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Head-to-head · Bridges

Synapse vs Wormhole Synapse leads by 1 point.

Synapse scores 1 point above Wormhole, led by transfer speed. Synapse ranks #11 and Wormhole #14 of 18 published bridges. Every term of the gap is on the ledger below; the inputs are on the audit receipt.

Synapse51
Wormhole50
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99 · ranks #11 and #14 of 18
Methodology v2026.10.18Ranking snapshot 4 published criteria5 score dimensions Receipt #cc-VS-SYNAPSE-VS-WORMHOLE-1bff0c7e
Published verdictRanking snapshot 3 November 2026

Synapse leads by 1 point

Synapse scores 1 point above Wormhole, led by transfer speed.

Synapse #11 of 1851
Wormhole #14 of 1850
Scores are out of 100; published scores fall within 41–99; a bar is empty at 41 and full at 99.
Why, term by termSynapse leads on 1 of 4 published criteria; Wormhole on 3. The terms sum to the gap.
TermSynapseWormholeWeightPoints
Route coverage6/107/106.7−1.7for Wormhole−0.9 of 32
Trust4/107/106.2−4.9for Wormhole−2.5 of 32
Route clarity3/105/105.8−3.0for Wormhole−1.5 of 32
Transfer speed7/104/105.3+4.1for Synapse+2.1 of 32
AvailabilityScore dimension201420+15.6for Synapse
Trust recordScore dimension3.26.48−8.3for Wormhole
Net of the terms+1.8
Reproduced gap+1.8
Published gapAfter score rounding and bounds — see the note below5150+1.0

Weight is in points of the 86-point weighted total. Points are score points of the gap between the two.

  • EvidenceEvidence evidence medium vs evidence high — how well each score is supported, not the score itself
  • Synapse's lead rests on lighter criteria: Wormhole is ahead on route coverage, which carries more weight (28) than any criterion Synapse leads on (22).
Quick facts

At a glance

FactSynapseWormhole
PricingSnapshotNo Synapse price could be read on 30 September 2026. The Synapse REST API (api.synapseprotocol.com), which its docs page docs.synapseprotocol.com/docs/Bridge/REST-API describes as the way to "retrieve quotes", returned "No bridge routes found" for USDC Ethereum to Arbitrum, Ethereum to Optimism and Arbitrum to Base and for ETH Ethereum to Arbitrum and Arbitrum to Optimism, and its /bridge/v2 endpoint returned "An unexpected error occurred in /bridge/v2. Please try again later." The Synapse docs pages read (Bridge, REST API, Supported Routes, Synapse Intent Network, contract pages) publish no fee rate, so the percentage the previous note carried is not repeated.Wormhole Connect docs, "Routes" (wormhole.com/docs/ai/pages/products-connect-concepts-routes.md, fetched 30 September 2026): automatic routes deliver in one user transaction "for a small fee" - "Trustless relayers can execute the second transaction on the user's behalf, so the user only needs to perform one transaction on the origin chain to have the tokens delivered to the destination automatically - for a small fee." - while manual routes need a second, destination-chain transaction whose gas the user pays. No relayer fee amount is published on that page, so the dollar range the previous note carried is not repeated. Portal Bridge (portalbridge.com), Wormhole's consumer front end, renders client-side, so no live Portal quote was read.
Asset coverageEditorialToken transfers through Synapse's legacy nUSD/nETH pools and its RFQ relayer network, where a route can be quotedMajor assets across all connected chains
Region fitSnapshotus, europe, globalglobal
From the published criteria

Which should you pick?

