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Cross-chain Swaps

A cross-chain swap moves an asset from another chain, trades it on Osmosis, and (optionally) sends the result onward, ideally as a single user action rather than a manual bridge-then-swap. There are two ways to do this: a routing service that orchestrates it for you, and the underlying onchain primitive.

For most integrations, use Skip:Go. It is a routing API and SDK that plans and executes cross-chain transfers and swaps across IBC and other bridges, handling path-finding, the transfers, and the swap on Osmosis. It is the same routing layer the Osmosis frontend uses for cross-chain transfers, so building on it matches the production app's behavior.

Use Skip:Go when you want to:

  • Let a user swap an asset they hold on another chain into an Osmosis asset (or vice versa) without a separate manual bridge step.
  • Get a quote and route for a cross-chain trade and broadcast it from your app.

See the Skip:Go documentation for the API, SDK, and supported routes.

The underlying primitive: IBC hooks​

Cross-chain swaps are possible because of IBC hooks: an incoming IBC transfer can carry a memo that triggers a contract call on Osmosis when the tokens arrive, so the transfer and the swap happen atomically. This is the protocol-level mechanism that a routing service like Skip builds on top of.

If you need the low-level approach (constructing the memo and the contract call yourself rather than going through a routing service), see:

For a same-chain swap (no cross-chain leg), see Swap Integration. For how assets arrive over IBC in the first place, see IBC Channels.