LayerZero raises $120M for cross-chain coms extension

As of April 4, the cross-chain communications technology developer LayerZero Labs has raised a further $120 million. The firm intends to utilize the funds to boost its workforce and extend its presence in Asia-Pacific. In March 2022, the corporation had already raised $135 million.

LayerZero Labs is most recognized for its cross-chain communications technology, LayerZero, which is often used to build asset bridges across blockchain networks. Moreover, it is the creator of the Stargate multi-chain bridge.

After the conclusion of this funding round, the company’s value has increased to $3 billion. Around 33 investors, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, Circle Ventures, Christie’s, OpenSea Ventures, and Samsung Next, participated in the most recent fundraising round.

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of LayerZero Labs, Ryan Zarick, said that the new fundraising would assist in establishing a multi-chain ecosystem where apps can make the most of each network’s particular benefits:

Imagine a future where a single user-facing application can harness the speed of Solana, the security of Ethereum, and the cheap file storage of Arweave, while also being fully abstracted to the user.

He said, “This is our vision, made feasible by the LayerZero protocol, which links all blockchains and allows the development of chain-agnostic apps across many blockchains to provide a world-class user experience.” “The days of picking a single chain to work on are in the past; omnichain applications are the future.”

Chainanalysis reports that more than $3 billion was stolen on blockchain bridges in 2022, making the problem of safeguarding cross-chain messages more urgent. LayerZero has tried to overcome this issue by securing communications using a relayer and oracle, where a message is only verified if both the relayer and oracle concur that it is legitimate.

LayerZero got 37.58% of the vote on January 31 to become Uniswap’s bridge protocol for cross-chain governance between Ethereum and BNB Chain, placing second behind Wormhole. Gnosis announced on March 30 that LayerZero will connect with their Hashi multi-bridge technology to boost the security of blockchain bridges.