Gas Sponsorship Meets Chain Abstraction: Funding Exec Across Networks

Quick Overview

In 2025, gas sponsorship and chain abstraction are coming together in a big way. Thanks to Pectra’s EIP-7702, ERC-7677 paymaster services, and stablecoin paymasters like Circle’s USDC, you can now fund users’ transactions across various chains all from one treasury, making the user experience feel as simple as it is with web2. This post provides decision-makers with a solid blueprint, architecture details, and some of the best practices that are emerging to help you roll this out smoothly.

Who this is for

• Product and engineering heads at both startups and larger companies looking into cross‑chain user experience
• Leaders of wallet, payments, or growth teams who are gearing up for gasless onboarding and expanding across multiple chains

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Why 2025 is the inflection point

• Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, also known as Prague × Electra, went live on May 7, 2025. This upgrade introduced EIP‑7702, which allows externally owned accounts (EOAs) to temporarily pass off execution to smart contract logic. This means that users can enjoy sponsored or abstracted gas flows without needing to switch wallets. You can read more about it on ethereum.org.
• With ERC‑7677, a cool new standard for “paymasterService” was established, allowing apps to share a paymaster URL with wallets. This lets the wallets use pm_getPaymasterStubData and pm_getPaymasterData to wrap up gas sponsorship. Major players like Base/CBP and Biconomy are already on board with this. Check it out on eips.ethereum.org.
• The concept of stablecoin paymasters has made the leap from theory to reality! Circle Paymaster now lets users pay for gas using USDC, with fees waived until June 30, 2025, and only 10% fees after that. It’s got support across platforms like Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon PoS, and Unichain, plus clear EOA support through 7702. For more details, head over to circle.com.
• And let's not forget about the progress in chain-abstracted execution! NEAR Chain Signatures are set to launch on the mainnet in 2024, with an EdDSA expansion to follow on April 30, 2025. This will allow smart contracts to sign transactions across Bitcoin, Solana, TON, Sui, Aptos, EVMs, and more. It's a solid step toward enabling chain-abstracted relayers and cross-chain sponsorship. You can dive deeper into this on pages.near.org.

The outcome is pretty cool: you can create a single “gas tank” that funds user actions across different networks, all without having to deal with specific user experiences for each chain.

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Quick definitions (2025 edition)

• Gas sponsorship: Basically, a third party steps in to cover all or part of a user’s gas fees. If you're on EVM, it's handled through ERC‑4337 Paymasters and Bundlers. For non‑EVM and cross-chain setups, relayers take care of the destination gas and get reimbursed through fees or credits. You can dive deeper here.
• Chain abstraction: This nifty concept allows users and app logic to work “as if one chain” by unifying accounts, assets, and execution across different networks. There are various ways to achieve this, like using smart-wallet AA combined with intents or through protocol-level systems like NEAR Chain Signatures or Particle’s Universal Accounts. Check it out here.
• EIP‑7702 (Pectra): This one lets Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) delegate transaction execution to contract code. It’s a practical way to make sponsorship work for old-school addresses, essentially introducing a native account abstraction. Learn more about it here.
• ERC‑7677: This defines a standard web-service API and wallet capability (paymasterService) for working with paymasters. It’s all about streamlining the interaction between wallets, bundlers, and infrastructure. More details can be found here.

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Three production‑ready architectures for “funding exec across networks”

1) EVM smart‑wallet AA: ERC‑4337 + ERC‑7677 paymasters

Best when your focus is mostly on EVM chains.

