Four Major Protocols Dump Partners For Chainlink

Four prominent DeFi platforms, @KelpDAO, @SolvProtocol, @tydrohq, and @re, have all switched to @chainlink infrastructure within the space of a week, ditching their existing oracle and bridge providers in what analysts are calling a structural shift in DeFi security preferences.

A $292 Million Exploit Sets Off a Chain Reaction

The catalyst was a late-April attack on KelpDAO. On April 18, attackers drained 116,500 rsETH tokens worth between $290 million and $293 million. Following the exploit, KelpDAO migrated its rsETH token to Chainlink, moving away from its previous LayerZero-powered bridge after attributing the incident to weaknesses in its cross-chain setup. LayerZero pushed back, with the protocol saying on April 20 that the exploit resulted from a single point of failure in KelpDAO's own implementation, which relied on a single LayerZero DVN as the only verified path, a configuration LayerZero had warned against.

The fallout spread quickly. Solv Protocol announced it would migrate to Chainlink's cross-chain infrastructure, deprecating its LayerZero bridges across Berachain, Corn, TAC, and Rootstock, citing "recent cross-chain hacks observed in the industry." Solv confirmed it would be migrating $700 million in Bitcoin assets held across SolvBTC and xSolvBTC. The protocol chose Chainlink CCIP for its decentralized oracle network and additional risk-management layers, which are designed to reduce the chance that a single failure or misconfigured verifier can trigger a large exploit.

Liquidity protocol Tydro also moved to Chainlink after its previous oracle provider, Chaos Labs, suffered an incident that forced it to pause markets over inaccurate price feeds. The project paused all operations to immediately migrate from its legacy oracles to Chainlink Data Feeds, with stability a top priority as the largest lending protocol on Ink, the Layer 2 network launched by Kraken.

A Consolidation Around Trusted Infrastructure

Zach Rynes, strategic initiatives lead at Chainlink Labs, called the KelpDAO exploit a "wake-up call" for DeFi providers. Rynes said Chainlink's infrastructure was designed to withstand extreme market conditions, pointing to the 2020 Covid market crash, the 2022 FTX collapse, and major volatility events in 2025, noting that Chainlink continued operating throughout all of those disruptions.

Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, said that following the KelpDAO exploit, only a smaller group of specialised providers may be able to meet the demand and reliability requirements of growing institutional DeFi participation. "A smaller set of trusted oracles is forming in the market," he said.

The migrations add to an already substantial track record for $LINK. Chainlink powered over $27 trillion in on-chain transaction value in 2025, supporting over 70% of DeFi and more than 80% on top chains like Ethereum. The platform is used by tens of thousands of developers, including protocols such as Aave, GMX, and Lido, and counts major financial institutions among its partners. Multiple other protocols are also reportedly discussing potential Chainlink migrations in the wake of the recent exploits.

Sources:
Cointelegraph: Kelp DAO Fallout Pushes Solv, DeFi Protocols Toward Chainlink
The Block: Solv Protocol Drops LayerZero in Favour of Chainlink for $700M Tokenized Bitcoin
Financial News: Kelp DAO Exploit Triggers DeFi Oracle Provider Shift