Chainlink lets institutions add bridge checks after Kelp hack involving about $292 million

Chainlink launched CCIP 2.0 today. The system lets institutions operate their own Cross-Chain Verifier, or CCV. Institutions can also hire a verifier from Infosys or Nethermind. Starter kits are available on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Chainlink's default check remains a committee of 16 independent node operators from 16 separate companies. All 16 operators must agree that a transfer is legitimate. Chainlink's documentation says the Risk Management Network's automated offchain role is no longer active in current CCIP deployments. The documentation says the network is expected to be offered as an optional validation layer in future releases. The on-chain contract remains only as an emergency backstop. Chainlink says optional CCVs can provide the same kind of independent check. Institutions that add no extra verifier rely on one verification network instead of the two they previously had. Chainlink said $15 billion in tokenized assets migrated onto its rails in the last four months. The migrated assets included portions of BitGo's wrapped Bitcoin. The migrated assets also included Coinbase's cbBTC. Hackers linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group drained about $292 million from Kelp DAO in April. Kelp DAO's protocol let users stake Ethereum and move the token across chains. Kelp DAO's bridge ran on LayerZero with a single verifier. LayerZero later called that setup a mistake and stopped supporting it for new deployments. Kelp said LayerZero's team approved the setup and did not flag it as risky. LayerZero disputed Kelp's account and said the configuration went against its own recommendations. Kelp moved to Chainlink. Kraken shifted its wrapped Bitcoin token to Chainlink. Lombard Finance moved more than $1 billion in Bitcoin-linked assets to Chainlink. Chainlink says CCIP secures more than $84 billion in cross-chain token value. Eighteen companies are listed as launch partners. Fidelity said the upgrade has the potential to support broader distribution. Further Asset Management said it intends to partner. Confirmed live deployments on the new verifiers remained scarce just hours into launch day. Johann Eid, Chainlink Labs' chief business officer, said legacy bridges have historically lost billions because of insecure infrastructure. Eid said in-house builds are slow and expensive. Eid said institutions' proprietary networks cannot earn the trust of their peers.