• Components:
  • Smart accounts (4337) or EOAs delegated via 7702
  • A bundler that submits UserOperations to the EntryPoint
  • Paymaster (using the verifying paymaster pattern) that covers gas fees or accepts ERC‑20 payments (like USDC) (docs.erc4337.io)
• Standard integration path:
  • The app kicks things off by calling wallet_sendCalls (EIP‑5792) with a paymasterService capability pointing to a compliant 7677 endpoint (think Coinbase Paymaster, Biconomy, or even your own in-house paymaster). The wallet will then grab some stub/final paymaster data via pm_getPaymasterStubData / pm_getPaymasterData. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Providers and details:
  • Coinbase Developer Platform (Base Account + Paymaster): Fully ERC‑7677 compliant, this one offers gas credits and works across multiple chains (just use paymasterUrl for networks other than Base). (docs.cdp.coinbase.com)
  • Biconomy: They’ve got sponsorship and Token Paymasters across a wide network, and they support 7677 (with EntryPoint v0.6 at a fixed address). (legacy-docs.biconomy.io)
  • Gelato Relay: You can sponsor via Gas Tank/1Balance; they support over 100 EVMs and even have documented cross-chain gasless swaps along with API-key-scoped policies. (docs.gelato.cloud)
  • Circle Paymaster (USDC): This one's a permissionless token paymaster that charges a 10% gas surcharge for end-users (but it's waived until June 30, 2025); it also supports EOAs through 7702. (circle.com)

What this unlocks in practice:

• “USDC-only” onboarding: Users just need to sign an EIP‑2612 permit; the paymaster takes a minimal amount of USDC to cover gas fees--no ETH is needed, even for those first-time deployments. Check it out here.
• EOA compatibility: Thanks to Pectra, 7702 allows EOAs to access paymasters without having to switch to a smart account. More details can be found here.

Check this out: Jumper Exchange has seen some serious action with 22k users wrapping up 44k gasless cross-chain swaps using Gelato Paymaster/Bundler by September 2025. The cool part? Sponsors are chipping in to fund a single Gas Tank for over 100 chains! You can read more about it here.

2) Cross‑chain message‑relay: pay once, execute elsewhere (CCIP/LayerZero)

It's especially useful when you need the action to wrap up on another chain and want to get a heads-up on the gas fees for that destination.

• With Chainlink's CCIP billing model, you can handle fees right from the source chain using LINK or any supported tokens, including some stablecoins. The system keeps an eye on destination gas prices, applying a multiplier along with a fixed network fee. Just remember to set a gasLimit for executing at the destination. The fee structure breaks down to the blockchain fee (which includes execution and data availability) plus the network fee. Check out more details here.
• FeeQuoter makes it super easy to get a handle on all the important parameters like destination gas overhead, gas per payload, gas multipliers, and data availability costs, which helps you nail down your budgeting and design your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) just right. Dive into the specifics here.
• LayerZero relayers start with a basic gas assumption; if your logic is a bit more complex, you can send over adapter parameters to allocate extra destination gas. Want to know more? Check it out here.

This setup is perfect for "sponsoring remote execution." Basically, your relayer takes care of the gas fees at the destination, and then you can settle everything later using your treasury logic and fee quotes.

3) Protocol‑level chain abstraction: contract signs and funds across ecosystems

Best when you want one contract or account to handle actions everywhere, even outside of EVM.

• NEAR Chain Signatures: This decentralized MPC network allows NEAR accounts (including contracts) to sign native transactions across EVM chains, Bitcoin, Solana, TON, Sui, Aptos, and more. With EdDSA support coming on April 30, 2025, the coverage gets even broader. Teams can create a chain-abstracted relayer that handles gas top-ups, sponsors transactions, and even recycles leftover funds, all in line with NEAR’s 2025 RFP. Check it out here: (docs.near.org)
• Particle Network: With Universal Accounts and Omnichain Paymaster, you can now recharge USDT on one chain and use it on any EVM chain. It’s all about having a single universal gas token and a seamless, chain-abstracted user experience. Pretty neat, right? Take a look: (globenewswire.com)

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A practical blueprint: one treasury, many chains

Here's a mid-market blueprint that we've tailored for various consumer apps and B2B wallets.

