Circle announces acquisition of Axelar's initial development team Interop Labs and its intellectual property, accelerating cross-chain interoperability layout

According to official sources, USDC issuer Circle has announced the signing of an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property. The acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2026. Circle looks forward to contributing to a broader field of interoperability, continuing to explore opportunities in line with its vision of an open, interconnected, and scalable chain economy.

Interop Labs has been a core contributor to Axelar, one of the most advanced frameworks in the field of cross-chain communication and token transfer, and has been working with a growing community of open-source contributors to drive Axelar's core development. By directly integrating Interop Labs' talent and technology into Circle, the aim is to accelerate the advancement of two core initiatives: Arc - designed by Circle for enterprise applications, aiming to become a layer of blockchain for the Internet economy; and the cross-chain transfer protocol.

It is important to note that this transaction only involves the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property. With the team joining Circle, the Axelar network, foundation, and AXL token will continue to operate independently under community governance, and open-source intellectual property will remain open. Another contributor to the Axelar project, Common Prefix, will take over the relevant work of Interop Labs.

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