Gas Sponsorship Meets Chain Abstraction: Funding Exec Across Networks

Concise summary: Gas sponsorship and chain abstraction are converging in 2025: with Pectra’s EIP-7702, ERC‑7677 paymaster services, stablecoin paymasters (like Circle’s USDC), and chain‑abstracted relayers, you can fund users’ transactions across multiple chains from a single treasury while keeping UX web2‑simple. This post gives decision‑makers a concrete blueprint, architectures, and emerging best practices to ship it safely.

Who this is for

• Product and engineering leaders at startups and enterprises evaluating cross‑chain UX
• Heads of wallet, payments, or growth teams planning gasless onboarding and multi‑chain expansion

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Why 2025 is the inflection point

• Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade (Prague × Electra) activated on May 7, 2025 and shipped EIP‑7702, letting EOAs temporarily delegate execution to smart‑contract logic—unlocking sponsored/abstracted gas flows without forcing users to migrate wallets. (ethereum.org)
• ERC‑7677 established a standard “paymasterService” capability so apps can hand wallets a paymaster URL; wallets then call

  pm_getPaymasterStubData

  /

  pm_getPaymasterData

  to finalize gas sponsorship. Major stacks (Base/CBP, Biconomy) implement it. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Stablecoin paymasters moved from idea to production: Circle Paymaster lets users pay gas in USDC (waived fees until June 30, 2025; 10% thereafter), with support across Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon PoS, and Unichain and explicit EOA support via 7702. (circle.com)
• Chain‑abstracted execution matured: NEAR Chain Signatures (mainnet 2024; EdDSA expansion Apr 30, 2025) enables smart contracts to sign transactions on Bitcoin, Solana, TON, Sui, Aptos, EVMs, etc.—a foundation for chain‑abstracted relayers and cross‑chain sponsorship. (pages.near.org)

The result: you can design one “gas tank” and fund user actions across networks, without shipping chain‑specific UX.

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Quick definitions (2025 edition)

• Gas sponsorship: A third party pays all or part of a user’s gas. On EVM, this is done via ERC‑4337 Paymasters and Bundlers; on non‑EVM and cross‑chain, relayers cover destination gas and are reimbursed via fees/credits. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Chain abstraction: Users/app logic operate “as if one chain,” with accounts, assets, and execution unified across networks. Approaches include smart‑wallet AA + intents and protocol‑level systems like NEAR Chain Signatures or Particle’s Universal Accounts. (docs.near.org)
• EIP‑7702 (Pectra): EOAs can delegate execution to contract code for a transaction—pragmatic native AA that makes sponsorship work for legacy addresses. (ethereum.org)
• ERC‑7677: Standard web‑service API and wallet capability (

  paymasterService

  ) for interacting with paymasters, aligning wallets, bundlers, and infra. (eips.ethereum.org)

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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 footprint is primarily EVM chains.

• Components:
  • Smart accounts (4337) or EOAs delegated via 7702
  • Bundler submitting

    UserOperation

    s to EntryPoint
  • Paymaster (verifying paymaster pattern) sponsoring gas or accepting ERC‑20 fees (e.g., USDC) (docs.erc4337.io)
• Standard integration path:
  • App calls

    wallet_sendCalls

    (EIP‑5792) with a

    paymasterService

    capability pointing to a 7677‑compliant endpoint (e.g., Coinbase Paymaster, Biconomy, your in‑house paymaster). Wallet fetches stub/final paymaster data via

    pm_getPaymasterStubData

    /

    pm_getPaymasterData

    . (eips.ethereum.org)
• Providers and details:
  • Coinbase Developer Platform (Base Account + Paymaster): ERC‑7677 compliant; offers gas credits and works across multiple chains (use

    paymasterUrl

    for non‑Base networks). (docs.cdp.coinbase.com)
  • Biconomy: Sponsorship and Token Paymasters across a wide network set; 7677 supported (EntryPoint v0.6 at fixed address). (legacy-docs.biconomy.io)
  • Gelato Relay: Sponsor via Gas Tank/1Balance; supports 100+ EVMs, with documented cross‑chain gasless swaps and API‑key‑scoped policies. (docs.gelato.cloud)
  • Circle Paymaster (USDC): permissionless token paymaster; 10% end‑user gas surcharge (waived until June 30, 2025); EOA support via 7702. (circle.com)

