BlockBeats News, December 16 — According to an official announcement, USDC issuer Circle has signed an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and their exclusive intellectual property rights. The acquisition is expected to be finalized in early 2026, with Circle aiming to contribute to the broader interoperability space, continuously exploring paths aligned with opportunities and the vision of an open, interconnected, and expanding blockchain economy. Interop Labs has always been one of the most advanced frameworks in cross-chain communication and token transfer, Axelar, and with the open-source community contributing increasingly to drive the core development of Axelar. By directly integrating the talent and technology of Interop Labs into Circle, the goal is to promote two core initiatives: first, Arc — a blockchain for enterprise by Circle, aiming to become the operating system for the internet economy; second, the cross-chain transfer protocol. It is important to clarify that this transaction only involves the Interop Labs team and their exclusive intellectual property rights. With this team joining Circle, the Axelar network, the AXL fund, and tokens will continue to operate independently under community governance, with open-source intellectual property rights remaining open. Other contributors to the Axelar project, Common Prefix, will take over related tasks formerly handled by Interop Labs.