Key Insights
Chronicle Protocol has achieved a notable 10.5% growth in its Total Value Secured (TVS), rising from $11.4 billion in Q4 2024 to $12.6 billion in Q1 2025. The platform also recorded a significant increase in oracle price updates, totaling 373,300 in Q1, which represents a 67.7% rise compared to the previous quarter. Additionally, the operating costs associated with gas fees for each oracle update declined by 64.2% on Ethereum and by 8.9% on Layer-2 solutions quarter-over-quarter. When comparing efficiency, Chronicle’s updates on Ethereum were found to be 63.4% more effective and 65.7% cheaper than those from Chainlink. The platform has expanded its ecosystem by integrating with Berachain, Unichain, Corn, Plume, and Superseed, while also adding three new validators and securing a $12 million Seed round led by Strobe Ventures.
Primer
Chronicle Protocol serves as an oracle network designed to deliver transparent, verifiable, and cost-effective price feed oracles for various blockchains. Since 2017, it has been a key player in supporting the Sky Protocol (formerly known as Maker) and its related ecosystem, amassing a total of $12.6 billion in assets by the end of Q1 2025 across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The initiative originated from the Oracles Core Unit at Maker, co-founded by Niklas Kunkel and Mariano Conti, who together created Ethereum’s first on-chain oracle to facilitate SAI, the precursor to Maker’s DAI stablecoin. Chronicle has since broadened its reach beyond the Sky ecosystem, particularly since September 2023, by developing Scribe, a gas-efficient oracle that utilizes aggregated Schnorr signatures, thereby innovating oracle network frameworks. Unlike other competitors that depend on trust-based systems, Chronicle’s architecture is trustless, promoting complete transparency through end-to-end verifiability, which allows for tracing each data point back to its original source queries.
Key Metrics
Performance metrics reveal that the Total Value Secured (TVS) represents the total value of assets safeguarded by an oracle network, including borrowed assets. Chronicle’s TVS rose by 10.5% quarter-over-quarter, from $11.4 billion in Q4 2024 to $12.6 billion in Q1 2025. Historically, the TVS has been largely dominated by Sky, peaking at over $20 billion in December 2021. Since Chronicle started offering its oracles publicly, Sky’s market share has decreased to 57.4%, while Spark and Euler have increased their shares to 28.2% and 8.4%, respectively. Currently, DefiLlama tracks only eight protocols where Chronicle provides the majority of price feeds, although the network supports a total of 68 protocols. Chronicle currently ranks as the second-largest oracle by TVS, trailing behind Chainlink by a 30 percentage point margin. Its market share among oracle protocols has grown by 15.3% quarter-over-quarter, reflecting a shift away from Chainlink and WINkLink.
Oracles
Oracles function as on-chain relays that connect blockchains with off-chain data sources, such as real-time asset prices. The operation of an oracle is defined by various data models. When Chronicle develops an oracle for a new asset, it assembles a data model utilizing multiple data sources and applies a data aggregation strategy to derive a final value for the oracle. This capability allows Chronicle to implement any existing data model across supported chains. In Q1, Chronicle introduced 51 new oracles, increasing its total to 162, marking a 45.9% quarter-over-quarter growth from 111 oracles. Furthermore, the set of available data models expanded to 98, up from 92 in Q4 2024, enhancing the range of data models that can be deployed as oracles on any supported blockchain.
Oracle Price Updates
Oracle price updates involve the process by which the oracle network fetches the latest market price of a specific asset and records this information on-chain. Distinct validators or nodes, referred to as unique price updaters, carry out this price retrieval process. In Q1, Chronicle noted 373,300 oracle price updates, a 67.7% increase from the 222,600 updates in Q4 2024. Out of these updates, 362,600 were conducted on Ethereum Layer-2s (L2s), while just 10,700 were on Ethereum’s mainnet. The substantial rise in updates can be largely attributed to an expansion in partnerships, including oracle integrations with Berachain, Unichain, and Corn, as well as the introduction of several new price feeds. Additionally, the quantity of unique price updaters grew to 11,700, reflecting a 24.8% quarter-over-quarter increase from 9,400.
