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What is Axelar?

Axelar is a decentralized interoperability network that lets blockchains communicate and transfer assets with each other. It runs its own proof-of-stake chain, where a decentralized set of 57 active validators verify cross-chain messages and reach consensus before anything is executed on the destination chain. This architecture means there is no single trusted relayer — security comes from the validator set itself. For developers building on Hedera, Axelar exposes two main capabilities:
  • Interchain Token Service (ITS): A mint/burn bridge that lets you deploy tokens across 83 connected chains, or register an existing token so it can move freely between Hedera and any other Axelar-connected network.
  • General Message Passing (GMP): A protocol for calling arbitrary functions on contracts deployed on other chains — enabling cross-chain governance, NFT marketplaces, gaming, and more.

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Overview of Axelar and HTS Compatibility

Axelar’s ITS is designed to work with Hedera Token Service (HTS) tokens natively. When a new Interchain Token is deployed on Hedera, ITS creates an HTS token rather than a standard ERC-20. This means the token is a first-class citizen on Hedera — it appears in wallets, is visible on HashScan, and benefits from HTS’s built-in compliance features. That said, HTS has architectural differences from ERC-20 that affect how ITS behaves on Hedera. The most important ones are covered in the Developer Considerations section below.

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Getting Started with Axelar on Hedera

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Key Components

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Interchain Token Service (ITS)

ITS is the primary way to bridge tokens to and from Hedera using Axelar. It supports two main flows: a no-code portal for simple deployments and a programmatic workflow for developers.

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ITS Portal (No-Code)

The ITS Portal provides a web interface for both deploying new tokens and registering existing ones. The steps for bridging an existing Ethereum token to Hedera are:
  1. Connect your wallet and enter your token’s address on the source chain (e.g., Ethereum mainnet).
  2. Register the token with ITS on the source chain.
  3. Select Hedera as the destination chain and deploy the token representation.
  4. Your token is now bridgeable between Ethereum and Hedera, and automatically listed on Squid for cross-chain swaps.

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Programmatic ITS Workflow (CLI)

For developers who need more control, the axelar-contract-deployments repository provides CLI scripts to manage the entire ITS lifecycle. The following is a verified workflow for deploying a new HTS-backed Interchain Token from Hedera to other chains. Prerequisites:
  • A Hedera testnet account with HBAR.
  • The axelar-contract-deployments repo cloned locally.
Step 1: Prepare the Hedera Account (Wrap HBAR & Approve) First, wrap some HBAR into WHBAR and approve the InterchainTokenFactory to spend it. This is required to pay the HTS token creation fee. 
# Deposit HBAR and convert to WHBAR
# Note the plural --chainNames flag
node hedera/fund-whbar.js <YOUR_EVM_ADDRESS> --chainNames hedera --amount 40

# Approve the InterchainTokenFactory to spend your WHBAR
node hedera/approve-factory-whbar.js --chainName hedera --amount max
Step 2: Deploy the Interchain Token on Hedera This command creates the new HTS token on Hedera. Note that initialSupply must be 0. 
ts-node evm/interchainTokenFactory.js --action deployInterchainToken \
  --minter <YOUR_EVM_ADDRESS> \
  --name "My Interchain Token" \
  --symbol "MIT" \
  --decimals 8 \
  --salt "any-unique-salt-123" \
  --initialSupply 0 \
  -n hedera
This will output the tokenId and the Hedera tokenAddress (e.g., 0x00...0069d5A1). Step 3: Associate Your Account with the New Token Before you can mint or receive the new token, your account must be associated with it. 
ts-node hedera/associate-token.js <HEDERA_TOKEN_ADDRESS>
Step 4: Deploy the Token to a Remote Chain Now, deploy a canonical representation of your token to another chain, like Avalanche. 
ts-node evm/interchainTokenFactory.js --action deployRemoteInterchainToken \
  --destinationChain Avalanche \
  --salt "any-unique-salt-123" \
  --gasValue 10000000 \
  -y -n hedera
Chain Name Casing: When using the CLI, the destination chain name must be the exact axelarId from the axelar-chains-config repository (e.g., Avalanche, Polygon). However, when calling GMP contracts directly, the chain name must be lowercase (e.g., avalanche, polygon).
Step 5: Mint, Approve, and Transfer Once deployed, you can mint new tokens on Hedera, approve the TokenManager to spend them, and perform an interchain transfer. 
# Mint new tokens to your account
ts-node evm/its.js mint-token <TOKEN_ID> <YOUR_EVM_ADDRESS> 100000000 -y -n hedera

# Approve the TokenManager to spend them
ts-node evm/its.js approve <TOKEN_ID> <TOKEN_MANAGER_ADDRESS> 100000000 -y -n hedera

