Almost two years since the onset of the cryptocurrency bear market in May 2022, Wormhole, a cross-chain protocol, has seen its total value locked (TVL) climb back to $1 billion. Presently, the protocol's TVL is reported to be $1.02 billion, with its leading assets being Ether, FTM, and Solana, valued at $675 million, $174 million, and $96 million, respectively. This marks a significant recovery, with the TVL having surged over 300% from a low of $234 million at the beginning of the year. Wormhole had previously achieved its highest TVL of $3.8 billion 16 months prior, just before the Terra ecosystem's collapse marked the start of the crypto winter.
This resurgence follows a substantial funding round on November 29, 2023, where Wormhole secured $225 million, valuing the company at $2.5 billion. This came as the broader market began to rebound. Back in February 2022, Wormhole suffered a major setback when it was targeted in a hack exploiting an infinite minting glitch on the Ethereum-Solana bridge, leading to a loss of over $321 million.
In response to this hack, Jump Crypto, the venture capital firm then overseeing Wormhole, committed to restoring the lost funds, amounting to more than $320 million. By February 25, 2023, in collaboration with Oasis.app, Jump Crypto successfully orchestrated a counter-operation against the Wormhole hacker, recovering $225 million in user assets.
Wormhole currently stands as a leading cross-chain and messaging service, witnessing substantial user engagement with around 51,807 transactions and 2,394,665 messages sent over the past 24 hours. The majority of its bridge activity involves transferring ether to networks like Sui, Solana, and Arbitrum. Since its inception in September 2021, Wormhole has facilitated over $38 billion in transactions.