1) Pick Your Sponsorship Modality for Each Chain Family

• EVM L2s and Sidechains: Go for those 4337 smart accounts along with the ERC‑7677 paymaster. You can use Circle for USDC or Gelato/Biconomy for those sponsorship/token modes. Don't forget to enable EOA support with 7702 to keep everything wallet-compatible. (circle.com)
• Non‑EVM (like Solana, TON) and Bitcoin: For these, you'll want to route through NEAR Chain Signatures-based relayers or dedicated chain relayers. Just make sure to hold a limited inventory of native gas, and set up automatic top-ups based on your treasury policy. (docs.near.org)
• Cross‑chain Intent Execution: When you can pre-price and queue, it's best to stick with CCIP. Make sure to use FeeQuoter estimates so you can lock in those margins and SLAs. (docs.chain.link)

2) Normalize the App-to-Wallet Contract

• Use wallet_sendCalls (EIP‑5792) to batch calls together. Don’t forget to add paymasterService for the paymaster URL/context. Check out the Base/CBP reference docs to keep things consistent across wallets. Learn more here.

3) Fund a Stablecoin “Gas Tank”

• For the primary stablecoin, consider using USDC with either Circle Paymaster (in token mode) or Gelato’s 1Balance. This way, you can easily sponsor transactions across multiple chains from a single balance. Plus, you can set up contract/function allowlists right at the service level. Check out the details here: (docs.gelato.cloud).
• When it comes to policies, think about introducing per-user and per-chain quotas, daily spending limits, and rate caps in your paymaster rules based on the 4337 design patterns. It's all laid out nicely here: (docs.erc4337.io).

4) Get Your Risk and Reputation Controls in Place Early

• Make sure you stick to the ERC‑7562 validation rules: cap your validation gas, steer clear of those disallowed opcodes in validation, and keep your paymaster context in check. Don't forget to stake your paymaster to unlock those shared-state reads, and make sure you're in line with the bundler reputation and throttling windows. You can find more details here.
• It's a good idea to update to the latest EntryPoint version (v0.7/0.8) and patch your stack. There have been some real paymaster-abuse vectors that were sorted out in 2025. Check out the specifics here.

1. Keep an eye on, balance out, and reuse

• Keep tabs on gas deltas for each chain, along with any refunds and leftover credits. For CCIP, check in on the gas multiplier, DA fees, and network fees compared to the quotes; for Gelato, watch over 1Balance usage and how you’re scoping your API keys. (docs.chain.link)

6) UX Details That Matter

• Let’s make “USDC pays gas” the default on eligible chains. For those first-time users and recovery processes, we can keep it simple by falling back on sponsor-pays. Also, it would be great to have passkeys or social login as the go-to option. Trust Wallet's SWIFT and Coinbase Smart Wallet really show us how smooth and user-friendly things can be. Check it out for yourself here: chainwire.org.

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Concrete examples you can ship this quarter

• Gasless cross‑chain swaps: Think Jumper + Gelato. With a single Gas Tank in place, users can bridge and swap without ever having to hunt down gas for the destination. Over 44k gasless transactions as of September 15, 2025, show that this setup holds up really well when lots of users jump in. (gelato.cloud)
• Gasless airdrops across chains: Connext is leveraging Gelato’s sponsoredCall, which fuels a central 1Balance; Gelato has ramped up to handle 1,000 relay requests per minute for claims on each chain. Pretty impressive, right? (gelato.cloud)
• USDC‑only onboarding: Circle Paymaster is on it, covering gas fees in USDC (and they’ve waived the fee until June 30, 2025). They’re using permit‑based first‑use account deployments, so you can skip native tokens altogether. After Pectra, EOAs will be able to use this route via 7702. Sweet! (developers.circle.com)
• Omnichain top‑ups: Particle’s Omnichain Paymaster is making waves, reporting over 500k UserOperations sponsored in just a month. You can deposit USDT on one chain and sponsor it on another--super convenient for global campaigns! (blog.particle.network)
• Chain‑abstracted relayer pilot: NEAR’s 2025 RFP has an exciting proposal for a relayer that can accept base tokens or major stablecoins, auto‑top balancing, and team up with Biconomy/Gelato. This could really pave the way for smooth multi‑chain gas abstraction. (pages.near.org)

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Security, compliance, and SRE notes (don’t skip)

