Interview with Wormhole Foundation COO: How to Grow from a Hackathon Project to a $2.5 Billion Unicorn in 3 Years?
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Interview with Wormhole Foundation COO: How to Grow from a Hackathon Project to a $2.5 Billion Unicorn in 3 Years?
Wormhole始终坚守初心，致力于实现使命。
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsInterviewers: kit, Mia, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher
Interviewee: Dan Reecer, Wormhole Foundation
On March 7, Wormhole, a cross-chain protocol valued at $2.5 billion, announced the launch of its token W and pledged to airdrop 617 million tokens—6% of the total supply—to past users, benefiting nearly 400,000 wallets.
Born from a hackathon, Wormhole was launched in October 2020 by blockchain infrastructure company Certus One, initially serving as a direct token bridge between the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems. In August 2021, developers from Jump Crypto released the protocol’s second version, leveraging a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) network of Guardians as oracles and a permissionless relayer network to transmit messages across chains.
As a decentralized cross-chain protocol, Wormhole integrates smart contracts with cryptographic technology to enable secure and seamless transfer of assets and data across blockchains. With Wormhole, users can easily move assets, while developers gain greater room for innovation, driving the expansion of blockchain ecosystems and real-world applications.
Last November, Wormhole raised $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, cementing its status as a unicorn in the blockchain industry.
Recently, ChainCatcher sat down with Dan Reecer, Chief Operating Officer of the Wormhole Foundation, to uncover the story behind Wormhole.
Dan Reecer graduated from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, one of America’s top business schools. After four years of experience in healthcare brand marketing, he transitioned into the crypto space, where he has深耕 over five years. He previously served as Chief Growth Officer at Acala, Marketing Director at Wanchain, and led growth initiatives at the Web3 Foundation, making significant contributions to the launch of Polkadot. Dan joined the Wormhole Foundation in 2023 to continue advancing blockchain innovation.
Beyond the airdrop announcement, Wormhole is also making strides in adopting zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology. Following grants to Lurk Lab and Zpoken, on February 15, the Wormhole Foundation announced a collaboration with Succinct to build an Ethereum ZK light client aimed at decentralizing message validation, reducing platform trust assumptions, and enhancing cross-chain composability and network security.
Additionally, in terms of hardware resources, Wormhole has partnered with AMD, which provides enterprise-grade FPGA hardware accelerators to support the development of the Wormhole ecosystem.
From Hackathon Project to $2.5 Billion Valuation
ChainCatcher: Wormhole evolved from a two-way token bridge between Ethereum and Solana into a universal messaging protocol connecting multiple chains within the ecosystem. How did Wormhole grow from a hackathon project into the protocol it is today?
Dan Reecer: Since its inception as a foundation-funded initiative, Wormhole has continuously achieved breakthroughs in the cross-chain domain. In 2020, to break Solana’s isolation from other major networks, the Wormhole team developed its first version and successfully hosted the inaugural Wormhole Hackathon, involving multiple teams building cross-chain applications using Wormhole on blockchain.
The core goal of Wormhole’s initial version was to achieve interoperability between Ethereum and Solana.
Wormhole has made significant progress and now connects over 30 different blockchains. Recently, Wormhole reached a milestone by transmitting one billion cross-chain messages via its protocol.
Currently, more than 200 applications have been built on the Wormhole platform, with thousands of developers daily using Wormhole to enhance their apps’ liquidity and user base through cross-chain integration.
ChainCatcher: Uniswap chose Wormhole as its primary cross-chain messaging protocol for its multi-chain deployment. What unique advantages does Wormhole offer compared to other protocols?
Dan Reecer: First, Wormhole offers broad coverage, supporting execution environments across six blockchain virtual machines including Ethereum, Solana, Aptos, NEAR, Sui, and Algorand, integrating them seamlessly—this is why many projects choose Wormhole for cross-chain operations.
Second, Wormhole is fully open-source, with all code publicly available on GitHub, audited multiple times, and subject to regular reviews to ensure security. Recently, we hired a Chief Security Officer and are collaborating with Asymmetric Research to strengthen platform-wide security.
Moreover, unlike most cross-chain protocols typically controlled by only two multisig parties, Wormhole stands out for its high degree of decentralization.
Wormhole’s core architecture is based on a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) mechanism, consisting of a group of trusted entities known as Guardians. The Wormhole Guardian network comprises 19 members—including Chorus One, Everstake, Figment, and xLabs—and every message transmitted via Wormhole must be validated by at least 13 of these 19 validators before being sent to another blockchain. All current validators operate within the governance system.
In addition, Wormhole closely follows developer needs and offers a diverse product suite. Under the Wormhole umbrella are five core products designed to create a comprehensive interoperability platform rather than focusing on a single offering.
For example, Synthetix uses Remote Queries, which allows data extraction from any chain’s data source to another blockchain; this product is still in testing phase.
Uniswap is currently using Wormhole for cross-chain governance, relying on Wormhole to transmit governance-related data across chains, ensuring consistency in its governance deployments across various interoperable protocols.
Plans to Launch ZK Light Clients
ChainCatcher: Last month, Wormhole unveiled its ZK roadmap, announcing plans to deploy ZK light clients as cross-chain infrastructure for multi-chain use in the coming months. How do you envision the future evolution of cross-chain infrastructure? How will these new ZK light clients change the current state of the blockchain industry, and how will they help Wormhole achieve its long-term goals?