What this unlocks in practice:

• “USDC-only” onboarding: users sign an EIP‑2612 permit; the paymaster pulls minimal USDC to cover gas; no ETH required—even for first‑use deployments. (developers.circle.com)
• EOA compatibility: after Pectra, 7702 lets EOAs tap paymasters without migrating to a smart account. (ethereum.org)

Example at scale: Jumper Exchange reported 22k users completing 44k gasless cross‑chain swaps via Gelato Paymaster/Bundler by September 2025; sponsors fund a single Gas Tank for 100+ chains. (gelato.cloud)

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

Best when the action must finalize on a different chain and you want to pre‑estimate destination gas.

• Chainlink CCIP’s billing model lets you pay fees on the source chain (LINK or supported tokens including some stables); CCIP caches destination gas prices and applies a multiplier and fixed network fee. You must set a

  gasLimit

  for destination execution; fees = blockchain fee (execution + DA) + network fee. (docs.chain.link)
• FeeQuoter exposes parameters (dest gas overhead, per‑payload gas, gas multiplier, DA costs) for precise budgeting and SLA design. (docs.chain.link)
• LayerZero relayers assume a base gas; for heavier logic you pass adapter params to provision more destination gas. (docs.layerzero.network)

This pattern is ideal to “sponsor remote execution” where your relayer covers destination gas then reconciles via your treasury logic and fee quotes.

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

Best when you want a single contract/account to drive actions anywhere, including non‑EVM.

• NEAR Chain Signatures: a decentralized MPC network lets NEAR accounts (including contracts) sign native transactions on EVM chains, Bitcoin, Solana, TON, Sui, Aptos, etc. EdDSA support (Apr 30, 2025) broadens coverage. Teams can build a chain‑abstracted relayer that tops up gas, sponsors calls, and recycles residual funds, per NEAR’s 2025 RFP. (docs.near.org)
• Particle Network: Universal Accounts + Omnichain Paymaster enable recharging USDT on one chain to sponsor on any EVM chain; a single universal gas token and chain‑abstracted UX. (globenewswire.com)

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A practical blueprint: one treasury, many chains

Below is a mid‑market blueprint we’ve implemented variants of for consumer apps and B2B wallets.

1. Choose your sponsorship modality per chain family

• EVM L2s and sidechains: 4337 smart accounts + ERC‑7677 paymaster (Circle for USDC, Gelato/Biconomy for sponsorship/token modes). Enable EOA support with 7702 for wallet compatibility. (circle.com)
• Non‑EVM (Solana, TON) and Bitcoin: route via NEAR Chain Signatures–based relayer or dedicated chain relayers; hold limited native gas inventory, with automatic top‑ups triggered by treasury policy. (docs.near.org)
• Cross‑chain intent execution: when you can pre‑price and queue, prefer CCIP and use FeeQuoter estimates to lock margins and SLAs. (docs.chain.link)

1. Normalize the app-to-wallet contract

• Batch calls with

  wallet_sendCalls

  (EIP‑5792); attach

  paymasterService

  to supply the paymaster URL/context. Use Base/CBP reference docs to standardize across wallets. (eips.ethereum.org)

1. Fund a stablecoin “gas tank”

• USDC primary: Circle Paymaster (token mode) or Gelato 1Balance (USDC on Polygon via CCTP) to sponsor across many chains from one balance; enforce contract/function allowlists at the service level. (docs.gelato.cloud)
• Policy: per‑user and per‑chain quotas, daily spend caps, and rate limits in your paymaster rules (4337 design patterns). (docs.erc4337.io)

1. Implement risk and reputation controls early

• Conform to ERC‑7562 validation rules: cap validation gas, avoid disallowed opcodes in validation, keep paymaster

  context

  bounded; stake your paymaster to unlock shared‑state reads; align with bundler reputation and throttling windows. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Update to the latest EntryPoint (v0.7/0.8) and patch your stack; there have been real paymaster‑abuse vectors fixed in 2025. (hackmd.io)

1. Monitor, reconcile, and recycle

• Track per‑chain gas deltas, refunds, and residual credits. For CCIP, monitor the

  gas multiplier

  , DA fees, and network fees vs. quotes; for Gelato, monitor 1Balance utilization and API‑key scoping. (docs.chain.link)

