Kraken Switches from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP for kBTC

Kraken announced on May 14, 2026 that it will deprecate LayerZero and adopt Chainlink’s Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as the exclusive cross-chain infrastructure for Kraken Wrapped Bitcoin (kBTC) and all future Kraken Wrapped Assets. The exchange said it will migrate wrapped asset traffic to CCIP across multiple networks and retire its existing cross-chain provider.

The migration will move Kraken’s wrapped asset infrastructure to Chainlink CCIP on Ink, Ethereum, Unichain and Optimism, with additional chains to follow. Kraken told customers they do not need to take any action and said a detailed migration schedule and technical guidance will be posted through official Kraken channels.

Kraken launched kBTC as a wrapped Bitcoin token backed 1:1 by native Bitcoin held at Kraken Financial, the firm’s Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution. Kraken created kBTC to allow Bitcoin to be used across smart-contract networks for collateral, liquidity and settlement while remaining redeemable for native BTC through the exchange. Prior to the announcement, Kraken distributed kBTC on Ethereum, Optimism, Ink and Unichain.

The decision follows heightened attention to bridge and wrapped-asset security after a $292 million exploit of Kelp DAO in April 2026. That event coincided with recent migrations to Chainlink CCIP by other protocols, including Kelp, Solv and Re, as teams moved wrapped-asset traffic to alternative cross-chain infrastructure with built-in protections.

Chainlink CCIP will move Kraken Wrapped Assets using Chainlink’s Cross Chain Token standard. Chainlink has described CCIP’s technical features as including a network of independent node operators, native rate limits and additional risk controls designed to limit exposure from bridge-related failures.

Johann Eid, chief business officer at Chainlink Labs, wrote that Chainlink will work with Kraken on the migration and that CCIP was designed with enterprise-grade controls to support asset transfers between networks.

Kraken’s announcement framed the migration as part of efforts to expand kBTC availability across multiple networks while routing wrapped-asset transfers through Chainlink’s interoperability infrastructure. Kraken and Chainlink said more operational details will be shared with users ahead of traffic migration.