HOT Labs

HOT Labs is the team behind HOT Protocol, a chain abstraction infrastructure layer launched in February 2024. The protocol addresses one of Web3's most persistent usability problems: the fragmentation of assets and identities across incompatible blockchains. Users who hold assets on Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other chains typically need separate wallets, separate gas tokens for each network, and complex bridging workflows to move value between them. HOT Protocol collapses this complexity into a unified interface without sacrificing self-custody.

The Chain Signature Protocol

The core innovation is HOT's Chain Signature Protocol, a decentralized Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network in which independent validators collectively manage cryptographic key shares. No single validator ever holds a complete private key. Instead, threshold cryptography ensures that signing any transaction requires cooperation from a quorum of nodes, preventing any single party, including HOT Labs itself, from unilaterally accessing user funds.

The protocol's primary smart contract infrastructure is deployed on NEAR Protocol, which serves as the canonical state layer for cross-chain asset balances. The key components are:

HOT Omni Balance. A unified, on-chain ledger stored in a NEAR smart contract that tracks user holdings across chains in a single standardized representation. When a user deposits assets from Solana, Ethereum, or another chain, those assets are locked in chain-specific locker contracts and minted as omni-tokens 1:1 on NEAR. Withdrawals reverse this flow: omni-tokens are burned on NEAR, and the MPC network validates the burn before releasing native assets on the destination chain.

OmniBridge. HOT's cross-chain bridge acts as a trusted messenger and token custodian. Rather than creating wrapped tokens with separate liquidity pools, OmniBridge moves existing native tokens across chains, maintaining asset fidelity. Bridge transfers are designed to complete in approximately 30 seconds.

NEAR Intents. Instead of requiring users to manually orchestrate individual steps—approval, bridge transaction, swap, gas top-up—the system uses an intent-based model. Users declare a desired outcome (for example, swap Token A on Solana for Token B on Ethereum) and the protocol routes execution through available solvers, AMMs, or decentralized order books. Three primitive intent types handle the full range of operations: token transfers between users, atomic swaps at fixed rates, and native-chain withdrawals.

A December 2025 technical paper published on arXiv (arxiv.org/abs/2512.02287) by authors Peter Volnov, Georgii Kuksa, and Andrey Zhevlakov describes a hybrid Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and MPC architecture, where TEE nodes run inside the MPC validator network to strengthen cryptographic security guarantees beyond what standard MPC provides. The paper addresses the challenge of enabling smart contracts to securely manage private keys without centralized control.

HOT Wallet

The end-user product built on HOT Protocol is HOT Wallet, a non-custodial wallet available as a browser extension, iOS and Android app, and Telegram mini-application. The wallet supports over 140 blockchains and claims a user base exceeding 35 million wallets as of mid-2026. Authentication options include SMS, Google Authenticator, biometric login, and email, lowering the barrier to entry compared to wallets that require seed phrase management. Seed phrases remain recoverable and, notably, are replaceable if compromised, which is a significant departure from conventional wallet security models.

Key features include:

• Cross-chain swaps via 20+ DEX aggregators with zero bridge fees between supported omni-balance chains
• Gas abstraction allowing users to pay transaction fees in any token from their balance rather than needing each network's native gas token
• Staking and DeFi access including direct SOL staking, liquidity pool monitoring, and access to protocols on connected networks
• Security tools including 2FA, approval revocation for suspicious contracts, and RPC management
• Transferable account ownership allowing users to sell or transfer wallet access without compromising underlying keys

Solana Integration

Solana is a first-class supported chain within HOT Protocol. The system natively handles Ed25519 signatures, Solana's cryptographic standard, enabling seamless integration without bridging through an EVM proxy. For Solana specifically, HOT Wallet integrates with Jupiter as a DEX aggregator for token swaps, supports SOL staking without lock-up periods, enables meme coin trading, and provides cross-chain bridging to and from Solana using the 30-second OmniBridge infrastructure.

The omni-sdk repository on GitHub lists Solana explicitly as a supported chain for the fast bridge protocol operating over HOT Protocol alongside NEAR Intents, handling EVM (10+ chains), TON, Stellar, and Cosmos simultaneously. The protocol's native support for Ed25519 means Solana wallet users can sign intents using their existing keypairs without additional infrastructure.

Developer Infrastructure

For builders, HOT Labs publishes HOT Kit, a TypeScript/JavaScript SDK that exposes wallet connectors for over 10 chains, portfolio management, token exchange and bridging, omni-balance transfers, and JWT authentication for backend verification. The library targets both browser dApps and Node.js server environments. Additional repositories in the hot-dao GitHub organization include hot-validation-sdk, a Rust library serving as glue code between OmniBridge, the MPC network, and API gatekeepers, and a near-intents contract fork.

Validator Network and Security

HOT Protocol's MPC network relies on independent validator operators. Named participants include EverStake, NEAR Protocol, Aurora, and HAPI. The protocol's design ensures validators are not exposed to full wallet addresses or complete transaction contents. Messages between users and nodes are end-to-end encrypted, and private key reconstruction never occurs during signing, as keys are maintained in distributed shares across the validator set.

Security audits have been conducted by Trail of Bits, Hacken, and Veridise. An active bug bounty program runs through HackenProof, and an AML Portal handles compliance requests.

Background

HOT Labs was founded in February 2024 with the HOT Wallet product launching that same month. The HOT token functions as the payment mechanism for signing requests within the MPC network. Users spend HOT to initiate cross-chain operations, with costs varying based on signing threshold and network demand.

The project positions itself within the broader Solana ecosystem as a multi-chain infrastructure layer: HOT Protocol extends native Solana wallet capabilities outward to other chains, allowing SOL holders and Solana DeFi users to interact with Ethereum, Bitcoin, TON, and other ecosystems through a single non-custodial interface rather than maintaining separate wallets and bridging workflows for each destination. The protocol is chain-agnostic by design but specifically markets HOT Wallet as a leading Solana wallet, routing Solana swaps through Jupiter and supporting the full range of Solana DeFi and meme coin activity within its unified multi-chain interface.