Recently, I’ve been researching the standardization issues of cross-chain assets and discovered a pretty interesting phenomenon.

Have you noticed that the same USDC or ETH, on different blockchains, are split into a bunch of confusing names like USDC, USDC.e, ceETH, soETH? When I first got into the multi-chain ecosystem, I was also confused by this. Actually, this reflects a fundamental flaw of traditional cross-chain bridges—their “locked minting” model generates a mapped asset on each chain, which means the same asset cannot be exchanged equivalently across different chains, and liquidity is fragmented into pieces.

Even worse, this model requires locking large amounts of funds on the locking side each time, providing opportunities for hackers. This also explains why cross-chain bridge security incidents have been frequent in recent years.

Is there a more fundamental solution? Yes—improving from the protocol layer. LayerZero achieves true cross-chain verification by deploying ultra-light nodes on major public chains. Its security is much stronger than traditional cross-chain bridges because verification is done independently, and it introduces Chainlink oracles to monitor the Relayer. In theory, as long as both parties don’t collude to cheat, it’s secure.

Based on LayerZero’s technological innovation, a brand new concept has emerged—omnichain. Simply put, omnichain integrates multi-chain architecture and application layers, so users no longer need to worry about differences between various public chains. The entire blockchain ecosystem becomes like a whole. On omnichain, asset standards are unified, security is guaranteed, and liquidity won’t be fragmented.

This new asset standard surpasses single-chain standards like ERC-20 or SPL. It is divided into two categories based on whether they are fungible or not: OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) and ONFT (Omnichain NFT).

In practical applications, BTC.b was originally a niche asset on Avalanche, but after integrating LayerZero, it gained the ability to securely transfer across multiple chains like Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Aptos, and more. Even more impressive, converting it into an OFT only requires about two code files of around 10 lines each, so project teams don’t need to solve cross-chain technology problems themselves.

PancakeSwap’s CAKE token is also a typical example. After becoming an OFT in December last year, it not only achieved multi-chain deployment but also became the first to launch PancakeBridge on Aptos, which is non-EVM standard. Users on Aptos can experience PancakeSwap just like on Ethereum, thanks to the underlying omnichain standard.

Even the NFT space is benefiting. Lil Pudgys, a well-known Ethereum NFT project, has achieved multi-chain native deployment through the omnichain-NFT solution, now supporting Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, and other chains. Cross-chain NFTs have no fundamental difference in price, liquidity, or user experience compared to their Ethereum versions—something impossible with traditional cross-chain bridges.

My feeling is that LayerZero is not just offering another option in the cross-chain bridge market but is trying to fundamentally solve industry problems. As more applications adopt the omnichain standard, this solution will eventually become the de facto universal standard for cross-chain assets. By then, the user experience across the multi-chain ecosystem will see a qualitative leap.