A $292 million bridge exploit has set off a migration wave that is redrawing crypto's cross-chain infrastructure map, with $14.5 billion of assets now pledged to move from LayerZero to Chainlink.
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BitGo moves $7.3B WBTC from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP
A $292 million bridge exploit has set off a migration wave that is redrawing crypto's cross-chain infrastructure map, with $14.5 billion of assets now pledged to move from LayerZero to Chainlink.
BitGo is moving $7.3 billion of wrapped bitcoin to Chainlink's CCIP, replacing LayerZero as its exclusive cross-chain provider for WBTC.
The crypto custodian said it will standardize WBTC deployments using Chainlink's Cross-Chain Token standard and use CCIP by default for future assets it issues, according to the announcement. WBTC currently has a market capitalization of about $7.4 billion, CoinMarketCap data shows.
The move pushes the value covered by announced LayerZero-to-Chainlink migrations to roughly $14.6 billion, adding to the $7.24 billion pledged by Mantle, Kelp, Lombard, Solv Protocol, Virtuals, Re and Kraken since the $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO's LayerZero-powered bridge in April.
The structure lets BitGo retain control of its token contracts and set rate limits and other controls governing transfers between blockchains — a design that addresses the scrutiny of bridge configurations that followed the Kelp attack, which stranded wrapped ether across 20 chains.
The Kelp exploit that started the exodus
Kelp DAO lost roughly $292 million in April when an attacker spoofed messages on its LayerZero-powered bridge, stranding wrapped ether across 20 chains. The incident, one of two April breaches that together accounted for about $577 million in losses, increased scrutiny of LayerZero bridge configurations and triggered a wave of defections. Security trackers attributed both the Kelp and Drift Protocol incidents to actors linked to North Korea, which accounted for roughly 66 percent of first-half losses, TRM Labs data shows.
What BitGo keeps control of
BitGo selected LayerZero in 2024 to expand WBTC across blockchains, initially using it for deployments on Avalanche and BNB Chain. Its configuration required BitGo's own verifier and either LayerZero or Polyhedra to approve each cross-chain transfer. Under the new arrangement, BitGo retains control of its token contracts and can set rate limits and other transfer controls. Chainlink's directory already lists CCIP-enabled WBTC pools on Ethereum and Ronin. The announcement did not specify when the broader migration will be completed.
For LayerZero, the defections erode the total value secured by its bridge infrastructure at a time when security failures have already dented confidence. For Chainlink, the WBTC win cements CCIP's position as the default cross-chain standard for tokenized assets, a market expanding as institutions tokenize everything from money-market funds to real estate. WBTC holders may face temporary friction during the migration, but the shift reflects a broader industry move toward bridge designs that give issuers explicit control over transfer limits and verifier sets.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
