Axelar

What Happened in Crypto Today: Bitcoin Keeps Going Up

Week in DeFi: Tornado Cash Back to Life, ZkEVMs Heat Up and a Polygon Identity

## What Is Axelar (AXL)?

Axelar claims to deliver “secure cross-chain communication for Web3.” The project provides a [decentralized](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized) network and tools to help builders of [decentralized applications](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps) (dApps) with seamless [cross-chain communication](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/cross-chain-communication) through its protocol suite, tools and APIs.

Axelar features three core components – a decentralized network, a software development kit of protocols and APIs, and a set of gateway [smart contracts](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/smart-contract) for [cross-chain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/cross-chain) connectivity.

Powered by a decentralized network of [validators](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/validator), anyone can join the network, build on it, or use it. Apps builders can interact with a simple API atop a permissionless network that routes messages and ensures network security via [proof-of-stake](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-stake-pos) (PoS) [consensus mechanism](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/consensus-mechanism).

AXL is the native token of the Axelar network. The protocol also supports the cross-chain transfer of several native tokens via their wrapped [ERC-20](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/erc-20) versions, including [AVAX](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/avalanche/) (Avalanche), [ETH](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) (Ethereum), [FTM](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fantom/) (Fantom), [GLMR](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/moonbeam/) (Moonbeam), and [MATIC](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polygon/) (Polygon).

Meanwhile, Axelar has raised capital from top-tier investors, including Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Polychain Capital and others.


## Who Are the Founders of Axelar?

The blockchain platform was launched in 2020 by Georgios Vlachos and Sergey Gorbunov, both part of the founding team at [Algorand](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/algorand/). While Georgios designed the Algorand consensus protocol, Sergey led the effort to standardize BLS signatures, a standard that is now adopted as a draft in CFRG and was followed by Ethereum 2.0 implementations and others.

Sergey is an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada.


## What Makes Axelar Unique?

One thing that sets Axelar apart is its secure cross-chain communication over a dynamic validator. While a handful of projects are using optimistic setups and federated multi-sig, Axelar claims to be the only network building these capabilities on Proof-of-Stake.

Furthermore, the blockchain project has built protocols, APIs, and developer tools that make it easy for application developers to build cross-chain, without the need to learn a new programming language. “Our value proposition to the developer is that they can build on the chain that best suits their use case and background, while letting their users access anything on the decentralized web, with one click,” said co-founder Georgios Vlachos.


## Axelar $60M Startup Ecosystem Program

In December 2022, Axelar launched a $60 million startup funding program. The initiative, which is backed by over 15 blockchain investors, seeks to accelerate the development of decentralized applications and protocols that can replace [centralized exchanges](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/centralized-exchange-cex) (CEXs).

Dubbed the Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program, the initiative is designed to “nurture a pipeline of developers building Web3 products that are better than anything on the centralized web.”

To qualify for funding, a project must be involved in safeguarding digital sovereignty, security, and privacy, working on the mass adoption of blockchain tech, or solving global problems that the centralized internet cannot address.


### Related Pages:

Learn more about [decentralized applications](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps) with CMC Glossary.

[What is a smart contract?](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-smart-contract) Find out with this basic guide.

Find out more about [cross-chain bridges](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-are-cross-chain-bridges).

Learn about [cross-chains contract calls](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/cross-chain-contract-calls) and [interoperability](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/interoperability).

Keep up-to-date with crypto news and level up your crypto knowledge on the [CoinMarketCap Alexandria](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria).


## What Is the Circulating Supply of AXL Tokens?

Axelar has a total token supply of 1,070,075,609 AXL tokens. At the time of writing, the circulating supply is 301,937,372 AXL.

According to the company, the allocations of AXL tokens are as follows: Backers: 29.5%; Team: 17%; Company operations: 12.5%; Community sale: 5%; Community programs (incl. insurance fund): 36%.


## Where Can You Buy Axelar?

Axelar (AXL) tokens can be purchased on numerous exchanges, including: [Coinbase](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinbase-exchange/), [Kraken](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kraken/), [Uniswap v3](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/uniswap-v3/), [Huobi](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/axelar/markets/), [KuCoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/kucoin/) and more.

Keep track of AXL live prices in real-time with the [CMC mobile app](https://coinmarketcap.com/mobile/).

