Chainlink Launches Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol for Seamless Data and Value Transfer

Chainlink Labs, the development firm behind the Chainlink protocol and its native LINK token, has introduced its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). The protocol, aimed at enabling interoperability between traditional financial institutions and both public and private blockchains, recently went live under early access on several prominent platforms.

Announced by Chainlink Labs’ Chief Product Officer, Kemal El Moujahid, the CCIP is now available on Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Starting July 20, developers on these platforms will gain access to CCIP on their respective testnets.

CCIP is designed as an interoperability solution facilitating seamless data and value transfer between public or private blockchain environments directly from the backend systems of enterprises. To achieve this, Chainlink’s protocol leverages Swift’s messaging infrastructure, which is already trusted by over 11,000 banks worldwide for international payments and settlements. In 2021 alone, the network settled an astounding $1.8 quadrillion in transactions from its extensive membership base, according to the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Chainlink’s co-founder and CEO, Sergey Nazarov, emphasized the significance of CCIP as a bridge connecting the fragmented public blockchain landscape with the evolving bank chain ecosystem. Drawing a parallel with TCP/IP, which transformed the early internet into the unified global internet we use today, CCIP aspires to create a unified “Internet of Contracts.”

Many prominent financial institutions have expressed interest in exploring Chainlink’s interoperability solution, including BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, Citi, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Clearstream, Euroclear, and Lloyds Banking Group, according to Chainlink.

Moreover, in addition to the five blockchains that have integrated CCIP, decentralized finance protocol AAVE has plans to implement the interoperability solution. Meanwhile, the decentralized derivatives platform Synthetix is already operational on the CCIP mainnet.

As a testament to the positive reception of the news, the price of the Chainlink token, LINK, experienced a 9.7% surge to $7.27 in the last eight hours, while the overall market remained relatively stable, according to CoinGecko.