LayerZero to end offchain support for six low-activity chains
Tech & Launches ·
The omnichain messaging protocol is deprecating offchain services on Botanix, Canto, Moonriver, Moonbeam, Taiko, and Aurora, telling users to redeem assets before the cutoff or risk losing access to funds.
LayerZero has announced it is discontinuing offchain support for six chains it classifies as low-activity: Botanix, Canto, Moonriver, Moonbeam, Taiko, and Aurora, according to a post from @layerzero_core. The company is urging users with assets tied to LayerZero-dependent services on these networks to redeem them before the offchain infrastructure is switched off, warning that failure to do so could leave funds inaccessible once deprecation takes effect.
The move affects the offchain components that LayerZero relies on to relay and verify cross-chain messages, rather than the underlying chains themselves. LayerZero's architecture lets applications choose their own security stack, including Decentralized Verifier Networks, to validate messages passing between blockchains; when offchain support for a given chain is withdrawn, any OFT tokens or cross-chain positions still routed through that infrastructure on the affected networks could become stranded if not moved beforehand. Details of the update, including timelines, are outlined in a post on layerzero.network.
The deprecation follows a period of scrutiny for LayerZero's security model. A $292M exploit tied to Kelp DAO's rsETH prompted more than 15 protocols to freeze LayerZero bridging, and LayerZero itself attributed the incident to the Lazarus Group, pointing to an RPC compromise as the likely entry point. In the aftermath, Kraken migrated more than $3B in locked crosschain assets away from LayerZero to Chainlink for kBTC bridging, while Ether.fi opted to re-enable weETH bridging across all chains, raising its DVN count to four and tightening rate limits rather than abandoning the protocol outright.
Governance activity has also shown signs of limited engagement: a fourth referendum on turning on LayerZero's fee switch drew only 3.52M ZRO in participation, just 2.82% of the quorum needed, according to a summary compiled by leviathan.news. Meanwhile, new integrations continue on other fronts, including the launch of the tokenized gold asset KGLD on LayerZero by ITCEN Global-backed KorDA.
What remains unclear is the exact deadline for the offchain support cutoff on the six named chains, how many users or protocols still hold assets exposed to the change, and whether further chains could be added to the deprecation list following this announcement.