Chainlink CCIP Goes Live on Solana, Unlocking $17B+ for DeFi Growth

Chainlink ’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has officially gone live on Solana Mainnet, marking the first deployment of CCIP’s v1.6 upgrade on a non-EVM chain. This launch unlocks access to more than $17 billion in tokenized assets for the rapidly growing Solana DeFi ecosystem and positions the network to attract deeper institutional capital.

A New Chapter for Solana DeFi

CCIP —which already supports 56+ blockchains—provides a standardized, secure infrastructure for moving value and data across disparate chains. By bringing CCIP to Solana, projects such as Solv, Backed Finance, and Shiba Inu can extend their existing CCIP-enabled tokens into Solana via the new Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard.

Joining them at launch are teams building on Solana for the first time with CCIP, including ElizaOS, The Graph, Maple Finance, Pepe, and Zeus Network. Together, these CCTs represent over $17 billion in market capitalization ready to flow into Solana’s high-throughput, low-fee environment.

CCIP’s live deployment on Solana also ties the network to the broader CCIP ecosystem—already linking Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Optimism, and Sonic—and paves the way for more bridge integrations. Users can begin transferring tokens today through the CCIP-powered Interport app, with support on other tools like OpenOcean, Transporter, and XSwap coming soon.

Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs, said, “Launching CCIP on Solana is a pivotal milestone for the industry as Chainlink’s highly secure and reliable infrastructure provides users access to one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in Web3. Solana’s high throughput, low fees, and large developer community make it an ideal environment for building next-generation, cross-chain applications.”

“With CCIP, leading projects representing billions of dollars in market cap can now move assets into the Solana ecosystem, laying the foundation for an asset-rich ecosystem that attracts institutional capital, deepens liquidity, and expands the footprint of tokenized RWAs,” added Eid.

Institutional-Grade Infrastructure Meets Solana’s Speed

By tapping into Chainlink’s decentralized network—which has secured over $75 billion in DeFi TVL at its peak and powered more than $20 trillion in on-chain transaction volume—Solana developers and users gain the robust cross-chain framework required for enterprise-level applications. For institutions already using Chainlink, the Solana integration offers a seamless path into Solana’s burgeoning tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market.

Maple Finance, a leading institutional lending protocol, is among the launch partners exploring new opportunities on Solana. Joe Flanagan, Co-Founder at Maple Finance, said, “With the Chainlink standard for cross-chain interoperability now live on Solana, we’re seeing new growth opportunities on one of the most prominent blockchain networks in the world.”

As per Flanagan, “Interoperability is key to the future of DeFi and greater institutional participation in the space, and Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard powered by CCIP is uniquely positioned to provide the secure, scalable foundation needed to expand across leading ecosystems.”

ElizaOS, which builds autonomous AI agents for DeFi tasks, is also leveraging the new integration. Shaw Walters, Founder of elizaOS, said, “CCIP and the CCT Standard allow us to extend agent capabilities and assets across leading blockchain ecosystems, while continuing to leverage Solana’s high performance and efficiency. This integration brings us closer to a future where AI agents can transact, coordinate, and deliver value across chains leveraging trust-minimized infrastructure.”

What’s New in CCIP v1.6

Beyond non-EVM compatibility, CCIP’s v1.6 upgrade reduces transaction costs for end users and introduces a streamlined architecture designed to scale rapidly and cost-effectively to hundreds more blockchains. This improvement complements Chainlink’s existing Solana offerings— Price Feeds have been live since June 2022, and Data Streams launched in October 2024—fueling protocols like GMX-Solana and Kamino Finance with on-chain price and event data.

Looking Ahead

As Solana embraces CCIP, the door swings open for billions of dollars in liquidity to flow through a fast, low-cost network. Developers can now build cross-chain applications that tap into both the EVM and SVM worlds, while institutions gain the secure paths they need to deploy tokenized RWAs at scale. With more bridges and blockchains on the horizon, this milestone marks only the beginning of Solana’s next phase of growth in the multi-chain era.