SwapKit on herrenlos: native L1 reach as one competing route

herrenlos quotes several route providers at once and ranks them by what you'd actually receive (how swaps work here). SwapKit is one of those providers — the one that brings native layer-1 reach through THORChain-style routing. This post is what SwapKit is, the job it does in the provider set, and how it behaves in the app.

What SwapKit and THORChain-style routing are

THORChain is a cross-chain liquidity protocol with native vaults on each chain it supports. You don't wrap your Bitcoin or bridge it to an EVM chain first — you send the real asset to a protocol-controlled inbound address with a short instruction (a memo) that says what you want out, and the protocol pays the bought asset to your destination from its vault on the other side. Nobody takes custody of your funds as an account balance; the swap is the protocol moving liquidity between its own native vaults.

SwapKit is the aggregation layer herrenlos calls to get those routes. Rather than integrate THORChain (and the related native-L1 liquidity it reaches) by hand, herrenlos asks SwapKit for a quote and normalizes it into the same shape as every other provider.

Its role in herrenlos's provider set

herrenlos runs a set of providers so no single one has to cover everything. SwapKit's lane is native L1s: it can quote real Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash — plus Solana and the EVM chains where it's wired — without those assets ever becoming a wrapped token. That's reach an in-wallet EVM swap simply can't offer.

It overlaps, on purpose, with other providers. Chainflip also does native cross-chain legs; deposit-address exchanges like ChangeNOW reach many of the same L1s a different way. That overlap is the point — for a given pair and size, herrenlos wants more than one way to price the trade so it can pick the best executable one. SwapKit is one competing line in that ranking, never the app and never an exclusive partner.

What you see in Routes

You enter a pair and an amount, and herrenlos asks SwapKit for a quote in parallel with the other providers, then ranks everything by what you'd actually receive — not by who pays us. If SwapKit is the best executable route for that trade, it's the one highlighted; if another provider wins, that one is. When SwapKit can't serve a pair, it simply doesn't appear — a missing route, never an invented one.

Where the app enables SwapKit execution, the flow follows the shape of the asset:

• Native L1 source (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, …) — a deposit-address flow. herrenlos shows the protocol's inbound address and, importantly, the memo that has to travel with your send. You transfer the asset from a wallet you control.
• EVM source — an in-page flow you sign in your own wallet, like the same-chain EVM providers.

The non-custodial boundary

herrenlos never holds your funds or your keys. For an EVM route you sign in your own wallet; for a native L1 route you send from your own wallet to the protocol's inbound address. THORChain-style routing is a trustless protocol rather than a company holding an account balance — but be clear-eyed that, for the duration of a native swap, you are trusting that protocol and its vaults to complete the leg, which is a different model from an atomic same-chain swap.

Your keys never leave your wallet. Non-custodial isn't a mode you switch on — it's the only mode.

One detail that genuinely protects you on native routes: the memo is not optional. THORChain reads it to know what to do with your deposit. herrenlos surfaces it with a copy control precisely because a native send without the right memo can't be interpreted — send it exactly as shown.

Honest about the limits

• Not every token. SwapKit reaches the L1s and pools the underlying protocol actually supports — a specific set, not "everything." The quote panel is the source of truth for any given pair.
• Native swaps take chain time. A native L1 leg waits on inbound confirmations, protocol processing, and an outbound send — minutes, sometimes more for slow chains or large sizes, not the near-instant feel of a single same-chain transaction.
• Chain coverage is the protocol's, not the whole catalog. Some assets herrenlos lists are served only by other providers; SwapKit competes where its liquidity actually is.
• A quote is a snapshot. Prices and pool depth move; the amount shown is an estimate until the swap executes.
• Execution availability can be gated. SwapKit routes are always quoted in the ranking; whether a given deployment lets you execute them is a configuration choice — the roadmap tracks what's shipped across providers.

Try it

Open the swap page, pick a pair with a native L1 on one side — say Bitcoin or Litecoin — and watch SwapKit ranked against the other providers by executable output. For the bigger picture of how the parallel routing works, the swaps post walks through it, and the roadmap tracks what's next.