Since launching in September 2021, Wormhole, a cross-chain messaging service, has sent over 1 billion messages. Data from Wormhole Scan on February 13 shows the protocol handles about 110,640 messages daily. These messages help move $30 million worth of funds, data for oracles, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) across 30 blockchains, totaling $39.6 billion in volume.
In January, Wormhole’s total value locked (TVL) reached $1 billion, with Ethereum (ETH), Fantom (FTM), and Solana (SOL) being the most significant contributors. The TVL was highest at $3.8 billion in May 2022 before dropping due to the crypto market downturn initiated by the Terra Luna crisis.
Many transactions through Wormhole occur between Polygon and Celo, as well as from Solana to Polygon and back. The Pyth Network, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana that accounts for 48% of trading volume using blockchain oracles, is one of Wormhole’s significant users. Other decentralized applications (DApps) that use Wormhole include Uniswap, Circle, Lido, and Synthetix.
On February 7, Wormhole announced its plans for a token system through a white paper and will give away 17% of its 10 billion tokens to the community, although the date for this airdrop has not been set.
The developers explained, “Having a token-based governance system lets token holders have a say in the protocol’s direction. After the tokens are created and distributed, on-chain governance will mostly manage community programs and treasury matters.”
On November 29, 2023, Wormhole revealed it had raised $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, ParaFi, Dialectic, Borderless Capital, and Arrington Capital led the funding round.
