# Cross-chain Bridge

<figure><img src="/files/ZNW0F9E9OwrbZC876Sot" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

The astonishing growth of DeFi over the past two years is attracting greater numbers of users, as well as higher transactional volumes which continues to be crypto’s ongoing success story. However, at least for the Ethereum network, on which the majority of DeFi activity takes place, this success hasn’t come with its own problems.

The Ethereum network has struggled to cope with the increasing inward migration of users, as the blockchain infrastructure was not built to manage the sheer volume of transactions coming in at any given time. In essence, despite a much higher transaction capacity than Bitcoin, and with every block filled up with transactions as they come, the transaction queue in the Ethereum network faces various states of congestion. As users seek to jump the queue, they also pay higher gas prices in the hope that miners prioritize transactions that bring in more fees. These gas wars have resulted in costly transaction fees and longer waiting times for confirmations – hardly ideal situations for DeFi transactions that require speed and predictability to settle at the desired rates and liquidity.

Until then, Plasma.Finance continues to work on this cross-chain philosophy which we believe will be part of the future solution for a unified DeFi, bringing together every opportunity in one place in line with our vision of “DeFi for all”.

With Plasma.Finance, users are able to access DeFi opportunities across multiple chains, without the need to use separate platforms. This is all possible from the same dashboard, using a growing list of cross-chain bridges.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.plasma.finance/platform-overview/cross-chain-bridge.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.