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Ethereum

Shiba Inu

Chainlink

UNUS SED LEO

Uniswap

dYdX (ethDYDX)

Axie Infinity

Ocean Protocol

MANTRA

Blur

AIOZ Network

Ondo

The Sandbox

Worldcoin

Lends

Gorilla In A Coupe

DODO

Velar

Musk Dao

Akash Network

Neutron

Immutable positions itself as the first layer-two scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum. According to Immutable, its blockchain does away with Ethereum’s limitations like low scalability, a poor user experience, illiquidity, and a slow developer experience. Instead, users benefit from instant trading and massive scalability while enjoying zero gas fees for minting and trading NFTs without compromising user or asset security.

Thanks to this technology, users will be able to create and distribute assets like ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens on a massive scale. Chris Clay, the game Director of Gods Unchained, a project already building on Immutable, stated that Immutable allows Gods Unchained to implement a new meta-system that was previously impossible. In this fashion, Immutable aims to create a world-class experience for users and developers alike.

Immutable

Celestia

Pyth Network

Osmosis (OSMO) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for Cosmos, an ecosystem of sovereign, interoperable blockchains all connected trustlessly over IBC, the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol. Osmosis also offers non-IBC assets bridged from the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. Originally based on Balancer-style pools, Osmosis is moving to a more sustainable concentrated liquidity model that provides a superior trading and liquidity provision experience.

As an appchain DEX, Osmosis has greater control over the full blockchain stack than DEXs that must follow the code of a parent chain. This fine-grained control has enabled, for example, the development of Superfluid Staking, an improvement to Proof-of-Stake security. Superfluid staking allows the underlying OSMO in an LP position to add to chain security and earn staking rewards for doing so. The customizability of appchains also allows for the development of a transaction mempool shielded with threshold encryption, which will greatly reduce harmful MEV on Osmosis.

Osmosis's vision is to build a cross-chain native DEX and trading suite that connects all chains over IBC, including Ethereum and Bitcoin. To build out the trading functionalities, Osmosis has invited external developers to create a bespoke DEX ecosystem that includes lending, credit, margin, fiat on-ramps, Defi strategy vaults, NFTs, stablecoins, and more – all the functionalities of a centralized exchange and more, plus the trust-minimization of decentralized finance.

Osmosis

Injective is a blockchain built for finance. It is an open, interoperable layer-one blockchain powering next-generation DeFi applications, including decentralized spot and derivatives exchanges, prediction markets, lending protocols and more.

Injective uniquely provides powerful core financial infrastructure primitives that applications can leverage, including a fully decentralized MEV-resistant on-chain orderbook. In addition, all forms of financial markets such as spot, perpetual, futures and options are fully on-chain. The decentralized cross-chain bridging infrastructure is compatible with Ethereum, IBC-enabled blockchains, and non EVM chains such as Solana.

Injective also provides a next-generation, highly interoperable smart contract platform based on CosmWasm, with advanced interchain capabilities. Injective is custom built with the Cosmos SDK and utilizes Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, providing instant transaction finality with the ability to sustain lightning-fast performance (10,000+ TPS).

The Injective ecosystem includes 100+ projects and over 150,000 community members globally. Injective is backed by a group of prominent investors such as Binance, Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto and Mark Cuban.

Injective’s core exchange module provides state-of-the-art capabilities including an advanced on-chain order book and matching engine for spot, perpetual, futures and options markets, resistance to Miner-Extractable Value (MEV) through frequent batch auction order matching, and zero gas fees for users.

Injective natively uses IBC and is highly-interoperable with multiple layer 1s, including, but not limited to, Polygon and Solana (through an upcoming Wormhole integration). It is also uniquely built to be interoperable with Ethereum, through its own decentralized ERC-20 token bridge, making Injective the first network within the Cosmos ecosystem to natively support Ethereum assets.

Smart contracts are implemented on Injective through CosmWasm, allowing for multi-chain smart contract transactions to occur seamlessly. Injective, however, is the only blockchain that enables automatic smart contract execution. This capability serves as a powerful building block for developers to create novel use cases that would not be possible on any other chain.

The use cases intended for INJ include but are not limited to: protocol governance, dApp value capture, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) security, developer incentives and staking. Further details regarding each of these use cases can be found below:

Protocol Governance: The INJ token governs every single component of Injective, including chain upgrades. Since its mainnet launch, the Injective community has actively contributed to governance, with all proposals passing through a DAO governance vote. The comprehensive governance page is available here.

