Axelar Foundation discloses $30 million in AXL token sales as it expands interoperability protocol

Axelar Foundation, the nonprofit supporting the growth and adoption of the Axelar Network interoperability protocol, has disclosed strategic AXL token sales worth $30 million.

Several crypto investors participated in the token sales, including Arrington Capital, Distributed Global, Electric Capital, Laser Digital, C² Ventures, Plassa Capital and Wagmi Ventures, the foundation said Tuesday. However, it declined to disclose the price or valuation at which the AXL tokens were sold. A spokesperson for the foundation told The Block that the investments occurred "over recent months."

"A portion of these investments involved purchases of unlocked AXL tokens from Axelar Foundation's community programs allocation," they said. "These tokens are subject to new lockups ranging from six to 12 months."

That means Axelar Foundation was not the sole seller in this transaction. The spokesperson declined to name the other sellers.

Other sellers likely facilitated transactions through over-the-counter (OTC) trading, meaning investors acquired AXL tokens already in circulation.

AXL is currently trading at around $0.35, down 14% in the past 24 hours, according to The Block's AXL price page. The token's market cap is $325 million, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $418 million. AXL's FDV has declined over the years from its 2022 valuation of over $1 billion. The foundation spokesperson declined to comment on the token's performance.

Axelar's growth plans

Axelar Network is an interoperability platform that connects multiple blockchain ecosystems to enable seamless cross-chain communication. Its competitors include Wormhole, LayerZero and Hyperlane.

"Axelar is the only blockchain interoperability protocol that is fully permissionless, non-custodial and open-source – from end to end," Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar and CEO of Interop Labs, the initial developer of Axelar, told The Block. "This open architecture is essential for financial institutions now poised to enter the space: they need interoperability that doesn't introduce custodial risks or vendor lock-in."

With new investors on board, Axelar plans to expand into tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), facilitating institutional blockchain connectivity.

"Axelar Network is on a path to delivering more unique cross-chain connections than any other interoperability protocol – including connecting institutional private blockchains, built for stablecoins and other asset tokenization," Gorbunov said.

Axelar Foundation's latest $30 million investment disclosure adds to the $100 million it previously raised through multiple venture rounds and a public token sale, according to the foundation spokesperson.

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