- Chainlink says the cryptocurrency market has misplaced greater than $15 billion to hackers, one-fifth of which was misplaced to bridge exploits, highlighting the necessity for its cross-chain options.
- Cross-chain interoperability solely works if safety is inbuilt and away from centralized single factors of failure, the community stated.
The cryptocurrency market continues to be a chief goal for cybercriminals, who proceed to extract billions of {dollars} annually. Cross-chain bridges are among the many most weak, and Chainlink says its cross-chain infrastructure is the last word answer.
In 2025, hackers stole $2.87 billion in 147 hacks, in keeping with a brand new report from TRM Labs. The variety of hacks is the bottom in 4 years, however the common worth per hack is $19.5 million, the very best in three years. February’s Bybit hack was the most important to this point, with hackers stealing over $1.4 billion, as we reported.
In keeping with information from DeFiLlama, hackers have stolen a complete of $15.8 billion since 2016. DeFi is essentially the most focused ecosystem, with over $7 billion misplaced to those criminals. Lately, cross-chain bridges have develop into a brand new goldmine for hackers, with $2.89 billion misplaced.
Knowledge supplied by: DeFiLlama.
That is the place Chainlink can present an answer, the community stated, including that “exploits are issues which might be solved by way of sound structure and a rigorous security-first strategy.”
A cross-chain bridge is a device that permits customers to maneuver crypto belongings or information from one chain to a different. Though there are dozens of bridges, Wormhole and LayerZero stay among the many hottest.
As Chainlink factors out, most bridges depend on one safety layer with a small set of validators, one oracle community, and one relayer. This safety is weak as validators will be hacked and personal keys will be leaked, permitting hackers to realize entry to customers’ belongings.
Protection in depth is one of the best strategy, with “a number of decentralized networks working to guard a single cross-chain transaction,” Chainlink stated.
2/ Cross-chain interoperability works greatest when safety is inbuilt.
This implies shifting from a centralized single community answer to a defense-in-depth design with a number of decentralized networks working to guard a single cross-chain transaction. pic.twitter.com/2HgMk2GtDZ
— Chainlink (@chainlink) February 2026 2
Chainlink’s CCIP units an business commonplace
In keeping with Chainlink, Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) stays the business commonplace for cross-chain messaging. CCIP is the one defense-in-depth answer that gives a number of decentralized oracle networks to confirm cross-chain messages. If one oracle is compromised or sends incorrect information, different oracles can block it.
CCIP additionally gives configurable fee limiting and circuit breakers that may pause a switch halfway if one thing goes fallacious. Different options handle suspicious exercise solely after the harm has been finished.
Picture courtesy of Chainlink.
Chainlink’s infrastructure is already battle-tested and used to safe hottest exchanges, DeFi platforms, and crypto companies. As we reported, this enabled the motion of greater than $27 trillion in funds and relayed 19 billion messages throughout greater than 2,500 tasks.
Hyperlink buying and selling location $9.58,lose 19.2% Final week’s market cap was $6.78 billion.
