Axelar Connects Solana to 70+ Blockchains on Mainnet

Axelar's Solana integration went live on mainnet on June 3, 2026, opening connections between Solana and more than 70 blockchains supported by Axelar's network, including Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Sui, Stellar, and Hedera. The launch brings two core Axelar primitives to Solana developers and users: General Message Passing (GMP) for arbitrary cross-chain smart contract interactions, and the Interchain Token Service (ITS) for multi-chain token deployment and transfer.

Three ecosystem partners (Stronghold, SaucerSwap, and Squid Router) went live on the integration the same day.

What GMP and ITS Actually Enable

The two protocols address different layers of cross-chain connectivity.

GMP lets Solana applications send arbitrary messages to smart contracts on any Axelar-connected chain and receive messages back. Where most bridges move assets, GMP moves instructions: a Solana application can call a function on an Ethereum contract, trigger a governance action on Sui, or interact with Hedera infrastructure without users leaving the Solana environment. According to the Axelar mainnet announcement, developer documentation for GMP contracts on Solana is live alongside the integration itself.

ITS handles the token layer. It lets teams deploy a token natively on one chain and extend it to others without wrapping through a canonical bridge; the token retains its identity across chains and moves through Axelar's network via the ITS infrastructure. That distinction matters for projects like Stronghold, a payments platform that launched its $SHx token on Stellar and is now extending it to Solana through ITS rather than minting a separate wrapped version.

Day-One Partners

The three launch partners each reflect a different use case for the integration.

Stronghold, a payments infrastructure platform originally built on Stellar, is using ITS to extend its $SHx token to Solana. The token-extension model means Stronghold's existing payments infrastructure stays on Stellar while $SHx gains access to Solana's liquidity and user base without a bridge wrapping event.

SaucerSwap is the leading decentralized exchange on Hedera. The Axelar integration lets SaucerSwap route assets originating on Solana into its liquidity pools, and gives Solana users access to Hedera-native liquidity through a single interface. SaucerSwap was also a day-one partner on Axelar's Hedera integration in February 2026, making Solana a continuation of that relationship rather than a new direction.

Squid Router, the cross-chain liquidity and routing layer built within the Axelar ecosystem, supports Solana asset transfers from launch via app.squidrouter.com. Squid Router aggregates liquidity across Axelar-connected chains and handles routing complexity so users get single-transaction cross-chain swaps. Users can also access the integration directly through Axelar's bridging interface at app.axelar.network.

Part of a Non-EVM Expansion Arc

Solana is the latest step in a deliberate expansion Axelar has been running across non-EVM ecosystems. Axelar connected Hedera on February 24, 2026, describing that integration as part of a focus on "strategically important institutional ecosystems." Stellar joined before Hedera. Solana, the most active non-EVM chain in the Axelar network's new additions, rounds out a set of major alternative execution environments now accessible through a single interoperability layer.

The pattern reflects Axelar's 2026 roadmap, which has emphasized institutional adoption and connecting ecosystems with different technical architectures rather than staying within the EVM-only lane that most cross-chain protocols have historically occupied.

Circle's Role in the Stack

The development comes after Circle USDC$1.000+0.0% announced on December 15, 2025, that it had signed an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and their proprietary intellectual property. Interop Labs had been the primary developer of Axelar Network since its founding.

The Axelar Network, Foundation, and AXL token continue to operate independently under community governance; Circle acquired the team and proprietary IP, not the protocol itself. Common Prefix, another Axelar contributor, assumed Interop Labs' development responsibilities.

Circle's stated rationale for the acquisition was accelerating its Arc interoperability platform and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), the same infrastructure that underpins USDC's multichain settlement. "Bringing the Interop Labs team into Circle will accelerate the Arc and CCTP roadmaps toward building the hub for multichain internet finance," Circle's chief product officer Nikhil Chandhok said at the time. Sergey Gorbunov, Interop Labs' CEO, described the combination as laying "the groundwork for the next era of crosschain finance."

That context shapes what Axelar's Solana integration represents in the broader landscape: Axelar's GMP and ITS infrastructure now sit inside the same corporate umbrella as CCTP and USDC. Solana, already a major USDC chain, is getting access to both the stablecoin settlement layer and the general-purpose messaging layer through affiliated infrastructure.

Building on Axelar's Solana GMP and ITS

Developers can integrate through Axelar's published documentation for Solana GMP contracts and ITS, which went live alongside the mainnet integration. The Axelar developer docs cover the Solana-specific contract interfaces. End users moving assets can do so via app.axelar.network or through Squid Router.