Circle To Acquire Interop Labs Team And Ip As Axelar Remains...

The agreement adds a key interoperability engineering team to Circle, strengthening its crosschain infrastructure and support for multichain applications.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has signed an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and its proprietary technology, bringing a core contributor to the Axelar Network into its infrastructure business.

The deal, expected to close in early 2026, covers Interop Labs’ personnel and proprietary intellectual property, while the Axelar Network, its foundation and the AXL token will remain independent and governed by the community.

Interop Labs is the initial developer of the Axelar Network, a decentralized interoperability network that supports crosschain messaging and asset transfers between blockchains. Circle said the team’s technology will be integrated into Circle’s Arc blockchain and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).

Another Axelar contributor, Common Prefix, will take over Interop Labs’ previous development responsibilities to maintain continuity on the open-source network.

According to Circle, the acquisition is expected to speed up interoperability for assets issued on Arc, enhance developer tools for multichain applications, and support the development of Circle-built products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Circle issues USDC (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, accounting for roughly 25% of the $310 billion global stablecoin market, according to DefiLlama data.

In January, Circle acquired Hashnote, the issuer of the tokenized money market fund US Yield Coin, bringing one of the largest yield-bearing real-world asset products into its stablecoin and infrastructure business.

Related: Paxos, Ripple, Circle and others secure US trust bank approvals

Stablecoin issuers have increasingly used acquisitions in 2025 to expand their businesses.

Source: CoinTelegraph