Ardana partners with Near protocol on Cardano bridge infrastructure

As part of its partnership with the Near protocol, Ardana will build a bridge for asset transfer between Cardano and NEAR.

Ardana, Cardano’s growing stablecoin hub, announced a strategic partnership with Near protocol on Tuesday. The partnership allows for asset transfer between the two protocols in which Ardana will provide the bridging infrastructure.

Ardana is a decentralized stablecoin hub built on the Cardano network. While Ardana (DANA) is its governance token, it will use dUSD as verified on-chain collateral to enable borrowers to take leverage on their Cardano (ADA) or other supported assets. 

Thanks to its bridge with the Near protocol, Cardano users will soon be able to transfer assets from Cardano to Near and vice versa. The NEAR (NEAR) will also soon be available as an asset on Cardano. NEAR will serve as collateral on Ardana to mint stablecoins. 

Using proof-of-stake consensus, Near already works alongside Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos and others. Adding Cardano to its portfolio of gen-three blockchains will bolster the network and bring further integrations between Cardano’s partners such as Ardana.  Ryan Matovu, Ardana CEO and founder, said:

“The collaboration will help both organizations explore new avenues of growth in the emerging ecosystem of blockchain technology and will prove to be a landmark in the future for blockchain scalability.” 

He told Cointelegraph that Adana partnered with Near because “They are a top ecosystem with solid technology.”

The news comes hot on the heels of Cardano’s strong growth in adoption. The network recently surpassed the 2 million wallet mark and according to the Cardano Foundation, the previous milestone of 1 million ADA wallets was reached just six months ago. 

“NEAR’s vision always envisioned a multi-chain world, whereby each blockchain could seamlessly talk and exchange data between one another. Ardana to aid in the creation of a multi-chain world, and integrations like this help realise that goal,” said Erik Trautman, CEO of NEAR Foundation. 

The partnership for NEAR follows a string of partnerships over the past six months, including Alchemy Pay, Ceramic and Octopus Network. 

Ultimately, Charles Hoskinson’s vision for the network is that Cardano “will win, as an ecosystem, as a movement.” Partnerships, bridges and blockchain integrations will further the Cardano Foundation’s progress towards that goal.