Bridging Ethereum Assets to Osmosis: A Guide to the Axelar Interface
This guide will explain how to bring Ethereum assets into Osmosis with our canonical EVM bridge, Axelar. This is a temporary process that will be much simpler once Axelar is more deeply integrated into the Osmosis user interface.
For the moment, the available assets are WETH, USDC, DAI, and WBTC. USDT can be bridged through Osmosis Frontier. (Other assets can be bridged with the CLI, but there will be little to no liquidity on Osmosis, and if you need this guide, that black magic is probably not for you.) Further assets and chains are coming soon.
This guide assumes that you have an account and bridgeable funds on Ethereum, or that you know how to set this up. If not, see this guide to using Metamask.
1. Start on the Osmosis ASSETS page.
2. Click on the “Deposit” button of the asset you want to bridge: USDC (Axelar), WETH (Axelar), WBTC (Axelar), or DAI (Axelar). For this example, we will use USDC. Clicking Deposit opens Axelar Satellite in a new tab in your browser.
Note: For now, ETH must be converted/wrapped to WETH in order to be bridged.
3. In Axelar Satellite, click “Confirm” on Satellite’s Beta notification.
At this point, if you want to familiarize yourself with the Axelar bridging process, click the provided Testnet button, and try some risk-free bridging.
4. Ignore the options to transfer coins from and to different chains. (These are functional, but these steps are meant to be as error-proof as possible.)
5. Click “Connect Wallet” at the top right of your screen. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll connect Keplr first, though the order does not matter.
- Click “Keplr Wallet” from the “Select Wallets” menu.
- If you haven’t before, approve satellite.money through the Keplr “Requesting Connection” dialogue that pops up.
- Then, click Metamask from the “Select Wallets” screen.
- If you haven’t before, select which account(s) in your Metamask you want to hook up to Axelar, and hit “Next.” Then hit “Connect.”
- Metamask and Keplr should now both be connected. Hit done on the “Select Wallets” screen.
6. You will be back on the initial menu. The top box should say, “Source chain: Ethereum — USDC” and the bottom box should say, “Destination chain — Osmosis.”
A smaller box underneath these two boxes indicates the “Relayer Gas Fee” denominated in your chosen asset. It also gives the “Total Approximate Wait Time.” More information about fees and wait times is available in the Axelar docs.
7. A final smaller box under the Fee and Wait Time box asks you to “Enter Destination Address.” DO NOT type in here unless you are an expert. Instead, click the button under the box that says “Autofill from: Keplr” Note: If you have multiple Keplr accounts, be sure to be connected to the one want to use. (The selected chain does not matter.)
- The Keplr “Requesting Connection” dialogue will pop up again indicating that satellite.money wants to connect to your osmosis-1 account (unless you have already connected it). Click “Approve.”
Your destination wallet address should now be correctly filled out. If you like, check the address against your Osmosis wallet address. If it is not the account you want, you may need to change which Keplr account you are connected to.
8. If everything looks correct, click “Initiate Transfer,” and a new Axelar dialogue window will open. It has 3 steps.
Step 1 (generating a deposit address on Ethereum) should complete automatically. You should not have to do anything.
Step 2 requires you to click the Metamask button. When you do, you will see two boxes: a fillable one for the amount you wish to send, and a second informational box about the Fee, your actual Ethereum address (not the deposit address), and the amount of funds in your selected token that are available to be transferred.
If you do not have funds in that account, you will have to fund it, through MetaMask, another fiat on-ramp, or a centralized exchange.
9. Click “Send” and a Metamask transaction confirmation will pop up. Always check the gas fee (which you can double-check against Etherscan). However, gas should be minimal because you are just approving an Ethereum “send” transaction, one of the cheapest things you can do on the network. Click “Confirm” (or “Reject” to cancel), and your bridging transaction be set in motion. Now you just have to wait.
10. The Metamask send transaction will go to the newly created deposit address. You will see the number of block confirmations counting up to 40. Once it gets to 40, the Axelar validators will recognize the deposit and send it to the Osmosis address that you provided (or which Keplr auto-filled). Wait a few more moments, and your deposit will be finalized, and you’ll be able to see and use your new assets on Osmosis.
Congratulations! You just bridged. You now have (Axelar wrapped) canonical Ethereum assets on Osmosis to use as you see fit.
If you have any trouble with the process, please reach out. Our 24/7 support staff is available on Telegram, Twitter, Discord, or Reddit. For a non-Osmosis-specific guide to Axelar Satellite, see their tutorial video.