1. UX details that matter

• Default to “USDC pays gas” on eligible chains; fall back to sponsor‑pays for first‑use and recovery flows. Make passkeys/social login the default; Trust Wallet’s SWIFT and Coinbase Smart Wallet patterns show what good feels like. (chainwire.org)

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Concrete examples you can ship this quarter

• Gasless cross‑chain swaps: Model after Jumper + Gelato. Maintain a single Gas Tank; users bridge/swap without ever sourcing destination gas. >44k gasless txs as of Sep 15, 2025 demonstrate stability at user scale. (gelato.cloud)
• Gasless airdrops across chains: Connext used Gelato’s

  sponsoredCall

  , funding a central 1Balance; Gelato scaled capacity to 1,000 relay requests/min per chain for claims. (gelato.cloud)
• USDC‑only onboarding: Circle Paymaster handles gas in USDC (fee waived until Jun 30, 2025). Use permit‑based first‑use account deployments—all without native tokens. After Pectra, EOAs can use this path via 7702. (developers.circle.com)
• Omnichain top‑ups: Particle’s Omnichain Paymaster reports 500k+ UserOperations sponsored in a month; deposit USDT on one chain, sponsor on another—handy for global campaigns. (blog.particle.network)
• Chain‑abstracted relayer pilot: NEAR’s 2025 RFP proposes a relayer that accepts base tokens or major stables, auto‑tops balances, and integrates with Biconomy/Gelato—an ops blueprint for multi‑chain gas abstraction. (pages.near.org)

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

• ERC‑7562 discipline: Your 4337 entities (factory, paymaster, aggregators) must respect validation scope and gas constraints; otherwise bundlers throttle/ban your ops. Track reputation and avoid dynamic context sizes. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Paymaster hardening:
  • Signed off‑chain policies embedded and verified on‑chain (sender, call hash, deadline, quota).
  • Short‑lived user whitelists and rolling quotas for new cohorts.
  • Fallback unauthenticated paymaster for emergency flows only. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Provider safety:
  • Rotate sponsor API keys; scope to contract/function per chain (Gelato sponsor keys support restriction). (docs.gelato.cloud)
  • Use allowlists on CDP Paymaster; apply credits judiciously. (docs.cdp.coinbase.com)
• Incident readiness:
  • If a paymaster/bundler fails, switch to token‑pay mode (USDC) or to a secondary sponsor; keep per‑chain gas buffers for critical calls.
  • Monitor mempool acceptance; simulate with

    simulateValidation

    and adopt latest EntryPoint to pick up fixes. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Cross‑chain fee estimation: For CCIP, always set

  gasLimit

  with headroom; watch multipliers and network fee tables; DA fees apply on some L2s. (docs.chain.link)

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Cost modeling: what finance will ask

• ERC‑4337 sponsorship
  • USDC token‑pay via Circle Paymaster adds a 10% surcharge (waived til Jun 30, 2025), but simplifies treasury and user support. (circle.com)
  • Gelato 1Balance centralizes deposits (USDC on Polygon; CCTP for multi‑chain). Your ops cost = base gas on destination + relay fee; negotiate volume tiers. (docs.gelato.cloud)
• CCIP
  • Fee = blockchain fee (execution + DA) + network fee (USD‑denominated); execution = gas price × (gas limit + destination overhead + per‑payload bytes + token‑transfer gas) × gas multiplier. Use FeeQuoter to forecast per lane/token. (docs.chain.link)
• Inventory
  • Target 2–3 days of runway in USDC for sponsor balances; alert at 30/15/5% thresholds; lock daily spend caps per chain and campaign.

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Emerging best practices we recommend in 2025

• Standardize the app→wallet contract with EIP‑5792; query

  wallet_getCapabilities

  , pass

  paymasterService

  , and keep ABI attachments (EIP‑7896) handy for decode in supported wallets. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Make 7702 part of onboarding: if the user has an EOA, delegate execution once to enable sponsorship and batching without forcing a new account type. (ethereum.org)
• Prefer stablecoin‑funded gas tanks for user‑facing UX; default to USDC token‑pay (Circle Paymaster) and fall back to sponsor‑pay for edge cases. (circle.com)
• For cross‑chain actions with deterministic steps, prefer CCIP for billing clarity and delivery guarantees; otherwise use AA relayers (Gelato/Biconomy) with signed policy gates. (docs.chain.link)
• Adopt chain‑abstracted relayers if you must hit Bitcoin/Solana/TON in‑product; NEAR Chain Signatures or Particle Universal Accounts reduce key sprawl and unify execution. (docs.near.org)

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

Minimal example showing how your dapp requests sponsorship from a 7677 service during a batched call:

// 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 instructs the wallet to fetch

pm_getPaymasterStubData

for estimation, then

pm_getPaymasterData

for the final

UserOperation

fields, and forward to a bundler—without the user supplying 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 with no gas juggling.