Synapse

51#11 of 18
Leads
Pick it when
Pick Synapse if transfer speed matters most — it scores 7/10 to Wormhole's 4/10 there (weight 22).
Strength
Speed — 7/10
Tradeoff
Synapse's quote API answered "No bridge routes found" for USDC and ETH between Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism and Base on 2026-09-30, and again for ETH from Ethereum to Arbitrum and from Arbitrum to Optimism on 2026-10-23, when its /bridge/v2 endpoint returned HTTP 500. The bridge still settles transfers: its Ethereum contract (0x2796317b0fF8538F253012862c06787Adfb8cEb6) logged 50 TokenWithdraw and TokenMint events between 11 and 22 October 2026, the latest at 20:04 UTC on 22 October. Get a quote in its app before you rely on a route

Wormhole

50#14 of 18
Pick it when
Pick Wormhole if route coverage matters most — it scores 7/10 to Synapse's 6/10 there (weight 28).
Strength
Route coverage — 7/10
Tradeoff
Higher fees on some routes than specialized bridges
Self-identify in 10 seconds

Which one is actually for you?

SynapseLeads

Choose Synapse if transfer speed matters most

  • Transfer speed: 7/10 against 4/10 for Wormhole (weight 22)
Wormhole

Choose Wormhole if route coverage matters most

  • Route coverage: 7/10 against 6/10 for Synapse (weight 28)
  • Trust: 7/10 against 4/10 for Synapse (weight 26)
  • Route clarity: 5/10 against 3/10 for Synapse (weight 24)
Criterion by criterion

Scorecard

Published criteria · weight in points of 868 of 8 cells scored. Strength is read from the evidence file; the weight is the published one. Methodology

Route coverage

by 1 of 10weight 6.7 of 86Wormhole leads
Synapse6 out of 10
Wormhole7 out of 10

Route clarity

by 2 of 10weight 5.8 of 86Wormhole leads
Synapse3 out of 10
Wormhole5 out of 10

Transfer speed

by 3 of 10weight 5.3 of 86Synapse leads
Synapse7 out of 10
Wormhole4 out of 10

Trust

by 3 of 10weight 6.2 of 86Wormhole leads
Synapse4 out of 10
Wormhole7 out of 10

Score dimensions

weights sum to 86

The published score is five dimensions, each weighted for the category. "Published criteria" is the criteria block above; the other four are the engine's own terms — availability, friction, trust record, measured data. Each bar is one side's points out of that dimension's maximum; the weight beside the name is its points of the 86-point weighted total. The published criteria above can fill 24 of the block’s 30. A weight marked “constant here” belongs to a dimension every ranked product in the category holds at the same value: it still counts in the total, and it orders nothing here.

Availabilityweight 20 of 86
Synapse20/20Wormhole14/20
Synapse leads
Published criteriaweight 30 of 86
Synapse12/30Wormhole14.1/30
Wormhole leads
Frictionweight 10 of 86 · constant here
Synapse2.7/10Wormhole2.7/10
Tie
Trust recordweight 8 of 86
Synapse3.2/8Wormhole6.4/8
Wormhole leads
Measured dataweight 18 of 86
Synapse6.9/18Wormhole6.9/18
Tie
Decision rulePublished order

Choose Synapse unless the term Wormhole leads on is the one you are buying.

Pick Wormhole if route coverage matters most — it scores 7/10 to Synapse's 6/10 there (weight 28).

The published order weighs every criterion the same way for everyone. To weigh them your way, run .

From the published order

Next best action

If this isn't your case

Other matchups worth comparing

How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
  • Verification failure: an invalid state or transfer is accepted.
    Scored by Trust posture · 26% (Synapse 4/10, Wormhole 7/10)
Not assessed by this ranking: Contract failure, Control failure, Liveness failure, Custody failure, Regulatory failure, Execution failure, Exit failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.
Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Route coverage (28%), Route clarity (24%), Execution speed (22%).
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Synapse scores 1 point above Wormhole, led by transfer speed. Published scores, out of 100: Synapse 51 (rank 11 of 18 bridges), Wormhole 50 (rank 14 of 18).

Related pages

Go deeper

Reviewed Next review by Methodology v2026.10.18
How this page is reviewed

Reviewed means both products compared here was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.

Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.

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