The $700 million migration: Why Solv Protocol is ditching LayerZero for Chainlink

Solv Protocol has said it’s moving more than $700 million of tokenized bitcoin BTC$80,172.67 assets to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and deprecating LayerZero bridge support across Corn, Berachain, Rootstock and TAC.

The migration covers SolvBTC and xSolvBTC, Solv’s wrapped bitcoin assets used across DeFi and BTCfi markets. Solv said it made the decision after an updated security review and recent cross-chain hacks, pointing to CCIP as its standard bridge infrastructure.

Chainlink's CCIP is a bridge that connect blockchains, enabling transfers of tokens, messgages and data between different decentralized networks.

Solv's move follows Kelp DAO’s shift from LayerZero to Chainlink after an April exploit drained 116,500 rsETH, worth roughly $292 million, from its LayerZero-powered bridge.

Kelp and LayerZero have since traded blame over the setup behind the exploit. LayerZero said Kelp used a single-verifier configuration despite recommendations to adopt a multi-DVN model, while Kelp says LayerZero personnel reviewed and approved the configuration it later blamed for the attack.

The dispute has turned verifier design into a live security issue for high-value cross-chain assets as Kelp says the 1-of-1 setup was not an edge case. LayerZero says it was an application-level configuration choice and has since said it will no longer sign messages for applications using that model.

Solv’s migration gives Chainlink a second post-hack win in cross-chain infrastructure. Kelp is moving liquid restaked ETH to it, while Solv is moving tokenized bitcoin.

Together, Kelp and Solv represent more than $2 billion in protocol asset value moving toward Chainlink’s cross-chain infrastructure.

“We are speaking to many teams across the industry and there is a clear and accelerating trend where protocols like Solv are migrating to Chainlink in a flight to quality reminiscent of the rapid shifts during DeFi summer,” Johann Eid, chief business officer at Chainlink, told CoinDesk.

“The industry’s largest protocols are realizing they can no longer rely on cross-chain and oracle infrastructure that push liability onto users and blame them for systemic failures,” Eid added. “By choosing CCIP, Solv gets cross-chain infrastructure that is “secure and decentralized by default.”

Solv already had already worked with Chainlink to offer real-time collateral verification for SolvBTC pricing.