What t3rn does

t3rn is a private protocol company building an intent-based interoperability layer for cross-chain smart contract execution. Users submit an outcome they want — typically an asset swap or DeFi action spanning multiple chains — and a permissionless network of competing solvers races to fill it, with execution settled atomically through a three-phase Execute/Revert/Commit model backed by LiquidityWellCompact escrow contracts. The protocol connects 56 EVM-compatible networks and exposes its solver network via TypeScript, Python, and Rust SDKs and a REST/SSE API, with a live Genome stream delivering every intent, bid, fill, and proof in real time.

The product surface is consolidated into a single self-serve portal at t3rn.io offering Bridge, Stake (TRN plus Symbiotic restaking for TRN/ETH/USDC/BTC), Solver, Explorer, and DAO modules, alongside developer tools (Deploy Wizard, Intent Playground, NFT Bridge preview, Agent Framework). Revenue mechanics are entirely protocol-level: solvers collect execution fees from intent submitters via reverse auctions, and the protocol takes an ecosystem cut that is split 50% to executors, 20% to DAO stakers, and 30% to an automated TRN buyback via Uniswap on Arbitrum. The TRN token functions as a utility and governance asset for staking, solver bonding (2x transaction value), and DAO voting on fee parameters. Customers are decentralized by construction — cross-chain traders, DeFi users, solver operators, protocol builders, and liquidity providers — with no enterprise contracts or named anchor accounts.

The company was founded in 2021 by Maciej Baj (CTO, previously Head of Development at Lisk) and Jacob Kowalewski (CSO, previously Lisk Business Development), with Lourdes Tandayag as COO. t3rn is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, operates with a small team (11–50), and has raised $8M total across a $1.35M seed (June 2021, led by Polychain Capital) and a $6.5M strategic round (November 2022, led by Polychain Capital). The TRN token launched in July 2025 alongside mainnet, and AIxecutors — AI agents designed to automate solver-side operations — shipped in August 2025. The company's own founder commentary acknowledges that, while the contracts work as designed, protocol economics have not yet delivered the revenue trajectory originally envisioned, and governance was restructured in late 2025 from a Top 33 Committee model to an Ambassador Program.

Name

t3rn

Legal name

t3rn Limited

Website

https://t3rn.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

t3rn is an intent-based interoperability protocol that enables cross-chain smart contract execution with atomic settlement across 56 EVM networks, serving DeFi users, solvers, and protocol developers via a permissionless, fee-based model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cross-chain Interoperability Protocol

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)

akta.pro primary industry

Relayer/Validator Networks & Middleware (relayer marketplaces, keeper networks) (FSAPAKAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Smart Contract Developer Platforms & Tooling (SDKs, APIs, frameworks, indexing) (FSAPAAAH), Cross-Chain Data & State Synchronization (state proofs, data availability for interop) (FSAPAKAI)

Keywords

• Cross-chain interoperability
• Intent-based execution
• Smart contract bridging
• Decentralized solver network
• Multi-chain protocol

Headquarters

HQ city

Lisbon

HQ country

Portugal

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Execution fees (protocol cut): Solvers collect execution fees from requesters (users submitting intents). The protocol takes a small ecosystem cut from each transaction. No block rewards — the economy runs on throughput. Fee parameters are governed by TRN holders via the DAO.
2. Automated TRN buyback: 30% of protocol fees are used to buy TRN on the open market via the Kelly Buyback executor, visible in real time on the DAO page. Purchased TRN is routed to the DAO staker governance system, aligning protocol usage with governance power.
3. Liquidity provider yield: Liquidity providers (LPs) who stake assets in Liquidity Wells earn yield from bridge fees. LPs help secure the network and are rewarded proportionally to the liquidity they provide and the volume routed through their funds.
4. TRN token utility: TRN is a utility token used for staking (GovStakingV2 on Arbitrum, Symbiotic restaking on Ethereum), solver bonding (2x transaction value), and governance (voting on fee parameters, gateway whitelisting, treasury allocation).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

t3rn operates an intent-based interoperability protocol that coordinates atomic cross-chain smart contract execution across 56 EVM-compatible networks. Users submit intents describing the desired outcome (for example, swapping an asset on one chain for another asset on a different chain), and a permissionless network of solvers competes in a reverse auction to fill them with three-phase atomic settlement (Execute, Revert, Commit). The protocol monetizes every fill through execution fees and a protocol cut, with a portion routed to TRN token holders via automated buybacks.

