Lombard Finance Ditches LayerZero for Chainlink After Kelp DAO Exploit

In brief

Lombard Finance is the latest firm to move its assets off LayerZero technology in favor of Chainlink.

The firm conducted an internal review of its technology, opting for Chainlink in the wake of the Kelp DAO exploit.

Lombard's assets make up more than $1 billion in Bitcoin-backed tokens.

Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Lombard Finance will replace LayerZero technology with Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability platform (CCIP), following an extensive review of its Bitcoin asset tech stack in the wake of last month’s $292 million Kelp DAO exploit.

The move comes one day after crypto exchange Kraken similarly opted for Chainlink CCIP to power its kBTC wrapped Bitcoin token, instead of LayerZero.

“This decision prioritizes the safety and security of all Lombard users and reflects our commitment to maintaining the security record we've built since day one, zero security incidents and 100% uptime,” Lombard posted on X.

The move will impact more than $1 billion in Lombard’s Bitcoin-linked assets across Solana, Ethereum, and Berachain. The firm will also discontinue use of LayerZero technology on Ethereum layer-2 network Morph and staking protocol Swell.

“With CCIP, we not only benefit from its secure-by-default foundation, but also the ability to configure additional security layers on top,” the firm said.

“This includes having our Security Consortium validate transactions as an additional attestation,” it added, noting that it enables the firm to enforce its own transfer rules across chains.

Lombard BTC (BTC.B) and Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) collectively make up more than $1 billion in market cap, $816 million of which belongs to its staked Bitcoin asset, LBTC. That token acts like a liquid staking token and is 1:1 backed with Bitcoin, unlocking the top crypto asset for use in DeFi protocols across multiple blockchains.

In addition to migrating to Chainlink’s CCIP, the firm is also adopting Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard for minting and burning new tokens that are natively cross-chain compatible.

The firm’s decision to leave LayerZero comes after the interoperability firm admitted it “made a mistake” in regards to the April Kelp DAO exploit. In a postmortem report, the firm said it created an unnecessary risk that it “simply didn’t see” with its internal configurations. The firm’s internal RPCs were “poisoned” by North Korean hackers, leading to the loss of $292 million worth of assets from Kelp DAO infrastructure.