Protocol Fee Value Capture: 60% of all fees generated from dApps enter an on-chain buy-back-and-burn auction to maintain the deflationary nature of INJ. The burn auction page is available here.

Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Security: INJ is used to secure the Injective blockchain using a proof-of-stake mechanism. Validators and delegators can both participate in staking.

Developer Incentives: 40% of fees generated by users on dApps built on Injective go directly towards incentivizing new developers building on Injective which brings an ever growing funnel of builders to Injective.

Injective

Sui is a groundbreaking layer-1 blockchain platform designed to support the needs of global adoption by offering a secure, powerful, and scalable development platform. At its core, Sui leverages a novel object-centric data model and the secure Move programming language to address inefficiencies prevalent in existing blockchain architectures.

On top of strong technical foundations, Sui prioritizes user experience by eliminating barriers commonly associated with blockchain interactions. Through innovations like zkLogin, sponsored transactions, and programmable transaction blocks, Sui creates a higher standard for user experience within Web3 by ensuring applications are accessible and user-friendly.

Arweave is a decentralized storage network that seeks to offer a platform for the indefinite storage of data. Describing itself as "a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets," the network primarily hosts "the permaweb" — a permanent, decentralized web with a number of community-driven applications and platforms.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Arweave.

The Arweave network uses a native cryptocurrency, AR, to pay "miners" to indefinitely store the network's information.

The project was first announced as Archain in August 2017, later rebranding to Arweave in February 2018 and officially launching in June 2018.

Arweave

Pendle

Optimism (OP) is a layer-two blockchain on top of Ethereum. Optimism benefits from the security of the Ethereum mainnet and helps scale the Ethereum ecosystem by using optimistic rollups. That means transactions are trustlessly recorded on Optimism but ultimately secured on Ethereum.

Optimism is one of the biggest scaling solutions for Ethereum with over $500 million in TVL. It is home to 97 protocols, the biggest being Synthetix (SNX), a derivatives exchange, Uniswap (UNI), a DEX, and Velodrome (VELO), an AMM. Users can begin their journey on Optimism by adding the chain on their Metamask and bridging tokens like ETH to the L2. On May 31, 2022, Optimism conducted a highly anticipated airdrop of its OP token.

Optimism

Founded in 2017 and launched via IEO on Binance in March 2019, Fetch.AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network with a crypto economy. Fetch.ai democratizes access to AI technology with a permissionless network upon which anyone can connect and access secure datasets by using autonomous AI to execute tasks that leverage its global network of data. The Fetch.AI model is rooted in  use cases like optimizing DeFi trading services, transportation networks (parking, micromobility), smart energy grids, travel — essentially any complex digital system that relies on large-scale datasets.

Fetch.ai

RenderToken (RNDR) is a distributed GPU rendering network built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, aiming to connect artists and studios in need of GPU compute power with mining partners willing to rent their GPU capabilities out. Conceived in 2009 by OTOY, inc. CEO Jules Urbach and launched in 2017, RNDR held its first public token sale in October of that same year, followed by a private sale period lasting from January 2018 – May 2018, wherein a total of 117,843,239 RNDR were sold at a price of 1 RNDR = $0.25 USD equivalent of token.
During the private sale period, early adopters were onboarded onto the RNDR Beta Testnet, where beta node operators and artists worked collaboratively with the RNDR team in building and testing the network, up until its public launch on April 27th 2020.

Render

Centrifuge is a decentralized asset financing protocol. It connects decentralized finance (DeFi) with real-world assets (RWA) while trying to lower the cost of capital for small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) and provide investors with a stable source of income. The main goal of the project is to generate profits that are not tied to volatile crypto assets; the developers are pursuing the task of transferring real monetary value from fiat to cryptocurrencies.

Companies are using Centrifuge to access the liquidity that DeFi has to offer. They can tokenize real assets and use these tokens as collateral to access financing through Tinlake, a decentralized application (DApp) lending protocol. The Centrifuge blockchain is built on Polkadot (DOT) for speed and low fees, while its financial DApp Tinlake is built to access Ethereum (ETH) liquidity.