Signers
Signers are validators operating nodes within decentralized oracle networks tasked with collecting raw data and transmitting it to the protocol. These signers append a digital signature to the data, ensuring the authenticity of the information and identifying the specific validator responsible for its submission. A predetermined number of validators must act as signers for each oracle transaction, with the number of signers directly affecting the security of the oracle price feed. A higher signer count enhances security by complicating attempts by colluding validators to manipulate reported values, which could lead to significant losses for protocols relying on these oracles. In Q1 2025, Chainlink maintained an average of 7 signers on Ethereum and 4 on L2s such as Base, Optimism, and Arbitrum, while this figure remained unchanged since Q2 2024. In contrast, Chronicle began supporting 14 signers per oracle update on Ethereum and L2s in mid-August 2024, a number that remained stable through Q1 2025. This increase in signers has effectively doubled the manipulation threshold for Chronicle’s price feed compared to Chainlink on Ethereum, and tripled it on L2s.
Gas and Fees
Chronicle Labs employs Scribe, a gas-efficient oracle based on aggregated Schnorr signatures, which significantly reduces the gas costs associated with oracle updates by more than 60% on Layer-1 (L1) and over 68% on Layer-2 (L2) blockchains. On Ethereum, transferring ETH requires 21,000 gas units, ERC-20 transfers need 65,000 gas units, and a swap on Uniswap demands 184,000 gas units. In Q1, Chronicle updates on Ethereum utilized an average of 68,400 gas units, marking a 6.7% quarter-over-quarter increase. On L2s, the average gas usage for Chronicle updates reached 138,700 units, a 6.0% increase from the previous quarter.
Fees
The fees associated with oracle updates do not represent revenue for Chronicle; instead, they are gas fees incurred by the protocol to refresh oracles with the latest information. These gas fees are considered operational expenses that oracle providers often transfer to their customers, prompting a focus on minimizing these costs over time. In Q1, the average fee per oracle update on Ethereum was $1.53, reflecting a 64.2% decrease from the previous quarter, while fees on L2s averaged $0.01, an 8.9% decrease. Despite an increase of 6.7% in the computational effort required for updating Chronicle oracles on Ethereum, the fees per update fell due to a 45.3% drop in the price of ETH. Chronicle incurred a total of $16,400 in fees on Ethereum and $2,500 on L2s during Q1, representing a 42.8% decrease and a 67.4% increase quarter-over-quarter, respectively.
Chainlink Comparison
When comparing the respective ETH/USD oracles of Chronicle and Chainlink, Chronicle’s updates exhibited superior performance in terms of both computational efficiency and cost. In Q1, Chronicle’s ETH/USD oracle consumed an average of 67,700 gas units at a cost of $2.27 per update, while Chainlink’s ETH/USD oracle required 184,800 gas units at a cost of $6.61 per update. This indicates that Chronicle’s oracle was 63.4% more efficient and 65.7% less expensive than its Chainlink counterpart.
Qualitative Analysis
Chronicle introduced a significant technological upgrade on January 28, 2025, when it reduced the challenge period for its ScribeOptimistic oracle from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. This change aims to enhance the speed of data updates while upholding the integrity of its decentralized fraud-proof system. Designed for high-cost scenarios like the Ethereum mainnet, ScribeOptimistic utilizes optimistic submission and off-chain signature verification, with on-chain challenges incentivized through ETH rewards and validator slashing. Following 18 months of successful operation and demonstrated reliability, with valid challenges occurring within seconds, Chronicle determined that the system was robust enough to support this shortened challenge window, allowing for fresher price feeds while necessitating quicker responses from users, especially in DeFi lending, to avoid liquidation events.
Oracle Integrations
During Q1 2025, Chronicle Labs broadened its integrations with various applications, starting the quarter with 59 integrated apps and concluding with 68, which is a 15.3% increase quarter-over-quarter.
Corn
On January 8, 2025, Chronicle oracles were launched on Corn, a Bitcoin-secured Layer-1 platform designed for Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi). This integration offers access to over 100 real-time data models covering crypto assets, tokenized assets, and yield rates. Corn utilizes BTCN, a hybrid tokenized Bitcoin, for gas, and features a swap facility inspired by MakerDAO’s Peg Stabilization Module.
Resolv Labs
Chronicle collaborated with Resolv Labs on January 10, 2025, to introduce the USR/USD oracle. USR is a delta-neutral stablecoin backed by ETH and its derivatives, and this integration provides credible and resilient on-chain pricing to bolster USR’s stability and compatibility across DeFi.
