$2.8 Billion Lost to Exploits Highlights Need for Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Solution

• The crypto market has misplaced over $15 billion to hackers, with a fifth of it misplaced in bridge exploits, which Chainlink says highlights the necessity for its cross-chain resolution.
• Cross-chain interoperability solely works if safety is in-built, shifting away from centralized single factors of failure, the community says.

The crypto market has continued to be a main goal for cyber criminals, who hold making away with billions of {dollars} yearly. Cross-chain bridges are among the many most susceptible, and in accordance with Chainlink, its cross-chain infrastructure is the last word resolution.

In 2025, hackers stole $2.87 billion in 147 hacks, a brand new report by TRM Labs reveals. Whereas it’s the bottom variety of hacks prior to now 4 years, the common per incident is the very best in three years at $19.5 million. The Bybit hack in February was the most important by far, with hackers stealing over $1.4 billion, as we reported.

Cumulatively, hackers have stolen $15.8 billion since 2016, information from DeFiLlama reveals. DeFi is essentially the most focused ecosystem, dropping over $7 billion to those criminals. Lately, cross-chain bridges have change into one other goldmine for the hackers, with $2.89 billion misplaced.

Information courtesy of DeFiLlama.

That is the place Chainlink can present an answer, the community says, including, “Exploits are an issue that’s solved by sound structure and a rigorous security-first method.”

A cross-chain bridge is a software that enables customers to maneuver crypto belongings or information from one chain to a different. Whereas 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 validator set, one oracle community and one relayer. This safety is weak as validators can get hacked, or non-public keys might be leaked, and this could give hackers entry to customers’ belongings.

Protection in depth is the perfect method, with “a number of decentralized networks working to safe a single cross-chain transaction,” Chainlink says.

2/ Cross-chain interoperability works finest when safety is in-built.

This implies shifting away from centralized, single-network options and towards defense-in-depth designs with a number of decentralized networks working to safe a single cross-chain transaction. pic.twitter.com/2HgMk2GtDZ

— Chainlink (@chainlink) February 2, 2026

Chainlink’s CCIP Units Business Commonplace

The Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) stays the trade commonplace for cross-chain messaging, Chainlink says. CCIP is the one defense-in-depth resolution that provides a number of decentralized oracle networks to confirm the cross-chain messages. If one oracle is compromised or sends the flawed information, the others can block it.

CCIP additionally presents configurable price limits and circuit breakers which might pause a switch halfway if something appears to be like off. Different options solely attend to the suspicious exercise after the injury is finished.

Picture courtesy of Chainlink.

Chainlink’s infrastructure is already battle-tested and is used to safe most high-profile exchanges, DeFi platforms and crypto providers. As we reported, it has enabled the motion of over $27 trillion and relayed 19 billion messages for over 2,500 tasks.

LINK trades at $9.58, dropping 19.2% prior to now week for a $6.78 billion market cap