Blockchain

Coinbase to Use Chainlink to Connect Wrapped Assets to Oracle Networks for DeFi Protocols

Coinbase has picked Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as the exclusive bridge for all Coinbase Wrapped Assets, linking them to the same Chainlink oracle networks that feed price and other data to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, the firms announced on Thursday.

The deal covers tokens such as cbBTC, cbETH, cbDOGE, cbLTC, cbADA and cbXRP, which together hold about $7 billion in market value at the time of writing. These wrapped versions represent assets held by Coinbase and let users move exposure into other networks and applications that do not natively support those coins.

Through these wrapped assets users can, for example, leverage bitcoin Bitcoin in the form of cbBTC within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem of various networks, including Base and Solana.Cross-chain bridges have been one of crypto’s main failure points, with several high-profile exploits in recent years. CCIP routes messages and value between chains through a decentralized set of nodes rather than a single multisig or bespoke bridge for each pair of networks, a design that aims to cut operator risk.

“We chose Chainlink because they are an industry leader for cross-chain connectivity,” said Josh Leavitt, senior director of product management at Coinbase. William Reilly, head of strategic initiatives at Chainlink, said the tie-up is meant to “accelerate the growth of Coinbase’s wrapped assets.” The announcement comes soon after a new bridge connecting Base, Ethereum layer-2 network built by Coinbase, and the Solana blockchain went live on mainnet. That bridge is also secured by Chainlink’s CCIP.

Terron Gold