Key Takeaways
Liquid restaking protocol ether.fi will disable weETH bridging on eight smaller blockchain networks by June 30, a move to consolidate liquidity and tighten risk controls after a recent high-profile exploit rattled the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
"The decision is part of efforts to harden our cross-chain infrastructure," ether.fi said in a statement, signaling a broader shift away from aggressive multi-chain expansion toward more defensible liquidity management. Users on the affected chains are required to bridge assets back to Ethereum or other supported networks before the deadline.
The protocol will deprecate bridging on Scroll, Swell, Bera, zkSync, Mode, Blast, Morph, and Sonic. Data from DefiLlama highlights the stark liquidity imbalance driving the decision, with ether.fi holding over $5.1 billion in total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum, compared to just a few hundred thousand dollars on chains like Scroll. Maintaining bridge infrastructure for these networks introduces security overhead without adding significant capital efficiency.
The move follows heightened scrutiny of cross-chain risk after an exploit related to KelpDAO's rsETH token propagated across several lending platforms, including Aave, earlier in April. By reducing the number of supported chains, ether.fi is narrowing its potential attack surface and focusing resources on securing its core liquidity hubs on Ethereum and other high-usage networks like OP Mainnet, which holds roughly $183 million in TVL. Users who fail to migrate their weETH from the deprecated chains before the June 30 deadline will be able to recover assets through a manual process, but a fixed fee of 0.5 weETH will apply.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
