Wormhole crosses 1B in cross-chain messages ahead of token launch

Cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole has surpassed a cumulative 1 billion in messages sent since its inception in September 2021.

According to data from Wormhole Scan on Feb. 13, the messaging protocol currently processes around 110,640 daily messages, moving $30 million in daily funds, oracle feeds, and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) across 30 blockchains with $39.6 billion in cumulative volume.

In January, Wormhole reached $1 billion in total value locked (TVL), with Ether ( ETH ), Fantom (FTM), and Solana ( SOL ) assets taking the top places at $675 million, $174 million, and $96 million, respectively. The protocol’s TVL peaked at $3.8 billion in May 2022, before the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem that led to the onset of the crypto winter. 

Currently, a sizable portion of transactions facilitated by the cross-chain bridge are moved between Polygon and Celo and from Solana to Polygon, vice versa. Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) Pyth Network, which secures 48% of blockchain-oracle-mediated trading volume, is one of Wormhole messaging's largest users. Other notable decentralized applications using Wormhole include Uniswap, Circle, Lido, and Synthetix. 

On Feb. 7, Wormhole published its tokenomics white paper, pledging to airdrop 17% of its 10 billion tokens to its community. No exact date was set for its airdrop.

“Fundamentally, a token-based governance system allows token holders to guide and impact the protocol's direction," developers wrote. "After the token generation and distribution events, on-chain governance will largely guide community programs and treasury-related activities."

On Nov. 29, 2023, Wormhole Wormhole announced a $225 million raise at a valuation of $2.5 billion led by Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, ParaFi, Dialectic, Borderless Capital and Arrington Capital.

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