• Path A (pure AA): App uses 5792 + 7677. Circle Paymaster charges USDC for gas on both Base (approval/sign) and Polygon (mint). Treasury holds USDC only; users never touch native gas. Post‑June 30, 2025, add the 10% surcharge to pricing. (circle.com)
• Path B (message relay): App locks assets on Base, sends a CCIP programmable token transfer+mdata to Polygon with a sufficient

  gasLimit

  . CCIP quotes include network fee and DA; destination contract mints on arrival. (docs.chain.link)
• Path C (chain‑abstracted relayer): A NEAR contract orchestrates both sides, signing Polygon tx via Chain Signatures; your relayer tops up gas stables across chains per policy. (docs.near.org)

We typically ship Path A first for time‑to‑market, then add Path B for deterministic flows and settlement clarity.

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

• “It works on testnet but stalls on mainnet”: Your paymaster validation touches external state or changes

  context

  size—bundlers drop you under ERC‑7562 rules. Keep validation deterministic and bounded; stake entities that need shared state. (eips.ethereum.org)
• “Sponsored tx are draining budgets”: Enforce function‑level allowlists and per‑user quotas at the paymaster service; rotate sponsor API keys; alert on anomalies. (docs.gelato.cloud)
• “EOA users can’t do gasless”: Enable 7702 paths in your wallet integrations; many wallets and infra now support 7702 after Pectra. (ethereum.org)
• “Cross‑chain exec reverted due to gas”: On CCIP, under‑estimating

  gasLimit

  or not accounting for DA on L2s causes failures. Use FeeQuoter and add headroom; monitor multipliers. (docs.chain.link)
• “Vendor lock‑in”: Adopt the open 7677 paymasterService flow so you can swap providers (CDP, Biconomy, Gelato, Circle) without app changes. (eips.ethereum.org)

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A short checklist to green‑light your program

• Use EIP‑5792 for batched calls; pass

  paymasterService

  . (eips.ethereum.org)
• Support 7702 for EOAs; test on Pectra‑enabled wallets. (ethereum.org)
• Choose token‑pay (USDC) and/or sponsor‑pay per chain; configure allowlists and quotas. (circle.com)
• Stand up observability for CCIP FeeQuoter diffs, paymaster balances, bundler acceptance rate. (docs.chain.link)
• Pass ERC‑7562 sims in CI; keep validation deterministic and staked where needed. (docs.erc4337.io)
• Pilot with a limited cohort; expand after mempool reputation stabilizes.

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Where 7Block Labs can help

• Design: choose the right mix of 4337/7702, CCIP, and chain‑abstracted relayers for your business flows.
• Build: implement ERC‑7677 paymaster services, policy engines, and treasury pipelines.
• Operate: SRE playbooks for mempool acceptance, failover to secondary sponsors, and cross‑chain reconciliation.

If you want a deeper technical plan or a pilot in 4–6 weeks, we can bring reference implementations and providers to the table.

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Sources and further reading

• Pectra (Prague × Electra) shipped May 7, 2025; EIP‑7702 included. (ethereum.org)
• ERC‑7677 and Base wallet capability docs; EIP‑5792 Wallet Call API. (eips.ethereum.org)
• Circle Paymaster (USDC as gas), fees and chain support. (circle.com)
• Gelato Relay (SponsoredCall, ERC‑2771), 1Balance, and case studies. (docs.gelato.cloud)
• Biconomy Paymaster modes and network coverage. (legacy-docs.biconomy.io)
• Chainlink CCIP billing model and FeeQuoter references. (docs.chain.link)
• NEAR Chain Signatures (mainnet, EdDSA expansion) and chain‑abstracted relayer RFP. (pages.near.org)