Kraken has announced it will transition from LayerZero to Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as its exclusive infrastructure for bridging assets across blockchains. This decision follows a $292 million exploit involving LayerZero that impacted the liquid restaking protocol Kelp, highlighting vulnerabilities in existing cross-chain technologies. As a result, more than $3 billion in total value locked (TVL) will migrate to Chainlink's system. Kraken's kBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset, will be among the first to utilize this new protocol, which will also support various blockchains including Ethereum and Optimism. This move aligns Kraken with other platforms like Coinbase, which similarly chose Chainlink CCIP for about $7 billion in wrapped tokens last year. Additionally, Kraken's parent company, Payward, is seeking a federal trust charter to operate as a federal crypto bank, aiming to enhance its services in the digital asset space.