Crypto glossary
Burn-and-mint (native token transfers)
Burn-and-mint moves a token between chains by destroying it on the source chain and minting the same amount natively on the destination, with no wrapped copy.
In a burn-and-mint transfer, the token's supply is spread across several chains and the issuer's contracts on each chain are allowed to mint and burn. To move tokens, the user burns them on the source chain; a messaging or attestation layer confirms the burn, and the destination contract mints the same amount. Total supply across all chains stays constant, and every copy is the canonical token.
This model is now standard for issuers who control their own token. Circle's CCTP uses it for native USDC, LayerZero's OFT standard, Wormhole's Native Token Transfers and the xERC20 proposal provide it for any project, and several stablecoins and governance tokens have migrated from wrapped bridges to avoid fragmented versions and large locked pools.
Burn-and-mint removes the honeypot but not the trust. Whoever controls the attestation or messaging layer can, if compromised, mint unbacked tokens on a destination chain, so rate limits and verifier configuration matter. It only works for tokens whose issuer can grant mint rights; assets like BTC or ETH still need lock-and-mint.
Example
A project moves its governance token to a burn-and-mint standard so holders can transfer it from Ethereum to Arbitrum and receive the same native token, not a bridged variant.