# Transfer tokens from Hedera to Avalanche
ts-node evm/its.js interchain-transfer Avalanche <TOKEN_ID> <RECIPIENT_ADDRESS> 1 --gasValue 1000000000 -y -n hedera

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General Message Passing (GMP)

GMP lets a smart contract on Hedera call a function on a contract deployed on any other Axelar-connected chain, and vice versa. Contract Addresses
NetworkGatewayGas Service
Testnet0xe432150cce91c13a887f7D836923d5597adD8E310xbE406F0189A0B4cf3A05C286473D23791Dd44Cc6
Mainnet0xe432150cce91c13a887f7D836923d5597adD8E310x2d5d7d31F671F86C782533cc367F14109a082712
Example: Sending a message from Hedera to Avalanche The following example uses foundry cast to send a message from a contract on Hedera testnet to a contract on Avalanche Fuji. 
# Send a message from Hedera to the DestLogger contract on Avalanche
# Note the lowercase "avalanche" and the --value flag for gas
cast send <SourceMessenger_address> \
  "sendMessage(string,string,string)" "avalanche" "<DestLogger_address>" "hello from hedera" \
  --rpc-url https://testnet.hashio.io/api \
  --private-key $HEDERA_KEY \
  --value 1ether
The --value parameter is mandatory for all GMP calls. It pays the Axelar gas fee for the cross-chain execution. Any overpaid amount is automatically refunded. You can estimate the required fee at: https://testnet.api.axelarscan.io/gas-payment/gas-fee/{sourceChain}/{destinationChain}.

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Developer Considerations & Known Issues

HTS has several architectural differences from ERC-20 that affect how Axelar ITS and GMP behave on Hedera. Review these carefully before building.

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Token Creation Fee and WHBAR

Creating a new HTS token requires a fee paid in HBAR. Because ITS contracts are EVM-based and cannot hold HBAR directly, the ITS implementation on Hedera uses Wrapped HBAR (WHBAR) to pay this fee. When deploying a new Interchain Token on Hedera, you must ensure the deploying account has sufficient WHBAR approved for the InterchainTokenFactory contract.

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No Initial Supply on Deploy

Deploying a new Interchain Token with an initial supply is not currently supported on Hedera. This is because an account must be explicitly associated with an HTS token before it can receive a balance.

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Non-Deterministic HTS Token Addresses

Unlike ERC-20 tokens, HTS tokens do not have addresses derived from the deployer’s address and nonce. After deploying a new Interchain Token on Hedera, retrieve its address by calling IInterchainTokenService(its).registeredTokenAddress(tokenId);.

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Token Association Requirement

Before any account or contract can receive an HTS token, it must be associated with that token. If your contract needs to receive ITS tokens, it must implement the InterchainTokenExecutable interface and associate itself with the token, for example: 
function associateWithToken(address tokenAddress_) external {
    IHRC719(tokenAddress_).associate();
}

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Unsupported Token Key Types

ITS does not support HTS tokens that have the kycKey, wipeKey, freezeKey, or pauseKey set. An adminKey can be used to update existing keys, but it cannot add new keys if they were not defined when the token was created.

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Maximum Supply

The maximum supply for an HTS token is 2^63 − 1, which is significantly smaller than the 2^256 − 1 maximum for standard ERC-20 tokens.

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gasLimit Workaround for Remote Deployment

When using Hardhat or a similar framework to call deployRemoteCanonicalInterchainToken programmatically, you may encounter a “cannot estimate gas” error. This is a known issue. The workaround is to manually specify a high gas limit in the transaction options: 
const tx = await interchainTokenFactoryContract[
    "deployRemoteCanonicalInterchainToken(address,string,uint256)"
  ](
    customTokenAddress,
    "Avalanche",
    gasAmount,
    { 
        value: gasAmount,
        gasLimit: 15_000_000 // Manual gas limit
    }
);

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Additional Resources

ResourceDescription
Axelar DocumentationFull Axelar developer documentation, including GMP and ITS guides
ITS PortalNo-code interface for deploying and managing Interchain Tokens
axelar-contract-deploymentsDeployment scripts and utilities for Hedera ITS contracts
Hedera ITS contracts (commonprefix fork)The Hedera-specific fork of the ITS contracts with HTS support
HashScan ExplorerHedera network explorer for verifying token deployments and transactions

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Summary

Axelar connects Hedera to a cross-chain ecosystem of 83 networks through two complementary protocols. ITS provides a no-code, mint/burn bridge for tokens, while GMP enables arbitrary cross-chain function calls. Because Hedera’s token model differs from EVM standards, working with Axelar on Hedera requires attention to HTS-specific details: token association, WHBAR for creation fees, non-deterministic addresses, and supply limits. The Developer Considerations section above covers each of these in detail. This complements the other interoperability solutions available on Hedera, including LayerZero and Chainlink CCIP.