Cross-chain protocol Wormhole’s total value locked (TVL) has recovered to $1 billion, nearly two years after the onset of the cryptocurrency bear market in May 2022.
At the time of publication, the protocol’s TVL shows a balance of $1.02 billion, with Ether (ETH), Fantom (FTM) and Solana’s SOL (SOL) assets taking the top places at $675 million, $174 million and $96 million, respectively. Its TVL has increased by over 300% after falling to a low of $234 million at the beginning of the year. The protocol reached a peak TVL of $3.8 billion 16 months prior, shortly before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the onset of the crypto winter.
The milestone reemerged amid an overall market recovery and a $225-million capital infusion at a valuation of $2.5 billion on Nov. 29, 2023. In February 2022, Wormhole was hacked for more than $321 million in an infinite minting glitch on its Ethereum–Solana bridge.
Shortly after the incident, venture capital firm Jump Crypto pledged to replenish more than $320 million in funds lost during the hack. On Feb. 25, 2023, Jump Crypto, its then parent entity, and Oasis.app launched a counter-exploit against the Wormhole hacker, leading to the recovery of $225 million in users’ assets.
Currently, Wormhole is one of the most popular cross-chain and messaging services, with around 51,807 transactions and 2,394,665 messages sent by users in the past 24 hours. Most of its bridging activity currently involves the transfer of Ether to Sui, Solana and Arbitrum. The protocol has processed $38 billion in volume since its inception in September 2021.
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