Send Tokens Cross-Chain (Deprecated)

💡

Note: Transfering assets via sendToken() is deprecated. For gateway tokens it is recommended to use callContractWithToken() and for other tokens it is recommended to use the Interchain Token Service.

To send a token from an EVM source chain:

Locate the source chain’s Gateway contract address on either the mainnet or the testnet.

EVM chains use Axelar Gateway smart contracts to send tokens. These are application-layer smart contracts that send and receive payloads as well as monitor transaction state.

All Gateway contracts implement the IAxelarGateway interface, which has a public method called sendToken() that transfers tokens between chains:

function sendToken(
    string memory destinationChain,
    string memory destinationAddress,
    string memory symbol,
    uint256 amount
) external;

Transferring tokens through a Gateway is similar to doing a typical ERC-20 token transfer. You’ll need to call the source chain’s approve() method (inherited from the ERC-20 interface to allow the Gateway to transfer a specific token in a specific amount.

function approve(address spender, uint256 amount) external returns (bool);

spender is the source chain’s Gateway contract address on either the mainnet or the testnet.

Call sendToken() on the source chain’s Gateway contract to transfer the tokens. For example:

sendToken(
    "avalanche", // destination chain name
    "0xF16DfB26e1FEc993E085092563ECFAEaDa7eD7fD", // some destination wallet address (should be your own)
    "axlUSDC", // asset symbol, can be differ by chain, see above
    100000000 // amount (in atomic units)
)

Once you call sendToken(), watch for the tokens to appear at the address on the destination chain.

For Cosmos-based source chains, sendToken() is a simple IBC transfer of any asset supported on the Axelar network. The message is sent to the address axelar1dv4u5k73pzqrxlzujxg3qp8kvc3pje7jtdvu72npnt5zhq05ejcsn5qme5, which is the designated address on the Axelar network for receiving GMP messages, and includes a memo field with the following payload:

    {
      destination_chain,
      destination_address,
      payload: null,
      type: 3, // corresponds to the `sendToken` command on Axelar
    }

The AxelarJS SDK allows any frontend application to call sendToken() with one line of JS code.

import {
  AxelarAssetTransfer,
  CHAINS,
  Environment,
  SendTokenParams,
} from "@axelar-network/axelarjs-sdk";
import { ethers, Wallet } from "ethers";


const api = new AxelarAssetTransfer({ environment: Environment.TESTNET });


const getSigner = () => {
  const privateKey = PRIVATE_KEY;
  return new Wallet(privateKey);
};


async function test() {
  const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider(
    "https://api.avax-test.network/ext/bc/C/rpc",
  );
  const signer = getSigner().connect(provider);
  const requestOptions: SendTokenParams = {
    fromChain: CHAINS.TESTNET.AVALANCHE,
    toChain: CHAINS.TESTNET.OSMOSIS,
    destinationAddress: "osmo1x3z2vepjd7fhe30epncxjrk0lehq7xdqe8ltsn",
    asset: { symbol: "aUSDC" },
    amountInAtomicUnits: "5000000",
    options: {
      evmOptions: {
        signer,
        provider,
        txOptions: null as any,
        approveSendForMe: true,
      },
    },
  };
  return api.sendToken(requestOptions);
}
import {
  AxelarAssetTransfer,
  CHAINS,
  Environment,
  SendTokenParams,
} from "@axelar-network/axelarjs-sdk";
import { DirectSecp256k1HdWallet } from "@cosmjs/proto-signing";


const api = new AxelarAssetTransfer({ environment: Environment.TESTNET });


const getSigner = async () => {
  const mnemonic = MNEMONIC;
  return DirectSecp256k1HdWallet.fromMnemonic(mnemonic, { prefix: "osmo" });
};


async function test() {
  const offlineSigner = await getSigner();
  const requestOptions: SendTokenParams = {
    fromChain: CHAINS.TESTNET.OSMOSIS,
    toChain: CHAINS.TESTNET.AVALANCHE,
    destinationAddress: "0xB8Cd93C83A974649D76B1c19f311f639e62272BC",
    asset: {
      denom:
        "ibc/6F34E1BD664C36CE49ACC28E60D62559A5F96C4F9A6CCE4FC5A67B2852E24CFE",
    }, //aUSDC
    amountInAtomicUnits: "1000000",
    options: {
      cosmosOptions: {
        cosmosDirectSigner: offlineSigner,
        rpcUrl: "https://rpc.osmotest5.osmosis.zone",
        fee: {
          gas: "250000",
          amount: [{ denom: "uosmo", amount: "30000" }],
        },
      },
    },
  };
  return api.sendToken(requestOptions);
}

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