Symbiotic, the universal staking framework enabling marketplaces for shared economic security, has joined forces with Lombard and Chainlink to strengthen the cryptoeconomic guarantees of cross-chain transfers of Lombard Staked Bitcoin (LBTC) executed via Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). By combining Symbiotic’s permissionless restaking architecture with CCIP’s highly configurable modular-security architecture, the collaboration enables a future additional layer of economic assurance for users transferring LBTC between blockchains.

This initiative represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration, introducing the first in-production cross-chain transfer solution backed by restaked collateral that was jointly developed by leaders spanning cross-chain interoperability (Chainlink), restaking architecture (Symbiotic), and Bitcoin infrastructure (Lombard).

Central to this development is the creation of two new Symbiotic token vaults—one for the LINK token and another for BARD. The LINK Symbiotic vault is initially capped at $100 million, while the BARD Symbiotic vault is capped at 20M BARD. These vaults will serve as the foundation for a Symbiotic-powered network designed to engage in automated monitoring and alerting whenever LBTC is transferred cross-chain via CCIP. In the case of a discrepancy, the Symbiotic network comes to consensus and generates an alert that can be integrated into workflows.

This collaboration showcases how CCIP’s modular security architecture empowers token issuers like Lombard to meet their unique security needs. By using features like Token Developer Attestation and integrating with external cryptoeconomic systems such as Symbiotic for cross-chain LBTC transfers—without requiring any changes to CCIP itself—Lombard demonstrates how asset issuers can layer on custom protections around cross-chain transfers. Whether through additional validation logic or external monitoring networks, CCIP provides the flexibility to support a wide range of risk frameworks to meet any use case requirement.

“We’re excited to be collaborating with Symbiotic and Lombard on enhancing the cryptoeconomic guarantees of cross-chain LBTC transfers, highlighting how CCIP’s modular security architecture is flexible enough to meet any use case requirement.”— Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs

“Symbiotic turns passive crypto assets into modular, active security infrastructure. Integrating our universal staking framework with Chainlink CCIP for cross-chain LBTC transfers showcases how decentralized collateral can be deployed quickly and permissionlessly to reinforce cross-chain value flows and deliver tangible benefits to end users.”— Misha Putiatin, Co Founder at Symbiotic

“LBTC is a chain-agnostic asset, meeting demand across networks rather than being confined to one. LBTC holders want the freedom to move their Bitcoin wherever the best opportunities are, but they also expect uncompromising security. Pairing CCIP’s modular architecture with Symbiotic’s restaked collateral gives our community stronger economic guarantees through staking. Each BARD staked reinforces the robustness of LBTC, aligning incentives and strengthening the integrity of our interoperability stack.” — Jacob Phillips, Co-founder, Lombard

About Chainlink

Chainlink is the backbone of the blockchain industry, the global standard for connecting blockchains to real-world data, other blockchains, governments, and enterprise systems. Chainlink has enabled tens of trillions in transaction value across the blockchain economy, powering critical use cases across DeFi, banking, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), cross-chain, and more. Chainlink is widely adopted by major financial market infrastructures, institutions, and top DeFi protocols, including Swift, Euroclear, Mastercard, Fidelity International, UBS, ANZ, Aave, GMX, Lido, and many more. Learn more by visiting chain.link.

About Symbiotic

Symbiotic is a universal staking protocol that provides a modular coordination framework for the blockchain ecosystem. It enables protocols to evolve their security models over time and unlock entirely new economic primitives. Backed by Paradigm, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, cyberFund, and over 100 angel investors, Symbiotic launched 14 production decentralized networks, and the list keeps expanding with additional networks in various stages of integration. For more, visit Ecosystem at https://symbiotic.fi. 

About Lombard

Lombard is building onchain Bitcoin Capital Markets to unlock the full potential of the most important asset of our generation. Founded in 2024, Lombard pioneered Bitcoin's integration into DeFi with LBTC, the leading yield-bearing Bitcoin asset secured by a consortium of 14 digital asset institutions. LBTC reached $1 billion TVL in just 92 days and became the first Bitcoin LST trusted by blue-chip protocols including Aave, Spark, and EigenLayer. Today, Lombard is building full-stack infrastructure to accelerate onchain BTC adoption by holders, protocols, and platforms, backed by digital asset leaders including top DeFi protocols, institutions, and exchanges.