Rubic x Wormhole x Mayan: Implementing Users’ Intents
Rubic is building the best aggregator for Solana. That’s not just hype — it’s the direction we’re firmly heading. Pretty soon, we’ll be aggregating 15 top DEXs and bridges within the Solana ecosystem. That means better rates, more routes and liquidity, and smoother swaps for everyone. On top of that, we’re cutting protocol fees for all Solana swaps and rolling out gasless transactions.
Zero protocol fees, gasless convenience, and a broad range of routes — that’s the recipe for becoming Solana’s go-to Best Rate Finder.
But today’s spotlight is about Wormhole. The protocol is now our 8th interoperability provider for swaps to and from Solana, and it’s bringing something very different — an intent-based settlement system via Mayan. Let’s unpack that.
Settlement Powered By Wormhole & Mayan Swift on Rubic
The heart of Wormhole Settlement is surprisingly simple to describe: users define what they want, and someone else takes care of making it happen. You don’t need to worry about execution, liquidity balancing, or the technical side of moving tokens across chains. Instead, off-chain agents known as solvers compete to fulfill your intent.
That word — intent — is the key here. Instead of saying “I want to swap ARB for SOL and I’ll do it by calling contract X and routing through pool Y,” you just state: “Swap my ARB on Arbitrum for SOL.” The system then finds the best solver to get the job done.
It’s fast, too. Wormhole Settlement prioritizes speed, quality of execution, and reliability. Its main path, called Mayan Swift, uses off-chain auctions among a curated set of solvers. The competition between solvers keeps prices fair and slippage low. And even though the auction itself happens off-chain, every step of the actual settlement is verifiable on-chain via Wormhole messages.
Why Intent-Based Settlement Matters
If you’ve used cross-chain swaps before, you know they can feel… fragile. Sometimes the route you wanted suddenly isn’t available. Sometimes you get more slippage than expected. And sometimes you’re left refreshing the screen, wondering if your tokens are ever going to arrive.
Intent-based systems like Wormhole Settlement try to solve exactly that. They shift the complexity away from the user. You say what you want; the solvers handle the “how.” That doesn’t just save you time — it can also save you from the stress of managing multiple wallets, bridges, and liquidity pools.
The solver model is interesting in its own right. These agents front the capital, perform swaps, and only get paid if execution succeeds. If something breaks, your funds are safe — the escrow holds the capital until the transaction is confirmed. There’s a bit of elegance in that design: risk is pushed onto the solvers, not the users.
A Closer Look at Mayan Swift
Let’s take a real example. Suppose you want to swap ARB on Arbitrum for WIF on Solana.
Here’s what happens:
- A solver on Arbitrum swaps your ARB into ETH and locks that ETH into escrow.
- Wormhole emits a VAA (Verifiable Action Approval) to Solana.
- Another solver (or sometimes the same one) releases SOL, swaps it for WIF using an aggregator, and sends you the WIF.
- A second VAA finalizes the deal, releasing the ETH in escrow back to the solver as payment.
If any part fails, the ETH just stays put — no one loses funds. Execution speed? Usually about 12 seconds.
The catch is that solvers need to keep liquidity on multiple chains. Over time, that can cause imbalances. Assets pile up on some chains and run dry on others. Rebalancing is a headache, but the upside is that users get lightning-fast execution without touching any of that complexity.
Where Rubic Fits In
This is where the bigger picture comes into focus. Rubic isn’t just stacking integrations for the sake of numbers. Each new provider we add — Wormhole included — expands the routes, improves reliability, and brings us closer to the vision of a complete aggregator for Solana.
Rubic’s integration with Wormhole supports cross-chain swaps to and from Solana with some of the biggest ecosystems out there — including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Optimism, Polygon, and Unichain. That’s a wide net, especially for users who want to move between Solana and the broader EVM world without extra steps.
With 15 providers on the horizon, plus gasless swaps and zero protocol fees, we’re not just solving for “cheaper” or “faster.” We’re aiming for effortless. A place where users can simply define what they want — the outcome, not the steps — and trust Rubic to handle the rest.
Building the ultimate aggregator on Solana was never going to be a small goal. And if Wormhole has shown us anything, it’s that making crypto simple doesn’t mean making it boring.