Bridge / interop
Hop Protocol
2021 · United Statesdocs.hop.exchange ↗HOP market data →
Also known as Hop, Hop Exchange, hop.exchange, HOP, hTokens, Hop DAO, Authereum Labs
hop protocol
Hop Protocol is a bridge for moving ETH and stablecoins between Ethereum and its rollups, built in 2021 by the US team behind the Authereum wallet and governed by the Hop DAO. Bonders front your funds on the destination chain and are repaid once the rollup's own messaging settles. Its liquidity has shrunk to about $3.9 million, and on 27 September 2026 the hop.exchange domain was showing an unrelated gambling site.
Our read
Hop's design was sound and it has no exploit on record, but the protocol looks close to dormant: liquidity is down 97% from 2022, the v2 rewrite never left testnet, and the domain users know it by no longer points to Hop. Do not type "hop.exchange" into a browser and connect a wallet. If you must use Hop, go through the IPFS interface listed in its docs or an aggregator, and prefer a bridge with active liquidity.
Key facts
- Total value locked
- ≈$3.9 million across 7 chains, about $2.9 million on Ethereum
- Sep 2026 · DefiLlama ↗
- Operating team
- Authereum Labs Inc., a US-based team that applies OFAC-style country blocks on the web interface
- Sep 2026 · Hop Docs ↗
- Transfer fees
- Bonder fee 0.05–0.30%, AMM swap 0.01–0.04% per swap (two swaps L2 to L2), plus destination gas
- Sep 2026 · Hop Docs ↗
- HOP supply at DAO launch
- 1 billion: 60.5% DAO treasury, 22.45% initial team, 8% airdrop, 6.25% investors, 2.8% future team
- Sep 2026 · Hop Docs ↗
- hop.exchange domain
- Serving an Indonesian online-gambling site, not the Hop app; app.hop.exchange returned HTTP 400
- Sep 2026 · hop.exchange ↗
How the Hop bridge works
Hop solved the week-long wait on optimistic-rollup withdrawals with two pieces. Each chain has an AMM that swaps the real token (say USDC) for Hop's own hToken (hUSDC). When you bridge, your USDC becomes hUSDC, which is burned on the origin chain; a Bonder then mints you hUSDC on the destination chain immediately, which the AMM there converts back to USDC (explainer).
The Bonder is later repaid when the rollup's canonical bridge carries a batch ("transfer root") to Ethereum. Bonders lock 110% of the value they bond; if one bonds a fraudulent root, anyone can challenge it and collect 10% of the stake (fraud handling). Security therefore rests on the rollups' own bridges plus an economic bond, not on an external validator set.
DefiLlama still lists Hop on Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Arbitrum Nova, Polygon, Gnosis and Base. Contracts were audited by Solidified and Monoceros Alpha before the 2021 launch and are managed by a multisig with a one-day timelock, according to the docs.
Hop bridge fees
| Cost | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AMM swap | 0.01–0.04% per swap | L2→L2 needs two swaps (0.02–0.08%); L2→L1 one; the ETH bridge has no AMM |
| Slippage | Varies | Thin pools now make this the largest cost on bigger transfers |
| Bonder fee | 0.05–0.30% | Varies by asset and route |
| Destination gas | Network cost | Deducted to deliver funds to your wallet |
Source: Hop fee docs. With only a few million dollars left in the pools, the slippage line matters more than the percentages above.
hop.exchange: the old domain no longer serves Hop
On 27 September 2026 we loaded hop.exchange and got an Indonesian slot-gambling page ("JUDIMPO"), not the bridge. app.hop.exchange returned an HTTP 400 error and forum.hop.exchange a Cloudflare 522. The documentation at docs.hop.exchange still works.
We do not know whether the domain was sold, lapsed or taken over. Treat any page on hop.exchange as untrusted and never approve a token or sign there. Hop's docs list other ways to reach the contracts: an IPFS-hosted UI and bridge aggregators (docs).
Hop protocol TVL and status in 2026
Hop held about $3.9 million on 27 September 2026, from a peak of about $149 million in April 2022 (DefiLlama). The docs still describe Hop v2 as "a work-in-progress and only on testnet"; the v2 monorepo on GitHub has not been updated since November 2025, and the main `hop` repository since October 2025. The newest activity in the organisation is a `messenger` repository updated in February 2026.
Nobody has announced a shutdown that we could find, and the contracts keep working as long as bonders run. But the combination of tiny liquidity, a lost front-end domain and stalled development is what a wind-down looks like in practice.
Incident log
1 entry
Other
hop.exchange domain now serves an unrelated gambling site
By 27 September 2026 the hop.exchange domain served an unrelated online-gambling site and the app subdomain returned errors. The smart contracts were unaffected, but users who type the old address are exposed to whatever the new owner serves.
No funds at stakeNo user losses have been reported to our knowledge; the event is a front-end and phishing risk, observed directly by us.
In our ratings
This page is the record. The scores sit on the review cards, next to the evidence and the weights they came from.
Compare Hop Protocol with
Across ProtocolBridge / interop · United StatesAcross is an intent-based crosschain bridge secured by UMA's optimistic oracle; in 2026 it moved from a DAO to a US company and is buying back ACX.
WormholeBridge / interop · 2020Wormhole is a cross-chain messaging protocol secured by 19 Guardian nodes (13 must sign). It runs Portal Bridge and NTT, and lost 120,000 ETH to a 2022 exploit.
ChainlinkBridge / interop · 2017Chainlink is the oracle network most DeFi reads prices from. It also runs CCIP, which moves tokens across 80+ chains. Chainlink Labs builds it; LINK pays nodes.
SideShift.aiInstant exchanger · 2019Account-free crypto swap service founded in 2019 by Andreas Brekken. Runs SideShift.us for 46 US states and pays affiliates in its own XAI token.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hop Protocol shutting down?+
No shutdown has been announced, but TVL is under $4 million, v2 never left testnet and the hop.exchange domain no longer serves Hop, so treat it as largely inactive.
Is hop.exchange safe to use?+
Not as of 27 September 2026: the domain was serving an unrelated gambling site. Reach Hop's contracts through the IPFS interface in its docs or a bridge aggregator.
How much does a Hop transfer cost?+
A bonder fee of 0.05–0.30% plus 0.01–0.04% per AMM swap and destination gas; slippage can add more in thin pools.
Who built Hop?+
Authereum Labs, a US team of former smart-contract auditors who built the Authereum wallet before Hop; the Hop DAO now governs it.
Where is the HOP token price?+
On our [HOP coin page](/market/hop-protocol).
What changed
- Profile published.
Compiled by
Blockchain Security Researcher · September 27, 2026
We have no commercial relationship with Hop Protocol and earn nothing from any link on this page. Every fact above carries the date it was true and a link to where it comes from; if one is out of date, the contact page reaches the editor who keeps this file.