Solv Protocol Will Dump LayerZero, Migrate $700M Tokenized Bitcoin Tech to Chainlink

Another crypto task is leaving blockchain interoperability protocol LayerZero after the fallout from the $292 cardinal Kelp DAO exploit intensified scrutiny astir cross-chain span security.

In an announcement Thursday, Solv Protocol said it is migrating the infrastructure that powers much than $700 cardinal successful tokenized Bitcoin from LayerZero to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), pursuing what it described arsenic a broader information reappraisal of cross-chain systems.

The protocol said it is deprecating LayerZero span enactment for Corn, Berachain, Rootstock, and TAC portion standardizing its infrastructure astir Chainlink’s CCIP.

“Security is the instauration of everything we physique astatine Solv, and our migration to Chainlink CCIP reinforces that committedness astatine the highest level,” Solv Protocol Chief Technology Officer Will Wang said successful a statement. “By afloat securing SolvBTC and xSolvBTC cross-chain transfers with CCIP, we are providing users the highest assurance that proven, defense-in-depth infrastructure secures each cross-chain transfers.”

According to Wang, the migration positions Solv to standard with “the reliability and institutional-grade information assurance the marketplace demands.”

Launched successful 2021 connected the Ethereum network, Solv Protocol is simply a DeFi level built astir SolvBTC—a token tied to the worth of Bitcoin—that lets users deploy wrapped BTC and different Bitcoin-based assets crossed aggregate blockchains to gain yield.

The determination comes weeks aft attackers drained astir $292 million from infrastructure tied to Kelp DAO, a DeFi protocol that utilized LayerZero’s span technology. Solv did not straight notation Kelp DAO successful its announcement, alternatively referring broadly to “recent cross-chain hacks observed successful the industry” alongside an extended information review.

“In accordance with this strategical migration, we are reducing our hazard vulnerability connected our existing bridging stack by deprecating SolvBTC and xSolvBTC LayerZero bridging enactment for Corn, Berachain, Rootstock, and TAC to alternatively standardize connected Chainlink CCIP, the astir battle-hardened and time-tested interoperability infrastructure crossed each blockchains,” the institution wrote.

While cross-chain bridges fto users determination assets betwixt blockchains, they person besides go 1 of crypto’s astir often attacked pieces of infrastructure due to the fact that they often beryllium connected analyzable verification systems and clasp ample amounts of locked funds.

Previous salient attacks connected blockchain web bridges see the $622 cardinal exploit of Axie Infinity’s Ronin web bridge successful 2022, and the $230 hack of Indian crypto speech WazirX successful 2024. Both attacks were yet linked by investigators to North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups.

In April, LayerZero blamed the Kelp DAO onslaught connected North Korea’s Lazarus Group, and said the task relied connected a single-verifier setup contempt recommendations to usage aggregate validators.

This week, Kelp DAO disputed that relationship and accused LayerZero of approving the configuration tied to the exploit. Kelp past announced plans to redesign its cross-chain strategy astir Chainlink CCIP, wherever transactions are verified done aggregate autarkic validators alternatively of a azygous verifier.

“We are arrogant to enactment with the Solv squad and enactment their migration to Chainlink CCIP arsenic the standardized mode that their wrapped Bitcoin assets are securely transferred cross-chain,” Chainlink Labs Chief Business Officer Johann Eid said, successful a statement. “Solv’s migration to CCIP reflects a broader displacement crossed the DeFi manufacture of starring protocols adopting Chainlink to present the highest level of information required to bring the adjacent cardinal users on-chain.”