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Bitget Token will become the native token of Morph, despite an audit showing that the L2 has numerous critical security vulnerabilities and other red flags.

Top-10 global cryptocurrency exchange Bitget is winding down long-term development of its platform token, Bitget Token (BGB), and transferring all tokens it controls to Morph, an Ethereum Layer 2 network designed to power the "next generation of onchain consumer finance," per the project’s description on its official website.

In a press release shared with The Defiant, Bitget said that it will transfer 440 million BGB tokens in total to the Morph Foundation, with 50% of that sum to be “burned immediately” by the foundation, and the remaining 220 million released at 2% per month to “fund liquidity incentives, use case expansion, and education.”

Bitget Token was originally launched on Ethereum in 2020. Now, according to Bitget, Morph will become the “native onchain home of BGB and serve as the core settlement layer,” with BGB established as the network’s gas and governance token.

In comments to The Defiant, Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget, said that the exchange has always positioned BGB as “more than just an exchange token.”

“Moving the tokens into the Morph Foundation makes sure BGB’s development is guided by the community and ecosystem builders rather than a single company. Morph was the natural choice because it’s purpose-built for payments and onchain consumer finance, which aligns directly with BGB’s roadmap,” Chen explained.

Bitget's CEO added that the exchange doesn’t see the transfer as a “race to replicate someone else’s model,” adding that partnering with Morph “allows us to build directly on top of an existing payment-focused Layer 2 that’s already innovating in the consumer finance space.”

The centralized exchange also made it clear that it’s distancing itself from the asset’s further development roadmap, as the Morph Foundation will be “solely responsible for BGB’s long-term development roadmap, co-building the ecosystem with the community.”

Chen explained to The Defiant:

“Rather than splitting resources between running an exchange, wallet, and now a separate chain, we think it’s more efficient and better for users to strengthen BGB’s role within a chain that shares our vision. For us this is more about scaling real-world payment use cases for 120 million Bitget users and beyond."

Bitget said in the release that the Morph Foundation “will also update BGB’s burn mechanism to link directly to the Morph network activity until the total supply is reduced to 100 million.”

Following the announcement, the price of BGB jumped 10% to $5.20, before retracing to below $5 by press time. Bitget Token currently has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, making it the 38th-largest crypto asset.

Bitget, meanwhile, ranks 7th by 24-hour trading volumes among centralized exchanges, according to CoinGecko data, and third overall, taking CoinGecko’s Trust Score into account.

Morph has a total value locked (TVL) in DeFi of $41.4 million, making it the 70th-largest chain in DeFi.

Centralization ConcernsData from L2BEAT shows that Morph appears to be riddled with security issues, ranging from critical exploits to serious centralization risks.

A key vulnerability involves the potential for a malicious code upgrade. L2BEAT found that there is no delay on these upgrades, meaning a bad actor could push out a harmful update and compromise user funds before the community has time to react.

Morph profile on L2BEATThe platform's fraud-proof mechanism also appears to be nonfunctional. While the system relies on a whitelisted challenger to flag incorrect transaction states, this challenger doesn't post a challenge of an incorrect state root.

Furthermore, Morph has several other risks as the network operator has the power to override finalized batches to steal funds or censor a user’s withdrawal transaction, L2BEAT warns. The operator can also censor any user's transactions, preventing them from using the network.

On top of that, due to the operator's central position, they can extract MEV by front-running user transactions.

However, it’s worth noting that Morph is far from the only network rife with these red flags. L2BEAT's data shows that more than two dozen networks have similar technical limitations or even worse centralization issues.

Commenting on vulnerabilities, Bitget's CEO said that the team is “is well aware of the risks flagged by L2BEAT.” Chen added:

“Many of the points they raise are challenges common across most new Layer 2s. Morph has already implemented solutions or mitigations to address these areas, although L2BEAT may not classify them under its own definitions. We remain confident in Morph’s security roadmap, and Bitget will continue to support the ecosystem with user protection as our top priority."

In March of last year, Morph raised $20 million from prominent venture capital firms in a round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Pantera Capital, The Spartan Group, and others.

Last month, another top crypto exchange, OKX, announced a massive token burn of its platform token, OKB, sending the token on an extended rally. As part of the move, the OKB token, also originally launched on Ethereum Layer 1, became the native gas token of OKX's Layer 2 X Layer, which it launched last August.

Disclaimer: This article has been updated to add commentary from Bitget's CEO, Gracy Chen.