Avalon
On January 17, 2025, Avalon, a BTCFi protocol on Plume Network, integrated Chronicle’s oracles to secure its DeFi infrastructure. Avalon enables Bitcoin holders to access fixed-rate lending through USDa, a stablecoin designed for instant liquidity without the need for asset liquidation.
Credit Coop
On January 22, 2025, Credit Coop integrated Chronicle’s oracles to enhance its structured finance protocol on Plume Network. By transitioning future revenue on-chain, Credit Coop facilitates access to non-dilutive capital for businesses. Chronicle’s oracles ensure dependable asset pricing and improve capital efficiency for both borrowers and lenders.
Berachain
On February 6, 2025, Chronicle’s oracles launched on the Berachain mainnet, providing crucial data feeds for Berachain assets such as STONE, HONEY, and NECT. This integration is designed to support builders from the outset, ensuring a reliable pricing infrastructure for Berachain’s DeFi ecosystem. On March 17, 2025, Chronicle extended its coverage on Berachain with the introduction of the PYUSD/USD price feed, catering to PayPal’s stablecoin.
Unichain
On March 18, 2025, Chronicle’s oracles became available on the Unichain mainnet and testnet, allowing developers to access over 90 real-time data feeds or request new ones as necessary. Unichain is a high-performance Superchain Layer-2 built to unify liquidity and enable smooth DeFi interactions across various chains.
Other integrations
In Q1 2025, Chronicle also integrated with Superseed Mainnet, Plume Nexus, Monad Testnet, Beraborrow, and additional projects.
Validator Expansion
Chronicle enhanced its decentralized oracle network in Q1 by onboarding three new validators from Steakhouse Financial, Bitcoin Suisse, and Block Analitica. This addition fortifies the protocol’s security and resilience, bringing the total number of validators to 25, which includes prominent names such as Sky, Infura, Gitcoin, dYdX, Etherscan, and Gnosis. By collaborating exclusively with reputable projects, Chronicle aims to establish an added layer of security against potential 51% attacks, a common risk faced by decentralized oracle networks.
Chronicle Points and CLE Token
In September 2024, Chronicle launched Chronicle Points, its first community initiative to reward eligible participants with future CLE tokens. Participants can earn points by supplying USDS through Sky and Summer.fi or by depositing stablecoins on Spark. Chronicle intends to broaden the earning opportunities via its dashboard. As of March 31, 2025, 26.49 million USDS were locked and earning Chronicle Points on Sky, with over 2.6 billion Chronicle Points distributed. Eventually, Chronicle Points will be redeemable for CLE tokens at a rate of 10 points per 1 CLE token, with a total supply of 10 billion CLE tokens set, and annual issuance of Chronicle Points capped at 3.75 billion.
Seed Round Fundraise
On March 25, 2025, Chronicle disclosed a $12 million Seed round led by Strobe Ventures, with contributions from various firms including Fenbushi Capital, Robot Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Tioga Capital, and Brevan Howard Digital. This funding is aimed at bolstering Chronicle’s expansion as a fundamental data infrastructure provider for tokenized assets, including its Verified Asset Oracle utilized by issuers like Centrifuge, Superstate, and M^0.
Closing Summary
In Q1 2025, Chronicle Protocol’s Total Value Secured (TVS) rose by 10.5% quarter-over-quarter to reach $12.6 billion, propelled by growing engagement from protocols such as Spark, Euler, and Dolomite. The protocol also logged 373,300 oracle price updates, a 67.7% increase over Q4 2024, with over 97% of these updates conducted on Ethereum Layer-2 networks. The unique price updater count grew to 11,700, reflecting a 24.8% increase from the previous quarter. Utilizing its Scribe technology, Chronicle’s oracles demonstrated a 63.4% enhancement in computational efficiency and a 65.7% reduction in costs compared to Chainlink, despite slight upticks in gas usage. Chronicle continued to expand its network and infrastructure, integrating with Berachain, Unichain, Corn, Plume, and Superseed, while onboarding three new validators to enhance decentralization. The quarter also saw a reduction in the challenge period for its ScribeOptimistic oracle, allowing for quicker data delivery while maintaining trustless assurances. Additional initiatives included the launch of a community rewards program through Chronicle Points and the successful completion of a $12 million Seed round, positioning Chronicle to deepen its role in tokenized asset infrastructure and enhance the scalability and resilience of its oracle network.
