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

Stablecoin giant Circle announced the signing of an agreement to acquire the core members and proprietary intellectual property rights of Interop Labs, the initial development team of Axelar. Circle stated that this move is aimed at strengthening the cross-chain interoperability layout and accelerating the seamless integration of USDC and its own blockchain Arc in the multi-chain ecosystem.
(Previous summary: Circle released Q3 financial report: revenue surged 66%, net profit doubled to US$214 million, USDC market value exceeded US$73.7 billion)
(Background supplement: Circle cooperated with Aleo to launch the privacy stablecoin "USDCx", transaction records and wallet addresses are all invisible)

Stablecoin USDC issuer Circle announced in December It was officially announced on the 15th that Circle has signed an agreement to acquire the team members and its proprietary intellectual property rights (IP) from Interop Labs (the initial development team of Axelar Network). This acquisition is regarded as a major strategic move by Circle in the field of blockchain cross-chain infrastructure, aiming to accelerate the secure and seamless flow 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 is mainly aimed at Interop Labs ’s core engineering and product teams, as well as its proprietary technology intellectual property, does not involve the Axelar Network itself, the Axelar Foundation, or the AXL token. The acquisition is expected to close in early 2026.

Interop Labs has long been a major contributor to Axelar, which is recognized as one of the most advanced secure cross-chain messaging and token transfer frameworks, working with the open source community to drive core development. Circle said that integrating Interop Labs’ talent and technology directly into the company will help accelerate the development of its enterprise-grade L1 blockchain Arc, which aims to become the economic operating system of the Internet, and the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). However, Circle emphasized that the deal is limited to Interop Labs’ team and proprietary IP.

As the team moves to Circle, Axelar Network will continue to operate independently under community governance, and open source intellectual property rights will also remain public. Common Prefix, another contributor to the Axelar project, will take over many of Interop Labs' previous development activities to ensure the continuity and long-term support of the network. This arrangement helps maintain the decentralized nature of Axelar and prevents acquisitions from causing a major ecological impact.

Expected benefits and statements from both parties

Circle pointed out that this acquisition will bring a number of specific benefits, including accelerating the interoperability of digital assets issued on Arc on numerous blockchain networks, expanding the developer experience and SDK for multi-chain applications, and enhancing first-party application development. Circle CTO Nikhil Chandhok said: "Incorporating the Interop Labs team into Circle will accelerate our Arc and CCTP roadmap and move towards building a multi-chain Internet financial center." Sergey Gorbunov, CEO and co-founder of Interop Labs, said he is proud of Axelar's achievements and looks forward to the team and technology becoming the core of Circle's interoperability strategy.