What Is the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard?

 

Cross-Chain Tokens (CCTs) are natively interoperable across multiple blockchains and are secured by the Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). 

With the prominence of many blockchain ecosystems, enabling token interoperability across chains is becoming more important than ever. The CCT standard simplifies this process by enabling token developers to deploy and manage token pools across chains in a decentralized, self-serve manner using Chainlink CCIP. 

Traditionally, developers faced a manual process to make tokens cross-chain compatible, requiring significant time and effort. The CCT standard eliminates this complexity. With the CCT standard, developers can deploy, configure, and manage token pools in a self-serve manner via a single interface. This self-service model not only accelerates deployment time but also empowers token developers with greater autonomy and control over their cross-chain token operations. 

This post explains the CCT standard and outlines its core benefits for seamlessly enabling interoperability for ERC20-compatible tokens within CCIP.

What Is the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard?

CCTs are cross-chain native tokens secured by CCIP. The Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard enables token developers to integrate new and existing tokens with CCIP in a self-serve manner in minutes. CCTs support self-serve deployments, full control and ownership for developers, enhanced programmability, and zero-slippage transfers—all backed by CCIP’s defense-in-depth security.

The CCT standard offers security, flexibility, and programmability benefits for token developers looking to make their new and existing tokens cross-chain interoperable via CCIP.

Notably, CCTs are token logic agnostic, meaning token developers can deploy pre-audited token pool contracts to turn any ERC20-compatible token into a CCT or deploy their own custom token pool contracts for bespoke token use cases. Importantly, CCTs do not require token developers to inherit any CCIP-specific code within their token’s smart contract.

CCTs were introduced as a part of the CCIP v1.5 upgrade. Read the full announcement for more details: Introducing the CCIP Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard, Self-Serve Onboarding, and More.

Benefits of the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard

The CCT standard offers many advantages for token developers looking to make their token natively cross-chain interoperable.

Self-Serve and Permissionless

Token developers can launch a new CCT or make an existing token a CCT in a self-serve manner within minutes. When creating CCTs, CCIP contracts verify token contract ownership onchain to avoid fragmentation and help token developers remain in control of their tokens. Developers also have access to a number of resources that make the CCT creation process and ongoing management seamless, including a Token Manager, CCIP Explorer, CCIP Directory, and accompanying documentation (both tutorials and scripts).

Developer Control and Flexibility

Token developers retain full ownership of their token contracts, CCIP token pools, and customized implementation logic, including rate limits across chains. This autonomy eliminates the need for vendor lock-in, hard-coded logic, or external dependencies, allowing developers to customize functionality without compromising security.

Programmable Token Transfers

CCIP supports cross-chain transfers with embedded instructions for actions on the destination chain. Through CCIP’s Programmable Token Transfers, complex workflows involving multiple chains can be executed as a single atomic cross-chain instruction. CCTs also benefit from additional features such as configurable rate limits and Smart Execution, which helps ensure reliable transaction execution on the destination chain regardless of blockchain network congestion.

Token Developer Attestation

Token developers can enhance the security of their CCTs by adding external verifiers. This feature enables developers to actively participate in the cross-chain verification process by attesting to token burn or lock events on source chains before CCIP mints or releases tokens on destination chains. This is especially useful for stablecoins, wrapped assets, staking derivatives, and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to enable more robust security models and address compliance needs.

Defense-in-Depth Security

CCTs are secured by Chainlink CCIP, which is powered by the same battle-tested Decentralized Oracle Network (DON) infrastructure that has enabled over $18 trillion in onchain transaction value since the start of 2022. Each CCIP transfer is validated by multiple DONs, including an independent Risk Management Network that continuously monitors and validates the behavior of CCIP.

No Reliance on Liquidity Pools

By utilizing burn-and-mint mechanisms, CCTs eliminate the need for liquidity pools. This simplifies cross-chain token operations and avoids common limitations associated with liquidity-based solutions. Tokens that adopt the CCT standard can be instantly transferable without limitations on transfer size (within the configurable rate limits). 

Zero-Slippage Transfers

Pre-audited token pool contracts ensure that tokens sent on the source chain match the exact amount received on the destination chain, enabling seamless zero-slippage cross-chain transfers.

Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard Token Transfer Mechanisms

The CCT standard can operate with four primary token transfer mechanisms:

• Burn and Mint—Tokens are burned on the source chain, and an equivalent amount are minted on the destination chain. This keeps the total supply of the token consistent across blockchains.
• Lock and Mint—Tokens are locked on the source chain, and fully collateralized wrapped tokens are minted on the destination chain. This mechanism is suitable for projects with existing tokens on a single blockchain that have already been minted and lack functionality to control the supply via Burn and Mint on the source chain. 
• Burn and Unlock—Tokens are burned on the source chain (the non-issuing blockchain), and an equivalent amount of tokens are released on the destination chain (the issuing blockchain). This mechanism is the inverse of Lock and Mint and can be used to send tokens back to their issuing source chain.
• Lock and Unlock—Tokens are locked on the source chain, and an equivalent amount are released on the destination chain. This use case is not recommended due to its impact on liquidity, as it implies multiple issuing blockchains.

Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard Early Adopters

A number of protocols have already adopted the CCT standard to make their native tokens cross-chain transferable via CCIP, including:

• Aave’s decentralized stablecoin (GHO) 
• Solv Protocol’s wrapped/tokenized Bitcoin (SolvBTC)
• Lombard’s LBTC
• Tensorplex Stake’s stTAO 
• Shiba Inu’s SHIB, BONE, and LEASH
• Turbo Token’s TURBO

Adopt the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) Standard

CCTs are a major upgrade to the CCIP developer experience, enabling accelerated deployment times and a self-service model. CCTs provide developers with greater control over their tokens without requiring any CCIP-specific code to be integrated into their token’s smart contract. At the same time, they can leverage Chainlink’s robust and proven infrastructure to ensure secure and reliable cross-chain operations.

If you’re looking to adopt the CCT standard, check out the official Chainlink documentation. To learn more about Chainlink, visit chain.link, subscribe to the Chainlink newsletter, and follow Chainlink on X and YouTube.