Transaction times and fees
Squid currently charges no fees. The user will only pay gas fees on source and destination chains.
Squid plans on introducing the ability to charge fees via our SDK or API. Partners will be able to elect a % fee they would like to charge, and Squid will receive a portion of this fee. Contracts have been audited, but not deployed yet or integrated into our backend.
For transactions where there is a swap on the destination chain, fees are paid using the Native token on the source chain. This fee is paid to Axelar's relayers, who trustlessly pass messages and proofs across chains.
Axelar's relayers hold gas on every chain and provide a pricing API which Squid calls to get the expected gas price for a trade. For example if the destination trade will probably cost 50 cents of AVAX in gas, then Squid will instruct the user to pay Axelar's gas service 50 cents worth of Moonbeam, as per the pricing which Axelar gives our backend.
If there are no swaps on the destination chain, Axelar's network takes a flat fee out of the bridging token. Prices can be seen here.
If the cost of gas on the destination chain doubles while your cross chain transaction is being approved by Axelar, there is a chance you will either need to wait for the gas prices to lower again, or you will need to add gas to your transaction. The best way of doing this is by going to AxelarScan and searching for your transaction, using the transaction hash from the source chain. AxelarScan will show a call to action to "Add gas" where you can login with Metamask, or the relevant wallet, and help get your transaction to the finish line.
Squid also plans to expose the ability to add gas to a transaction by wrapping the Axelar SDK.
Transaction times are dependent on the underlying chains you are swapping between. But generally, you can expect:
- To Ethereum 30sec - 2min
- From Ethereum - 15-25min
We are working on a feature with the Axelar team to enable instant execution across chains:
Market makers will be able to optimistically execute a transaction on the destination chain, by providing axlUSDC on dest. Later, the transaction through Squid will check proof of this execution on arrival at the destination chain and repay the market maker instead of executing a second time. This will be available in the coming months.