Virtuals Protocol Migrates $700M+ VIRTUAL Token from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP To Enable Secure Cross-Chain Payments for AI Agents

After the $292 million LayerZero-related exploit, Virtuals carefully reviewed its existing solution and decided to migrate from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP to harden the security for its core agent infrastructure and expand the distribution of VIRTUAL across DeFi.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtuals, the leading AI agent infrastructure, and Chainlink, the industry-standard oracle platform, today announced that Virtuals is migrating from LayerZero to the Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as its exclusive cross-chain infrastructure to enable seamless transfers of $700M+ in VIRTUAL. As agents transact, earn, coordinate, and move value across chains, the underlying rails must meet high security standards, because for agent infrastructure, 99% is not enough.

Post the LayerZero-related exploit, Virtuals performed a full security review across the Virtuals platform to harden its infrastructure stack. After evaluating all available cross-chain solutions, Virtuals found that Chainlink CCIP is best suited as the security standard for the upcoming agent economy and Virtuals' cross-chain infrastructure. CCIP delivers the highest baseline of cross-chain security, meeting strict risk management and security requirements with defense-in-depth architecture, including:

• Secure-by-Default Infrastructure: Every CCIP bridge lane is secured by a minimum of 16 independent, security-reviewed node operators.
• Built-In Risk Controls: CCIP features native support for rate limiting, which act as circuit breakers to limit the flow of assets between chains, mitigating ecosystem contagion risks.
• Institutional Security Standards: CCIP is the only cross-chain protocol with institutional certifications, including SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications.

Virtuals Protocol is the economic operating layer for autonomous AI agents, enabling agents to be created, tokenized, co-owned, funded, and monetized as productive participants in the onchain economy. By building the secure economic layer for agents across wallets, payments, commerce, tokenization, and more, the protocol provides the critical infrastructure these agents need to operate independently in a digital and physical economy. Virtuals Protocol is building the foundation for autonomous AI agents to launch, coordinate, transact, and create value across the emerging agentic economy.

In order to fulfill its complete vision for truly autonomous AI agents, Virtuals requires highly secure cross-chain infrastructure. Across the industry, protocols are increasingly prioritizing cross-chain security, as failure directly impacts user trust and capital. Therefore, Virtuals is migrating from LayerZero to CCIP's secure-by-default architecture, providing users standardized security for all cross-chain operations within the Virtuals ecosystem. By adopting Chainlink CCIP, Virtuals Protocol enables VIRTUAL to securely scale across the onchain economy.

"We're proud to support Virtuals Protocol as they migrate from their legacy cross-chain infrastructure to Chainlink CCIP. This trend of leading protocols migrating to Chainlink CCIP continues to accelerate as the industry standardizes on secure-by-default infrastructure to unlock reliable, enterprise-grade cross-chain DeFi." — Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs

"We believe Chainlink CCIP provides one of the highest levels of cross-chain security, which is critical as Virtuals Protocol continues expanding the infrastructure for the agentic economy. By adopting the Chainlink CCIP, we deliver agents the definitive solution for reliable, cross-chain capital movement while aligning our protocol with the highest institutional security standards." — Khoon Kheng, COO at Virtuals Protocol

About Chainlink 
Chainlink is the industry-standard oracle platform bringing the capital markets onchain and the market leader powering the majority of decentralized finance (DeFi). The Chainlink stack provides the essential data, interoperability, compliance, and privacy standards needed to power advanced blockchain use cases for institutional tokenized assets, lending, payments, stablecoins, and more. Since inventing decentralized oracle networks, Chainlink has enabled tens of trillions in transaction value and now secures the vast majority of DeFi.

Many of the world's largest financial services institutions have also adopted Chainlink's standards and infrastructure, including Swift, Euroclear, Mastercard, Fidelity International, UBS, S&P Dow Jones Indices, FTSE Russell, WisdomTree, ANZ, and top protocols such as Aave, Lido, GMX, and many others. Chainlink leverages a novel fee model where offchain and onchain revenue from enterprise adoption is converted to LINK tokens and stored in a strategic Chainlink Reserve. Learn more at chain.link.

About Virtuals
Virtuals Protocol is building the economic operating system for autonomous AI agents. The protocol enables AI agents to be deployed, funded, coordinated, and monetized through a full stack that includes EconomyOS, Agent Commerce Protocol, and Robotics. From launch infrastructure and wallets to payments, commerce, funding rails, and agent-to-agent coordination, Virtuals provides the infrastructure agents need to operate as productive participants in the emerging agentic economy.

SOURCE Chainlink; Virtuals