Bridges to L2

Moving assets between Ethereum L1 and an L2 requires a bridge — a smart contract on both layers that locks funds on one side and mints or releases them on the other. Canonical bridges, built by the rollup team, are the safest default; third-party bridges may be faster but add trust assumptions.

Deposits typically confirm in minutes — the L1 transaction finalizes, then the L2 side processes the credit. Withdrawals take longer on optimistic rollups because you must wait for the challenge window to close before the L1 contract releases your funds.

ZK rollups generally offer faster exits because validity proofs finalize batches without a multi-day wait. Some protocols also run liquidity pools that let you swap L2 tokens for L1 tokens instantly, trading a small fee for speed.