Summary:

We analyzed 60 bridge routes between Ethereum, Base, Optimism and Arbitrum. Looking at 100 USDC, 1000 USDC, 10 000 USDC, 0.1 ETH and 1 ETH sizes on these routes on Synapse, Stargate & Across.

• Synapse is cheaper in 45 of 60 routes and on average, Synapse users are paying 81.20% less in fees

• In a direct comparison with Across, Synapse is cheaper in 45 of 60 routes and on average, Synapse users are paying 76.66% less in fees

• In a direct comparison with Stargate, Synapse is cheaper in 45 of 60 routes and on average, Synapse users are paying 85.75% less in fees

TLDR: There is no second best.

Methodology:

Synapse:

Using the Synapse API, we run a script that returns the expected amount out for the given inputs. The API returns the expected output after all fees so the formula is as follows:amount_out = maxAmountOutStr

The script can be found here.

Across:

Using the Across API, we ran a script to return the expected amount out for the given inputs. To determine the amount received we use the following formula.

amount_out = amount_in - totalRelayFee

We then adjust this amount for the decimals of the respective asset bridged. The totalRelayFee combines the lpFee, relayerGasFee, and relayerCapitalFee. The user then also pays gas to initiate the transaction in their wallet. The logic for this script can be found here. The only difference with the frontend is the number of decimal places reported.

Stargate:

Stargate does not have an api or sdk we can utilize so all quotes are manually pulled from the frontend. Stargate charges two  fees per quote: the “gas costs” and the “protocol fee”.  The gas fee stargate charges is on top of what the user pays in their wallet and is paid to Layer Zero as a messaging fee  (thus not the gas users traditionally think of, which is blockchain execution cost). Thus, our calculation for stargate quotes is

amount_out = amount_in - gasFee - protocolFee

The protocolFee and gasFee are priced in $ ,which is then normalized into ETH terms for all ETH quotes. This also can be calculated by taking the amount received in the UI and subtracting the gas costs.

Additional Information:

This data was gathered at around 7pm UTC on June 3rd.

The ETH price is assumed to be $3873.38 across all calculations to normalize the “Average Savings” rate between USDC and ETH routes.

Stargate offers a number of bridging options, the “Fast” option is used for calculation since the “Economy” bridging option is about 10-20x slower than both Synapse and Across, so this feels like the most equivalent comparison.

The “Average Savings” rate is calculated by taking the difference between the bridgeInputAmount and bridgeOutputAmount for each bridge and comparing them. Further, the “Average Savings” rate is calculated in routes where Synapse is cheaper than the bridge being compared.

Spreadsheet with all the data -