Product overview

t3rn is an intent-based interoperability network providing cross-chain smart contract execution through a modular product suite. The core offering consists of four live surfaces: Bridge (cross-chain swap interface), Stake (TRN/Symbiotic staking), Solver (permissionless solver network), and Explorer (real-time transaction monitoring). Additional products include the Deploy Wizard for cross-chain contract deployment, Intent Playground for simulation, NFT Bridge (in preview), and the Agent Framework for building solver bots. The protocol connects 56 EVM chains and supports assets including ETH, USDC, USDT, WBTC, WETH, and TRN. Settlement uses a three-phase model (Execute, Revert, Commit) with atomic guarantees.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Borged: The brand, writing, and community hub for t3rn. It serves as the front door for newcomers while the portal (t3rn.io) is where users end up once ready to ship.
• Lucky Bunny

Products and services

• Bridge Intent-based cross-chain swap interface where users submit an intent describing a desired outcome and a permissionless solver network fills it with atomic settlement across 56 EVM networks. Designed for end users connecting self-custody wallets.
• Stake Native t3rn staking and Symbiotic restaking for TRN, ETH, USDC, and BTC on Arbitrum and Ethereum, distributing a share of protocol bridge fees to stakers with up to 22% APY.
• Solver Permissionless solver platform where operators subscribe to the Genome stream, price intents in real time, and bid to fill them, earning fees from cross-chain fills.
• Explorer On-chain explorer for every intent, fill, and refund with real-time SSE streaming of network activity.
• DAO On-chain governance system for TRN holders to vote on fee parameters, gateway whitelisting, solver bond requirements, and treasury allocation.
• Cross-chain Contracts SDK SDKs in TypeScript, Python, and Rust for submitting cross-chain orders, fetching quotes, subscribing to Genome streams, and handling errors programmatically.
• Agent Framework Framework for building solver agents that listen to the Genome stream, price intents in real time, and submit bids, with support for TypeScript, Python, and Rust plus settlement webhooks. Includes AIxecutor AI agents for automated solver operations.
• Intent Playground Simulator that dry-runs any cross-chain intent against a forked mainnet RPC, showing full execution traces and gas costs without spending real funds.
• Deploy Wizard Cross-chain contract deployment tool backed by Arc's signer-deployer enclave, supporting 18+ EVM chains with a gas-aware auto-deploy scheduler.
• NFT Bridge ERC-721 NFT bridging capability across chains, currently in preview with escrow, metadata, and transfer-history endpoints still under development.
• Lucky Bunny NFT Travelers collectible NFT PFP drop minted on Rarible, serving as a cross-chain badge of membership for the t3rn community.

Quantifiable outcome

• Median cross-chain fill time of 3.1s P50 across supported networks
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration16 records

AI capability1 record

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Composable FinanceminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 November 2021Composable Finance and t3rn partnered to showcase the first live demonstration of t3rn's technology in action. This was t3rn's first real-world showcase of its cross-chain interoperability solution within the DeFi ecosystem.
• Patract Labs / Open Wasm Contract AllianceminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 June 2021t3rn became the latest member of the Patract Open Platform Wasm Contract Alliance, joining projects like Acala, Manta, Plasm, and Phala. The alliance promotes Wasm contract technology in the Polkadot ecosystem. Patract provides open-source tools, backend services, documentation, and contract standards.
• Web 3.0 Bootcamp (Parity / Web3 Foundation / Wanxiang Labs)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 June 2021t3rn was selected as one of 12 teams in the 6-month Web 3.0 Bootcamp cohort alongside Moonbeam, Clover Finance, Konomi and others. The bootcamp provides technical support from Parity, business incubation from Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, and access to the Asian market. Alumni include Acala, Phala, Plasm, Ankr, and Celer Network.
• Parity / Substrate Builders ProgramcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 March 2021t3rn joined the Substrate Builders Program, an initiative by Parity to support the most exciting projects developing on Substrate. The program provides technical support, business development, marketing support, and funding support. t3rn had already delivered a proof of concept via Web3 Foundation grants.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Across Protocol: Intent-based cross-chain bridge using a competitive relayer model with optimistic settlement. Closest functional competitor to t3rn — t3rn actually aggregates Across as one of its arc-routed quote providers.
• LayerZero: Cross-chain messaging protocol powering many of the same bridges and interoperability applications t3rn targets. Competes for developer mind-share in omnichain infrastructure.
• Wormhole: Cross-chain messaging and token bridge connecting 30+ chains. Listed as an arc-routed quote provider inside t3rn's bridge UI, but also a direct competitor.
• Axelar: General-purpose cross-chain communication network with its own validator set securing interchain messaging and asset transfers. Competes for cross-chain execution workloads.
• deBridge: Cross-chain liquidity and messaging protocol (DLN). Listed as a t3rn arc-routed quote source and a direct competitor for cross-chain swap volume.
• THORChain: Native-asset cross-chain swap network using continuous-liquidity pools and node operators. Comparable in that it executes cross-chain swaps without wrapped-asset bridges.
• Connext: Modular cross-chain bridging protocol with a router/executor model similar to t3rn's solver network. Targets the same cross-chain execution use case for developers.
• Li.Fi: Cross-chain bridge and DEX aggregator that routes intents across multiple bridges and DEXs — analogous to t3rn's quote-aggregation layer with solver competition.
• Symbiosis: Cross-chain AMM enabling swaps across 30+ networks with relayer-based execution. Comparable cross-chain swap product targeting similar DeFi users.

Broad incumbents

• Chainlink CCIP: Cross-chain interoperability protocol from Chainlink that combines messaging and token transfers with oracle-grade security. Much larger incumbent entering the same cross-chain execution space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/t3rn_io
• GitHubgithub.com/t3rn
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/t3rn-io

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors14 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about t3rn