• ERC‑7562 Discipline: Make sure your 4337 entities (like factory, paymaster, and aggregators) stick to the validation scope and gas limits. If not, bundlers might throttle or even ban your operations. It's crucial to keep an eye on your reputation and steer clear of dynamic context sizes. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Paymaster Hardening:
  • Embed and verify signed off-chain policies on-chain (think sender, call hash, deadline, and quota).
  • Use short-lived user whitelists and rolling quotas for incoming cohorts.
  • Have a fallback unauthenticated paymaster ready for emergencies only. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Provider Safety:
  • Rotate your sponsor API keys and limit their scope to specific contracts/functions per chain (Gelato sponsor keys can help with that restriction). (docs.gelato.cloud)
  • Make use of allowlists on your CDP Paymaster and use credits wisely. (docs.cdp.coinbase.com)
• Incident Readiness:
  • If a paymaster or bundler runs into issues, switch to token-pay mode (like USDC) or have a backup sponsor ready; also, keep gas buffers for critical calls per chain.
  • Keep tabs on mempool acceptance and test things out with simulateValidation. Plus, don’t forget to use the latest EntryPoint to catch any fixes. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Cross‑Chain Fee Estimation: When working with CCIP, always set the gasLimit with some extra room. Watch out for multipliers and check network fee tables; DA fees might kick in on certain L2s. (docs.chain.link)

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Cost modeling: what finance will ask

• ERC‑4337 Sponsorship
  • The USDC token payment via Circle Paymaster comes with a 10% surcharge, but don't sweat it--it’s waived until June 30, 2025! This makes managing your treasury and user support way easier. Check it out here: (circle.com).
  • With Gelato 1Balance, you can centralize your deposits for USDC on Polygon and use CCTP for multi-chain transactions. Your operational costs will be basically the base gas on the destination plus the relay fee, so make sure to negotiate those volume tiers. More info can be found here: (docs.gelato.cloud).
• CCIP
  • When it comes to fees, you'll need to account for the blockchain fee (execution + data availability) and a network fee that’s in USD. For execution costs, it breaks down like this: gas price multiplied by (gas limit + destination overhead + per-payload bytes + token-transfer gas) times the gas multiplier. Want to get a clearer picture? Use FeeQuoter to forecast costs per lane/token. Check out the details here: (docs.chain.link).
• Inventory
  • Aim to keep about 2-3 days' worth of runway in USDC for sponsor balances. It’s smart to set alerts at 30%, 15%, and 5% thresholds. And don’t forget to lock in daily spending caps for each chain and campaign!

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Emerging best practices we recommend in 2025

• Let’s get the app and wallet contract on the same page by standardizing with EIP‑5792. Make sure to query wallet_getCapabilities, pass in paymasterService, and keep those ABI attachments (EIP‑7896) around for decoding in the wallets that support it. Check it out here: (eips.ethereum.org).
• We should incorporate 7702 into the onboarding process. If a user has an EOA, we can delegate execution just once to set up sponsorship and batching without making them create a whole new account type. For more details, take a look at this: (ethereum.org).
• For the user experience, it’s best to lean towards stablecoin-funded gas tanks. Let’s default to USDC token-pay (thanks to Circle Paymaster), but we can easily switch to sponsor-pay for any tricky situations. More info can be found here: (circle.com).
• When it comes to cross-chain actions with clear-cut steps, opting for CCIP makes billing a lot cleaner and ensures delivery guarantees. If that’s not an option, we can use AA relayers like Gelato or Biconomy, along with signed policy gates. Dive deeper here: (docs.chain.link).
• If we need to interact with Bitcoin, Solana, or TON within the product, let’s go for chain-abstracted relayers. Using NEAR Chain Signatures or Particle Universal Accounts can help cut down on the number of keys we have to manage and streamline execution. Check out this link for more insight: (docs.near.org).

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Implementation snippet: 5792 + 7677 (app → wallet → paymaster)

Minimal Example: Requesting Sponsorship from a 7677 Service in a Batched Call

In this example, we’ll walk through how your dApp can request sponsorship from a 7677 service while handling a batched call. It’s pretty straightforward, so let’s dive in!

