Kraken shifts kBTC to Chainlink CCIP after LayerZero outflows

Kraken announced Thursday it will deprecate its LayerZero-powered cross-chain channels and move Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC) — roughly $333 million in total value locked — to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). The exchange said CCIP will support kBTC and all future Kraken Wrapped Assets.

Kraken described CCIP as enterprise-grade infrastructure that requires 16 independent node operators to validate cross-chain transactions. The exchange also cited CCIP’s native rate limits and its ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications. Kraken integrated LayerZero’s OFT standard in 2025 to make kBTC portable across more than 150 blockchains.

Kraken is at least the fourth project to deprecate LayerZero channels since the Kelp DAO bridge exploit, joining Kelp DAO, Solv Protocol and on-chain reinsurer Re. A Chainlink representative provided a combined figure of about $2.57 billion in total value locked that has shifted away from LayerZero; DeFiLlama lists kBTC at roughly $333 million.

Investigators reported the Kelp DAO bridge exploit targeted a LayerZero-powered bridge configured with a single verifier and attributed the attack to actors likely linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The exploit resulted in estimated losses of about $292 million. Post-incident analysis found roughly 47% of applications using LayerZero were operating with single-verifier setups.

LayerZero initially recommended stronger verification setups and later acknowledged communication failures. The project has begun rolling out infrastructure and operational changes and will no longer support 1/1 Decentralized Verifier Network configurations.

Chainlink reported more than $3 billion in TVL has moved to its infrastructure in recent weeks as teams reassess cross-chain security. The representative cited migrations off LayerZero and protocol adjustments such as Tydro, a lending protocol on Kraken’s Ink blockchain, which deprecated Chaos Labs oracles after anomalous behavior.

Community fundraising raised over $320 million through the DeFi United campaign to restore backing for affected tokens such as rsETH and to compensate impacted parties.

Chainlink Chief Business Officer Johann Eid commented: “By deprecating its legacy infrastructure and adopting CCIP, Kraken is ensuring its assets can move seamlessly across networks while maintaining the institutional-grade security that enterprises require to bring significant capital.”

The incident and subsequent migrations have prompted projects and platforms to review verifier models, node diversity and operational controls for cross-chain bridges and messaging layers.