Bitcoin Intents

The new standard for trustless BTC cross-chain swaps. Users declare what they want, solvers compete to deliver the best price, and settlement is atomic.

What Are Bitcoin Intents?

Bitcoin's 10-minute block time creates a fundamental problem for cross-chain swaps: the price you're quoted can diverge significantly from the price you receive. Bitcoin intents solve this by replacing static quotes with a competitive solver marketplace.

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The Problem

Traditional bridges and AMMs give you a quote, then execute your swap minutes later after Bitcoin confirmations. During that window, market prices move. Studies show users routinely receive 0.3-2% less than quoted — on a $100,000 BTC swap, that's $300 to $2,000 lost. The quote you see is not the price you get.

The Intent Solution

With intents, you don't request a swap — you declare an intent: "I want to swap 1 BTC for at least $97,000 USDC." Specialized solvers then compete to fill your intent at the best possible price. The winning solver locks in the rate and bears the execution risk. You get a guaranteed minimum or better.

How Bitcoin Intents Work

Intent-based swaps decouple what you want from how it gets executed. Here's the flow from intent to settlement.
1

Submit Intent

The user submits a signed intent specifying the asset, amount, minimum acceptable output, and destination chain. No swap is initiated yet.

2

Solvers Compete

A network of solvers receives the intent and races to offer the best fill price. Competition between solvers drives prices toward the true market rate.

3

Best Price Wins

The solver offering the most output above the user's minimum wins the right to fill the intent. The user's minimum guarantee is always preserved.

4

Atomic Settlement

The winning solver fills the intent atomically. The user's BTC is transferred and they receive their output tokens in a single trustless operation.

Why Bitcoin Intents Matter

Intents fundamentally change the economics of BTC cross-chain swaps. Instead of trusting a single venue's price, you harness the power of competitive markets.

Better Prices Through Competition

Multiple solvers bid for your order. This competitive dynamic consistently delivers execution prices closer to — and sometimes better than — the mid-market rate.

Reduced Slippage

Solvers can source liquidity across multiple venues, DEXs, and even OTC markets. The result is dramatically lower slippage, especially for larger BTC amounts.

Guaranteed Minimums

Your intent includes a minimum acceptable output. If no solver can meet it, the swap simply doesn't execute. You never receive less than your stated floor.

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Trustless Execution

No custodial intermediary holds your BTC. Settlement uses cryptographic guarantees — HTLCs, light clients, or on-chain verification — ensuring neither party can cheat.

Cross-Chain Native

Intents abstract away the complexity of bridging. Users interact with a single interface while solvers handle the multi-chain coordination behind the scenes.

Risk Transfer

In traditional bridges, the user bears the risk of price movement during confirmation. With intents, the solver assumes execution risk, not the user.

The Bitcoin Intents Ecosystem

A growing number of protocols are bringing intent-based architecture to Bitcoin cross-chain swaps. Here's the landscape.

Intent-Based Solver-driven protocols

NEAR Intents

Intent-based cross-chain swaps powered by the NEAR Protocol's solver network. Solvers compete to fill BTC swap intents with explicit minimum output guarantees. Leverages NEAR's account abstraction for seamless UX.

Garden Finance

Atomic BTC swaps using HTLC-based settlement. Garden's solver marketplace matches BTC orders with competitive pricing. Settlement is fully atomic — no partial fills, no custodial risk.

AMM / DEX Traditional cross-chain protocols

THORChain

Decentralized cross-chain AMM that supports native BTC swaps through its liquidity pools. Uses continuous liquidity pools and streaming swaps for large orders. Prices are determined by pool ratios rather than solver competition.

Chainflip

Cross-chain DEX with Just-In-Time (JIT) AMM liquidity for BTC swaps. Features native Bitcoin vault support and a validator-secured protocol. Uses automated market making rather than intent-based order filling.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Bitcoin intents?
Bitcoin intents are a new approach to cross-chain swaps where users declare what they want (e.g., "swap 1 BTC for at least $97,000 USDC") instead of executing a swap directly. Specialized solvers then compete to fill the intent at the best possible price. This shifts execution risk from the user to the solver and typically results in better prices through competition.
How do Bitcoin intents differ from traditional bridges?
Traditional bridges and AMMs give you a quote and then execute minutes later after Bitcoin confirmations. During that 10+ minute window, prices can move significantly, and users often receive less than quoted. With intents, solvers compete to offer the best price and bear the execution risk themselves. Users set a minimum acceptable output and are guaranteed to receive at least that amount, or the swap doesn't execute.
Which protocols support Bitcoin intents?
BOB Gateway pioneered intent-based BTC swaps with a competitive solver network built on the BOB hybrid L2. NEAR Intents uses the NEAR Protocol's solver network with explicit minimum output guarantees. Garden Finance offers atomic BTC swaps using HTLC-based settlement with a solver marketplace. Other protocols like THORChain and Chainflip support BTC cross-chain swaps but use AMM/DEX models rather than intent-based architecture.
Are Bitcoin intents trustless?
Yes. Bitcoin intent protocols use cryptographic guarantees for settlement — including HTLCs (Hash Time-Locked Contracts), light clients, and on-chain verification. No custodial intermediary holds your BTC during the swap. If the solver cannot meet your minimum output, the swap simply doesn't execute and your funds are returned.
Why do users get worse prices than quoted on BTC swaps?
Bitcoin's 10-minute block time means there's a significant delay between when a quote is given and when a swap actually settles. During that window, market prices move. Traditional protocols quote an expected output at the current price, but by the time the BTC transaction confirms and the swap executes, the price has often shifted — usually unfavorably for the user. Our Quote Accuracy Monitor tracks this discrepancy across protocols in real time.
What is solver competition?
When a user submits an intent, multiple solvers race to fill it. Each solver can source liquidity from different venues — DEXs, CEXs, OTC desks — and offers their best price. The solver with the best output wins the right to fill the order. This competitive dynamic pushes execution prices closer to the true market rate, benefiting users.
How do I integrate Bitcoin intents into my application?
BOB Gateway provides an SDK and documentation to integrate intent-based BTC swaps into any application. Get started with the integration guide, which covers the API, solver network, and settlement flow.

Integrate Bitcoin Intents

Add intent-based BTC swaps to your application. BOB Gateway provides the SDK, solver network, and documentation to get started.

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See the Data

Our Quote Accuracy Monitor tracks live settlement data across major BTC swap protocols. Compare quoted vs actual prices in real time.

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