Dan Reecer: The Wormhole team remains committed to the core principles of cryptocurrency and is actively working to integrate zk technology widely across the Wormhole platform, reducing reliance on centralized components.
Once zk technology goes live, developers will have two options for transferring data or tokens: continue using the existing validator system, or opt for a fully trustless zk-based approach that eliminates dependence on validators.
Wormhole places such strong emphasis on zk technology because it significantly reduces reliance on institutional trust within the Wormhole system, further advancing decentralization. Through continuous technological innovation and optimization, Wormhole aims to provide developers with a safer, more efficient, and decentralized interoperability platform.
Wormhole has already funded three teams—Lurk, Zpoken, and Succinct—and secured hardware support from AMD in areas such as FPGAs and GPUs to optimize the speed and cost-efficiency of zk implementations.
Wormhole expects to launch its zk client this year, enabling seamless interoperability between chains like Ethereum and NEAR.
ChainCatcher: Will Wormhole launch a dedicated zk layer to manage these zk proofs transferred across different chains, or do you plan to leverage specific chains to solve this problem?
Dan Reecer: Wormhole does not need to develop a dedicated zk layer for this purpose. Instead, we are developing zk-like clients that can be deployed across different chains, enabling seamless integration of various technologies without requiring底层 zk solutions like zkSync or Polygon’s zkEVM.
While zk is often associated with privacy, in Wormhole’s context, it is primarily used to reduce centralization of trust and enhance decentralization.
Commitment to Cross-Chain Ecosystem Development
ChainCatcher: In December last year, parallel EVM blockchain Monad announced a partnership and technical integration with Wormhole. Could you elaborate on the details of this collaboration and its potential impact?
Dan Reecer: Wormhole will help attract users and liquidity to Monad, injecting vitality into its ecosystem. Users will be able to seamlessly transfer SOL from Solana to Monad via Wormhole and freely participate in any activities within the Monad ecosystem, including DeFi.
For Wormhole, this represents not just a challenge but also an excellent opportunity to expand market share and transaction volume.
ChainCatcher: Will Wormhole expand its coverage to include different types of projects, or will it remain focused solely on message interoperability? Are there plans to collaborate with large ecosystems like Optimism or Arbitrum?
Dan Reecer: Our current focus remains firmly on interoperability—one of the biggest opportunities in the entire industry.
Given the exponential growth in the number of blockchains, bridging between them has become crucial. It's undeniable that we're moving toward a multi-chain world, requiring safe and minimally-trusted cross-chain infrastructure to drive this expansion and foster industry prosperity.
For users, the focus isn't just on individual platforms—it's increasingly about cross-chain capabilities.
Precisely for this reason, Wormhole’s priority remains building more products and seamlessly integrating them into a unified toolkit. Currently, Wormhole is actively collaborating with application developers, blockchain builders, and token issuers to increase the number of supported applications, broaden the scope of cross-chain or multi-chain tokens, and initiate community governance to jointly advance the cross-chain ecosystem—a path we intend to follow for the next 5 to 10 years.
ChainCatcher: Last November, Wormhole raised $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. What are your plans following this funding round? Also, what considerations led the team behind Wormhole to establish Wormhole Labs?
Dan Reecer: Engineering and product development have always been at the heart of Wormhole. As the Wormhole ecosystem expanded, multiple collaborative teams naturally emerged. Today, Wormhole consists of four core pillars: the Wormhole Foundation, Wormhole Labs, X Labs, and Asymmetric Research—a security-focused team.
On the developer front, Wormhole has sponsored grants at hackathons such as those in Denver and on Ethereum, and will continue participating in similar events to strengthen the developer ecosystem. Additionally, Wormhole is actively recruiting top-tier talent.
ChainCatcher: Wormhole has launched a cross-chain ecosystem fund and the XGrant funding program. What are the specific criteria for selecting projects to fund? Do you plan to increase funding amounts in the future to support more promising projects?
Dan Reecer: X Grants are specifically established for open-source projects within the Wormhole ecosystem. Relevant funding criteria are listed on the official website, and self-submissions are evaluated and screened by a dedicated team.
Wormhole has also partnered with Borderless Capital to launch a cross-chain ecosystem fund aimed at investing in project teams that can drive the overall development of the cross-chain ecosystem—teams that have tightly integrated with Wormhole from day one.
Additionally, the Wormhole Base Camp accelerator program, operated by Outlier Ventures and funded by Borderless Capital, focuses on supporting early-stage Web3 founders. Currently, five startups have been selected and will each receive a $200,000 investment from Borderless Capital.
Wormhole remains committed to supporting the broader cross-chain ecosystem. Whether we will scale up funding depends on further research and preparation.
ChainCatcher: With Bitcoin recently hitting new highs and crypto market sentiment remaining bullish, will this influence Wormhole to accelerate certain project developments?
Dan Reecer: Market fluctuations haven’t changed our direction. Wormhole has been under development for over three years and has weathered multiple market cycles. We remain focused on our goals—launching new products and improving existing ones.
Market cycles may stir noise on social media, but Wormhole stays true to its mission and vision.
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