In Brief:
- ApeChain is leaving LayerZero for Chainlink CCIP, which becomes its canonical cross-chain stack for the whole Yuga Labs ecosystem, Bored Ape Yacht Club included.
- APE, USDC and other key ApeChain assets are being upgraded to Chainlink Cross-Chain Tokens (CCT).
- There is no published deprecation deadline for the LayerZero setup and no guidance yet for token holders.
Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol is taking over from LayerZero as ApeChain’s canonical bridge. The switch applies to every part of the Yuga Labs ecosystem, Bored Ape Yacht Club included.
Both Chainlink and ApeChain posted about the change on X on Nov. 4, each in its own announcement.
NEW: ApeChain is deprecating its legacy cross-chain solution & migrating to Chainlink CCIP.
CCIP is now becoming the canonical cross-chain infra across the entire Yuga Labs ecosystem, starting with its flagship
@BoredApeYC
use cases, ApeChain, & the APE token.
Two…@chainlinkView on X ↗
Chainlink’s post opened with: “NEW: ApeChain is deprecating its legacy cross-chain solution & migrating to Chainlink CCIP.”
APE and USDC move to the CCT format
Until this change, ApeChain assets crossed between chains using LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard. APE, USDC and other key assets on the network are now being reissued as Chainlink Cross-Chain Tokens.
“With CCIP as our canonical bridge, APE, USDC, and other key assets on ApeChain are being upgraded to a Chainlink Cross-Chain Token (CCT),” ApeChain said. “This upgrade will make it easier for dApps, communities, and their assets to connect.”
ApeChain’s post listed APE at $0.116 and USDC at $1.00.
According to Chainlink’s CCIP documentation, outside dApps and bridge aggregators can plug into the CCIP router with no need to deploy custom contracts for every token.
A standard for all of Yuga Labs
Chainlink presented the migration as the cross-chain standard for everything Yuga Labs operates on chain.
“CCIP is now becoming the canonical cross-chain infra across the entire Yuga Labs ecosystem, starting with its flagship @BoredApeYC use cases, ApeChain, & the APE token,” Chainlink said.
ApeChain described the partnership in its own words: “ApeChain is working with @chainlink to strengthen our infrastructure for the future.”
“We will be migrating from LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP as our canonical cross-chain stack across the @yugalabs ecosystem, including @BoredApeYC,” ApeChain said.
Open questions
No timeline has come from either team, and there’s no published date for shutting down the LayerZero bridge. It’s also unclear whether existing tokens will convert on their own or whether holders will have to swap them manually.
CCIP transfer fees haven’t been announced.
The posts didn’t explain why ApeChain is dropping LayerZero. Neither company linked the decision to a security incident or to any vulnerability in ApeChain’s contracts.
Background
ApeChain is a layer-3 network for the ApeCoin APE $0.1131 ▼ -9.2% ecosystem, built on Arbitrum Orbit. Its messaging and bridging have run through LayerZero since it launched.
In April 2025, Ronin made a comparable switch, completing a migration of roughly $450 million in assets to CCIP.
Chainlink ended its announcement with a nod to Yuga’s NFT and token communities: “Two communities. One ecosystem. One secure cross-chain standard.”