Synonym Finance, a cross-chain protocol, has launched with the aim of bringing together fragmented liquidity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending market, which is currently worth $22 billion. The protocol will initially link to Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Optimism, and plans to support other high-quality ecosystems in the future, including Solana. It will enable users to secure loans with collateral on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains and deliver USDC liquidity into DeFi protocols. Synonym Finance will use a bridged version of USDC called CCTP-enabled USDC to unify liquidity. The protocol will not pursue airdrop rewards to boost user engagement, instead focusing on encouraging users to lock their deposits to earn yield. The founder of Synonym Finance, 0xbeachball, has previously contributed to LayerZero Labs, the developer of the DeFi interoperability protocol and crypto lending app Notional Finance.