Centrifuge provides liquidity to everyone and investors receive income and rewards in the form of CFG tokens. Centrifuge links assets such as invoices, real estate and royalties with decentralized finance (DeFi). Additionally, borrowers benefit from the fact that they can finance their real assets without banks or other intermediaries.

Centrifuge

DeSo is a new layer-1 blockchain built from the ground up to decentralize social media for billions of users.

We believe in empowering an internet that’s creator-led, user-owned, and open to millions of developers around the world to build off one another.

Today, there’s only a handful of big-tech companies that own and control all the information we consume online.

DeSo puts the ownership back in the hands of users, not platforms. Your identity, your profile, your content, and your social graph can now be owned by you in a completely censorship-resistant way.

Creators can now freely monetize in a way they could never do before.

With new crypto-native monetization tools, like Social Tokens, Social DAOs, Social NFTs, Social Tipping, and more — creators have access to monetize their passion and make a living by doing what they love.

Developers can build in a gasless, permissionless, and transparent environment where everything is open and on-chain for ultimate accessibility and composability.

DeSo is built to support storage-heavy or infinite-state applications, opening up a new world of non-financial-based web3 apps that weren’t possible before.

We can now imagine, build and experience the next generation of web3 social.

In the same way, we’ve seen Bitcoin and Ethereum decentralize finance, DeSo is now enabling this for social.

We know our mission is colossal, but we believe the world will be better when users, creators, and developers are put first - not corporations.

It’s time to break free.

To learn more, make sure to check out the vision behind DeSo.

Check out some of our top apps:

Decentralized Twitter
Decentralized Fundraising
Decentralized Social Networks
Decentralized LinkedIn
Decentralized Medium
Decentralized Instagram
Decentralized TikTok
Decentralized OpenSea

Decentralized Social

Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer-two (L2) scaling solution. It uses optimistic rollups to achieve its goal of improving speed, scalability and cost-efficiency on Ethereum. Arbitrum benefits from the security and compatibility of Ethereum. Another benefit is the higher throughput and lower fees compared to Ethereum. That is made possible thanks to moving most of the computation and storage load off-chain.

Arbitrum’s native token is called ARB and is used for governance. Offchain Labs, the developers behind Arbitrum, announced the shift to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure — the Arbitrum DAO. ARB holders can vote on proposals that affect the features, protocol upgrades, funds allocation and election of a Security Council.

Arbitrum has an ambitious roadmap for 2023, which includes: Launching its own layer-three solution called Orbit; Enabling developers to deploy programs written in popular programming languages like Rust, C++, and more using Stylus; Expanding its validator set to include more independent institutional validators; Moving its protocol to layer two with Arbitrum One.

On March 16, 2023,  Arbitrum announced their highly anticipated airdrop of ARB. The token will be airdropped to early users and DAOs building on Arbitrum, with 12.75% of the total supply to be distributed. Recipients were rewarded on a point-based system depending on their interaction with the Arbitrum network until a cutoff date of March 1, 2023. The token generation event is on March 23, 2023.

Arbitrum

Bittensor

SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform that allows anybody to easily "create, share, and monetize" AI services, thanks to its globally-accessible AI marketplace.

Through the SingularityNET marketplace, users can browse, test and purchase a huge variety of AI services using the platform’s native utility token — AGIX. Moreover, the marketplace represents an outlet AI developers can use to publish and sell their AI tools, and easily track their performance.

With the benefits of LLMs and generative AI are increasingly exciting, their limitations are also becoming increasingly apparent. The convergence of structured knowledge with neural networks is emerging as the key to overcoming their shortcomings.

Uniquely positioned at the heart of this convergence, SingularityNET will prioritize the integration of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and comprehensive Neural Symbolic tools for LLMs, with the goal of empowering developers to create the next generation of AI systems on the SingularityNET Platform.

SingularityNET is strategically positioned to become the Knowledge Layer of the Internet, leading the evolution of the emerging AI landscape while also laying the foundations for the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) of tomorrow.

The team behind SingularityNET pioneered the development of an AI known as Sophia, which is described as the "world's most expressive robot". SingularityNET’s goal is to enable Sophia to be able to fully understand human language, and continue developing “OpenCog” — an AI framework that is hoped to eventually achieve a state known as “advanced general intelligence,” i.e. human-level artificial intelligence (or beyond).

The platform was first announced in 2017 and completed an initial coin offering (ICO) in December the same year, raising $36 million in just one minute.