BitGo's Shift to Chainlink Brings LayerZero-to-Chainlink Migrations Close to $15 Billion

BitGo transitions to Chainlink's CCIP following Kelp bridge exploit, driving significant migrations.

BitGo, a key player in crypto infrastructure, is set to transition its services from LayerZero to Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) for wrapping bitcoin (WBTC). This move brings the total value of announced migrations from LayerZero to Chainlink to approximately $14.5 billion.

This shift follows a significant security incident earlier this year, where the Kelp DAO's LayerZero-based bridge was exploited, resulting in a loss of $292 million. The incident has prompted various projects, including Mantle, Kelp, Lombard, Solv Protocol, Virtuals, Re, and Kraken, to migrate to Chainlink's CCIP.

WBTC is a token designed to represent bitcoin's value within decentralized finance applications, allowing it to be used across different blockchains. Currently, WBTC has a market cap of around $7.4 billion, and with earlier migration announcements, the total funds migrating to CCIP approach $14.6 billion.

BitGo plans to utilize Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token standard for WBTC deployments and will adopt CCIP for all future asset issuances, maintaining control over its token contracts and transfer parameters.

Initially, BitGo had opted for LayerZero in 2024 to support WBTC's expansion across multiple blockchains, necessitating the use of its own verifier for cross-chain transfers. Chainlink already hosts CCIP-enabled WBTC pools on Ethereum and Ronin, but no specific timeline has been provided for the completion of the migration process.