Code Example

Here’s a simple snippet to illustrate the process:

async function requestSponsorship() {
    const batchCall = [
        {
            method: "methodOne",
            params: [param1, param2],
        },
        {
            method: "methodTwo",
            params: [param3],
        },
    ];

    try {
        const response = await someDAppFunctionToExecuteBatch(batchCall);
        console.log('Batch call response:', response);
        
        const sponsorshipRequest = {
            request: {
                method: "requestSponsorship",
                serviceId: "7677",
                details: "Sponsorship for executing batched calls",
            },
        };

        const sponsorshipResponse = await someSponsorshipFunction(sponsorshipRequest);
        console.log('Sponsorship response:', sponsorshipResponse);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error during batch call or sponsorship request:', error);
    }
}

Breakdown of the Code

1. Batch Call Definition: We set up an array of calls we want to make, each with its method and parameters. You can customize this part based on your dApp’s needs.
2. Executing the Batch Call: We use a function like someDAppFunctionToExecuteBatch() to run the batch. If everything goes well, we’ll get a response which we log to the console.
3. Sponsorship Request: After executing the batch call, we create a sponsorship request specific to the 7677 service. The details field is where you can add any specifics about why you need sponsorship.
4. Handling Errors: We wrap everything in a try-catch block to catch any issues that might pop up during the batch call or the sponsorship request. If there’s an error, we log it for easier debugging.

Conclusion

And that’s pretty much it! With this minimal example, you can see how to request sponsorship from a 7677 service during a batched call in your dApp. Just customize the method names and parameters to suit your own implementation. Happy coding!

// 1) Ask wallet for capabilities (should include paymasterService support)
const caps = await provider.request({ method: 'wallet_getCapabilities' });

// 2) Send batched calls with a paymasterService capability
const res = await provider.request({
  method: 'wallet_sendCalls',
  params: [{
    version: '2.0.0',
    from: userAddress,
    chainId: '0x2105', // Base mainnet example
    atomicRequired: true,
    calls: [{ to: target, data, value: '0x0' }],
    capabilities: {
      paymasterService: {
        url: 'https://your-erc7677-paymaster.example/api',
        context: { policyId: 'my-policy-v1' }
      }
    }
  }]
});

This tells the wallet to grab pm_getPaymasterStubData first for a quick estimation, then move on to pm_getPaymasterData to get the final UserOperation fields, and send it all off to a bundler--no need for the user to provide any native gas. (eips.ethereum.org)

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Brief case study: designing a cross‑chain checkout

Goal: A User on Base Buys a Polygon NFT Without Any Gas Juggling

Alright, here's what we're aiming for: helping a user on Base snag a Polygon NFT without the hassle of gas juggling. Let's break it down step by step!

What You Need to Know

Base is a layer-2 network built on Ethereum, and it’s designed to make transactions smoother and cheaper. Polygon, on the other hand, is a popular scaling solution that enhances Ethereum’s capabilities.

Steps to Purchase a Polygon NFT

1. Set Up Your Wallet
   First, you need a crypto wallet that supports both Base and Polygon. If you haven’t got one yet, wallets like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet are great options.
2. Acquire Some ETH
   You’ll need to have some ETH handy for your transaction. You can buy ETH from exchanges like Coinbase or Binance.
3. Bridge ETH to Base
   To buy an NFT on Base, you'll want to bridge your ETH over. Use a bridging service like the Base Bridge to transfer your ETH smoothly.
4. Connect to a Marketplace
   Head over to an NFT marketplace that supports Polygon, such as OpenSea or Rarible. Make sure you’re connected to your wallet.
5. Buy Your NFT
   Browse through the NFTs and find one that catches your eye. When you're ready to buy, just click the purchase button. Since it’s on Base, you won’t have to stress about gas fees juggling around!

Final Thoughts

And there you go! With these steps, you can easily grab a Polygon NFT on Base without the headache of managing gas fees. Happy collecting!

