Lately I've been looking into IBC and various messaging/bridging technologies, and the more I look, the more I feel that "one-time cross-chain" essentially comes down to who you trust. It's not just about trusting the two chains themselves; you also have to trust whether the relayer/relayer honestly forwards messages, whether the light client/verification logic is correctly implemented, and whether the on-chain proof verification is reliable; if it's a multi-signature/guardian type bridge, it's even more straightforward: trust those few people or that signature process without messing around.

Now I don't dare to look at TVL alone when evaluating obscure protocols; I also casually check where the fees come from, how message failures/rollbacks are handled, and whether users will stop coming after one failed transaction... On the macro side, the market's risk appetite swings with interest rate cut expectations—sometimes risk assets rally together, sometimes they shrink together. When emotions run high, it's easier to overlook these "trust components." Anyway, I personally prefer not to cross if I can avoid it; if I do, I try to choose paths with clearer verification processes, even if it takes longer.