of the crosschain story. But it’s the point where it starts to scale.

Ready to experience it yourself? Make your first crosschain swap now on Velora.