• Path A (pure AA): So, here’s the deal: your app is using 5792 and 7677. Circle Paymaster takes care of gas fees in USDC on both Base (approval/sign) and Polygon (minting). The treasury is the one holding onto the USDC--so users don’t have to deal with any native gas themselves. Just a heads up, starting post-June 30, 2025, you'll want to add a 10% surcharge to your pricing. Check it out on circle.com.
• Path B (message relay): In this setup, the app locks up assets on Base, then sends a CCIP programmable token transfer along with mdata to Polygon with an adequate gasLimit. The CCIP quotes will cover the network fees and DA (that’s destination address for you). Once everything arrives, the contract mints the tokens. Want more details? Head over to docs.chain.link.
• Path C (chain-abstracted relayer): Here, we have a NEAR contract handling the whole operation, signing Polygon transactions through Chain Signatures. Your relayer is responsible for topping off the gas stables across different chains based on your policy. If you’re curious about how this all goes down, take a look at docs.near.org.

We usually kick things off with Path A to get to market quickly. Once that's in place, we bring in Path B to ensure we've got clear and reliable flows and settlements.

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Pitfalls we’ve seen (and how to dodge them)

• “It works on testnet but stalls on mainnet”: If your paymaster validation is messing with external state or changing the context size, bundlers are likely to drop you according to ERC‑7562 rules. Keep your validation straightforward and consistent; stake with entities that require shared state. (eips.ethereum.org)
• “Sponsored tx are draining budgets”: Set up function-level allowlists and per-user limits at the paymaster service; don’t forget to rotate those sponsor API keys and set up alerts for any weird activity. (docs.gelato.cloud)
• “EOA users can’t do gasless”: Make sure to enable 7702 paths in your wallet integrations. A lot of wallets and infrastructure are on board with 7702 since Pectra rolled out. (ethereum.org)
• “Cross‑chain exec reverted due to gas”: When using CCIP, not estimating the gasLimit properly or overlooking DA on L2s can lead to failures. To avoid this, use FeeQuoter and add some extra headroom; keep an eye on those multipliers. (docs.chain.link)
• “Vendor lock‑in”: Embrace the open 7677 paymasterService flow. This way, you can switch up providers (like CDP, Biconomy, Gelato, Circle) without having to make any app changes. (eips.ethereum.org)

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A short checklist to green‑light your program

• Go ahead and use EIP‑5792 for those batched calls, and don’t forget to pass in paymasterService. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Make sure we support 7702 for EOAs and run some tests with Pectra‑enabled wallets. (ethereum.org)
• Decide whether to use token‑pay (USDC) or sponsor‑pay for each chain; we’ll need to set up those allowlists and quotas. (circle.com)
• Set up some observability for the CCIP FeeQuoter diffs, paymaster balances, and bundler acceptance rate. (docs.chain.link)
• Make sure to pass ERC‑7562 simulations in CI; let’s keep that validation both deterministic and staked where necessary. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Start with a small pilot group and then scale up once the mempool reputation levels out.

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Where 7Block Labs can help

• Design: Find the perfect blend of 4337/7702, CCIP, and chain-abstracted relayers that suit your business needs.
• Build: Set up ERC-7677 paymaster services, policy engines, and treasury pipelines.
• Operate: Use SRE playbooks for mempool acceptance, switch to secondary sponsors when needed, and handle cross-chain reconciliation.

If you're looking for a more in-depth technical plan or want to kick off a pilot in the next 4 to 6 weeks, we can definitely pull in some reference implementations and connect you with providers.

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Sources and further reading

• Pectra, which is a mix of Prague and Electra, was shipped out on May 7, 2025, and it includes EIP‑7702. Check it out here!
• We’ve got the scoop on ERC‑7677 and the Base wallet capability docs, plus details on the EIP‑5792 Wallet Call API. Dive into the info here!
• Circle Paymaster is now offering USDC as gas, along with some info on fees and chain support. Get the details here!
• Gelato Relay has your back with SponsoredCall (ERC‑2771) and 1Balance, plus some insightful case studies. Learn more here!
• Curious about Biconomy Paymaster? They've got various modes and network coverage that you should check out. All the details are here!
• Chainlink’s got a new billing model for CCIP and FeeQuoter references; you can find all the juicy details here!
• NEAR Chain Signatures are live on the mainnet with EdDSA expansion, along with a relayer RFP that’s chain-abstracted. Find out more here!