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Hong Kong, Hong Kong, January 31st, 2025, Chainwire

Cronos Labs and Layer Zero announced today that LayerZero, the leading cross-blockchain interoperability protocol, is now live on Cronos EVM and Cronos zkEVM, including mainnet and testnet networks. This integration enables builders to create bridges, grow tokens, and develop a vast number of cross-blockchain applications connecting Cronos users to the aggregated liquidity of 115+ blockchain networks supported by LayerZero, including Ethereum, Solana, and most of the EVM-compatible layer 1 and layer 2 networks. 

This significant milestone is bound to be followed by many other protocol integrations, given that hundreds of applications leveraging LayerZero can now offer their services to Cronos users and access several billions of U.S. dollars of crypto assets securely hosted on Cronos.

For Cronos EVM, the leading EVM-compatible layer 1 network built on the Cosmos SDK, this means that users will be able to transfer their assets seamlessly between the Cosmos SDK ecosystem and dozens of other EVM-compatible blockchains as well as Solana. Cronos EVM is interoperable with the Cosmos SDK ecosystem via IBC - the Inter Blockchain Communication protocol.

For Cronos zkEVM, the first Elastic Chain (layer 2) to be launched in mainnet after ZKSync Era, this means that users will continue to benefit from the native Ethereum bridge shared with more than 10+ other Elastic chains while also having the option to execute faster cross-blockchain transfers with a broad range of layer 1 and layer 2 networks.

Ken Timsit, Managing Director of Cronos Labs, said: "Cross-chain interoperability has been a major priority of the Cronos project since its inception. Given the significant security and liquidity challenges associated with the fragmentation of the crypto industry, Cronos Labs is executing on that priority with caution and determination. In 2025, we expect much greater connectivity between crypto projects and traditional finance. The integration with LayerZero enables that."

Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, added: "Cronos zkEVM is one of the first Elastic Chains LayerZero is expanding to, which is exciting, as the whole point of interoperability is to connect different types of chains. Excited to see what is built here!"

As LayerZero is primarily a developer tool, these exciting cross-blockchain functionalities are not yet live for most end users. More announcements are expected in the coming weeks.

New cross-blockchain bridging options will be added as third-party links on the official Cronos bridge portals available respectively at cronos.org/bridge for Cronos EVM and zkevm.cronos.org/bridge for Cronos zkEVM. This will include new CRO / zkCRO and other token bridging options between Cronos EVM and Cronos zkEVM, which will be developed over the coming weeks. 

Meanwhile, Cronos Labs stands ready to support all developers who wish to use these exciting new functionalities. Besides token bridging, Cronos Labs is particularly interested in supporting decentralized applications that use Layer Zero's technology to develop use cases such as: cross-chain prediction markets; tokenization of real-world assets; trading platforms for synthetic assets; cross-chain lending protocols and other DeFi applications that are able to make use of locked collateral on any chain; and liquid staking and restaking protocols.

Please contact Cronos Labs for developer support and visit Layer Zero's documentation for reference materials.

About Cronos

Cronos (cronos.org) is a leading blockchain ecosystem that has partnered with Crypto.com and more than 500 application developers and contributors, representing an addressable user base of more than a hundred million people worldwide. Cronos' mission is to unlock the future of finance for everyone, making it easy and safe for communities to adopt self-custody and web3, focusing on Decentralized Finance and Gaming, and with AI agents as the new interface between users and the network.

Cronos ranks among the top 15 blockchain ecosystems, encompassing over 6 billion US dollars of user assets. Since its inception, it has securely settled more than 150 million transactions. It encompasses 3 chains: Cronos zkEVM, a new high-performance layer 2 network secured by Ethereum; Cronos EVM, the leading Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK; and Cronos POS, a top Cosmos chain for payments and NFTs. 

Transaction fees are paid in Cronos ($CRO), a blue-chip cryptocurrency.

Cronos is supported by Cronos Labs, the 100 M$ web3 start-up accelerator focused on DeFi, GameFi, and the development of the Cronos ecosystem.

About Layer Zero

LayerZero is a permissionless, censorship-resistant, and immutable protocol that connects 100+ blockchains. Using LayerZero, developers can send arbitrary messages across chains while preserving full control over their application’s security. For example, any type of smart contract on a single chain can be natively programmed across multiple chains. LayerZero is used by hundreds of protocols, from omnichain tokens like WBTC, PYUSD, and WIF, to some of the largest applications in crypto, like EtherFi, Ethena, and EigenLayer.

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