Hop Protocol: Rollup-to-Rollup Bridge
+110 XP · 9 min read · Updated March 2026
What is Hop Protocol?
Hop Protocol is one of the original rollup-to-rollup bridges, built specifically for the Ethereum L2 ecosystem. It uses a novel hToken (hop token) system: instead of waiting for Ethereum settlement, Hop uses intermediate AMMs and "bonders" who front liquidity. Users bridge ETH → Arbitrum and immediately receive ETH on Arbitrum — the bonder is reimbursed later when the canonical bridge settles. Hop is optimized for ETH and stablecoins across Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, and Gnosis.
The hToken Model
Every bridged token has a corresponding hToken on each chain (e.g., hETH, hUSDC). These hTokens are backed 1:1 by canonical assets and trade in Hop's native AMM pools.
When you bridge ETH from Arbitrum to Optimism: your ETH becomes hETH on Arbitrum → is swapped through the hETH/ETH AMM on Optimism → you receive native ETH. The whole flow takes ~1 minute and costs just a small AMM fee.