Table of contents

Morph has taken a major step toward turning the promise of programmable, borderless money into reality by integrating the Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) as the exclusive cross-chain bridge for the Bitget Token (BGB). The move routes all cross-chain movement of BGB through a single, verifiable pathway inside the Morph ecosystem, a design choice the companies say will bring predictability, stronger liquidity guarantees, and the kind of auditability that institutional users demand.

The integration pairs the protocol with the token that will serve as Morph’s gas and settlement asset, establishing a unified standard for how value moves between chains in payment rails, merchant platforms, and treasury systems. By consolidating token flows under CCIP, Morph aims to reduce fragmentation across liquidity pools and present developers and payment providers with a consistent settlement layer that behaves the same way regardless of the underlying chains involved.

“Cross-chain reliability isn’t just a technical goal — it’s essential for institutional adoption,” said Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget. “By aligning BGB with Chainlink CCIP and the Morph network, we’re setting a clear, auditable framework that enterprises can trust. Bitget’s vision is to make interoperability a default standard for global payments, not a challenge that builders must overcome.”

The announcement comes amid significant tokenomics changes for BGB. The Morph Foundation holds more than 220 million BGB. There is a roadmap to migrate over half of the circulating supply onto Morph, and more than 50% of the original two-billion BGB issuance has already been permanently burned, a sequence of supply events that the teams say makes standardized, secure cross-chain movement especially important. Locking cross-chain transfers behind CCIP is intended to give confidence to businesses integrating BGB, since every transfer will be processed through the same cryptographically verifiable channel.

“The combination of Morph and BGB is creating one of the most transformative assets in the crypto space,” said Colin Goltra, CEO of Morph. “With supply migration and regular burning on Morph as core parts of the BGB roadmap, Chainlink CCIP plays a critical role in enabling secure, scalable cross-chain movement that supports real-world payment use cases.”

New Standard for Institutional Cross-Chain Payments CCIP’s role goes beyond basic token transfers. Because it can carry tokens and data together within a single coordinated cross-chain transaction, developers building on Morph can now orchestrate transfers of stablecoins, BGB, and programmable instructions in one go. That unlocks settlement flows where a token arrives with embedded instructions, for example, to settle a merchant invoice, trigger an FX swap, or move funds between liquidity pools, all without stitching separate bridges and manual reconciliations together.

As on-chain payments accelerate globally, the ability to synchronize liquidity across networks has become a practical requirement for enterprises. The teams argue that a single, secure cross-chain framework simplifies integration for stablecoin issuers, payment companies, and fintech platforms that need settlement assets to operate consistently across market environments. CCIP’s adoption as the exclusive interoperability layer for BGB is intended to make Morph the dependable execution layer for those multi-chain settlement products.

“By adopting Chainlink CCIP as the exclusive cross-chain interoperability solution for BGB issuance and transfer, Morph is defining how assets should move across chains at an institutional scale. This is how you turn cross-chain from a risk factor into a strategic advantage. It’s a clear signal of where onchain payments are heading next,” said Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs.

The infrastructure underpinning this design will be strengthened further by Morph’s upcoming Emerald upgrade, which introduces new token standards and settlement primitives. With Emerald, CCIP-secured BGB is intended to become the reference model for how future institutional tokens, stablecoins, and payment-linked instruments are issued and managed on the network. Standardized issuance and verifiable cross-chain movement are the kinds of features enterprise issuers have been asking for when they consider building global payment products.

Morph is already working with payment providers, stablecoin issuers, and fintech platforms to roll out the first wave of CCIP-enabled integrations. Those partners, the companies say, require settlement assets that work predictably at scale, and an exclusive cross-chain pathway for BGB aims to deliver precisely that: a single, auditable channel for movement, lower operational friction, and clearer guarantees around liquidity and settlement timing.

For users and builders, the practical upshot is simpler integration and new capabilities. For enterprises, it’s a test of whether standardized, verifiable cross-chain frameworks can finally make on-chain settlement a reliable part of the global payments infrastructure. Morph and its partners are betting that they can turn cross-chain complexity into a feature rather than a liability, bringing programmable money a step closer to moving at the speed of life.

AUTHOR

Mushumir Butt is a seasoned crypto journalist with over three years of experience reporting on the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. At Blockchain Reporter, he delivers insightful news, in‐depth project reviews, and precise price analysis and predictions. With a strong background in SEO and digital marketing, Mushumir excels at breaking down complex trends into clear, accessible content, ensuring readers stay ahead in the fast‐paced crypto space.