$STG is the native governance and utility token of Stargate Finance. The token can be [staked](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/staking) or used to provide liquidity and participate in protocol governance. By staking $STG, token holders receive $veSTG, Stargate's voting escrow token. The protocol utilizes a time-weighted reward system that increases the amount of $veSTG earned by stakers as they lock it for longer periods. $STG has a total supply of 1 billion tokens and a current circulating supply of around 168 million tokens as of March 2023.

Most pre-existing [cross-chain bridges](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-are-cross-chain-bridges) use what’s called fractured liquidity, which requires separate pools for tokens that will pass over the bridge. Stargate, however, renders this requirement obsolete via a lock+mint and burn+redeem mechanism. The mechanism essentially burns the tokens at source and mints new ones on the destination blockchain, and therefore provides instant guaranteed finality and unified liquidity. Stargate also uses an advanced cross-chain bridge mechanism, in addition to a balancing algorithm called the delta algorithm, to solve the bridging trilemma.

Stargate Finance was built by LayerZero Labs: an omnichain protocol that wants to help the biggest crypto networks interoperate. The platform launched in March 2022 as the first cross-chain bridge app. On the same day, renowned crypto developer 0xMaki joined LayerZero’s team.

Stargate Finance (STG) is an omnichain-native asset bridge designed to solve the [blockchain trilemma](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain-trilemma), which says that no blockchain can be decentralized, secure, and fast simultaneously. It does this by simplifying cross-chain DeFi transactions, which lets users transfer and swap their assets between different blockchains, layer-2 networks, and decentralized applications ([dApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps)) almost instantly. Stargate users can also move their assets between different liquidity pools on various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and [dApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps). The protocol supports transfers between eight chains: [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/), [Avalanche](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/avalanche/), [Polygon](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polygon/), [Metis](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/metisdao/), [BNB Chain](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/), [Arbitrum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/arbitrum/), [Optimism](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/optimism-ethereum/) and [Fantom](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fantom/). The platform offers several other, profit-making features: users can supply liquidity pools, stake assets, and farm tokens. When users stake their assets, they can help govern the Stargate Finance Exchange.