Circle announces the acquisition of Axelar development team Interop Labs and IP: Accelerating the development of the Arc chain and multi-chain interoperability

Stablecoin giant Circle announces signing an agreement to acquire core members and proprietary intellectual property of Interop Labs, the initial development team of Axelar. Circle states that this move aims to strengthen cross-chain interoperability layout and accelerate the seamless integration of USDC with its own blockchain Arc in the multi-chain ecosystem.
(Background: Circle releases Q3 financial report: revenue surges 66%, net profit doubles to $214 million, USDC market cap surpasses $73.7 billion)
(Additional background: Circle partners with Aleo to launch privacy stablecoin “USDCx,” with transaction records and wallet addresses all invisible)

On December 15, stablecoin issuer USDC Circle officially announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire team members and proprietary intellectual property (IP) of Interop Labs (the initial development team of Axelar Network). This acquisition is regarded as a major strategic move by Circle in the blockchain cross-chain infrastructure field, aiming to accelerate the secure and seamless transfer of digital assets across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

We have entered into an agreement to bring the @interop_labs team – initial developers of @axelar, a leading interoperability stack – into Circle to accelerate the next chapter of multichain infrastructure with @Arc and CCTP, and we are excited to welcome new team members to the… pic.twitter.com/dDmW5ZIACa

— Circle (@circle) December 15, 2025

Acquisition details and impact on Axelar

According to Circle’s official announcement, this acquisition mainly targets Interop Labs’ core engineering and product teams, as well as its proprietary technology IP, and does not involve Axelar Network itself, the Axelar Foundation, or AXL tokens. The acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2026.

For a long time, Interop Labs has been a major contributor to Axelar. Axelar is recognized as one of the advanced secure cross-chain messaging and token transfer frameworks, collaborating with open-source communities to promote core development. Circle stated that integrating Interop Labs’ talent and technology directly into the company will help accelerate the development of its enterprise-grade L1 blockchain Arc (aimed at becoming the internet’s economic operating system) and cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP). However, Circle emphasizes that this transaction is limited to Interop Labs’ team and proprietary IP.

With the team transferred into Circle, Axelar Network will continue to operate independently under community governance, with open-source IP also remaining publicly accessible. Another contributor to the Axelar project, Common Prefix, will take over many of Interop Labs’ previous development activities to ensure network operation continuity and long-term support. This arrangement helps maintain Axelar’s decentralization and avoids significant disruption to the ecosystem caused by the acquisition.

Expected Benefits and Statements from Both Sides

Circle points out that this acquisition will bring multiple tangible benefits, including accelerating the interoperability of digital assets issued on Arc across numerous blockchain networks, expanding developer experience and SDK for multi-chain applications, and enhancing first-party application development. Nikhil Chandhok, CTO of Circle, said, “Incorporating Interop Labs into Circle will accelerate our roadmap for Arc and CCTP, progressing toward building a multi-chain internet financial hub.” Sergey Gorbunov, CEO and co-founder of Interop Labs, stated that he is proud of Axelar’s achievements and looks forward to the team and technology becoming central to Circle’s interoperability strategy.

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