Axelar’s AXL token fell as much as 13% on Tuesday, according to market data from CoinDesk, after stablecoin giant Circle said it had signed a deal to acquire the team and intellectual property of Interop Labs, the initial and lead developer behind Axelar Network.
Charging…
The deal explicitly excludes the AXL token and the network itself from the acquisition.
Instead, Interop Labs engineers and IP will join Circle, while Common Prefix, another long-time collaborator, will take on a larger role in maintaining and developing the Axelar ecosystem.
Axelar is a crypto network designed to help different blockchains communicate and transfer assets between each other.
Markets reacted quickly when traders sold AXL after it became clear that the acquisition does not create direct value accumulation for token holders, despite validating the underlying interoperability technology.
The move suggests that potential buyers may be interested in equipment, intellectual property and business infrastructure, but not the tokens associated with open networks.
In the case of Axelar, Circle gains engineering talent and interoperability expertise that can support its broader payments and stablecoin ambitions, while AXL holders are left without a formal link to the transaction economy.
The token does not receive any purchasing pressure, revenue sharing or governance influence over the assets purchased.
Such a deal challenges the assumption that protocol success automatically benefits token prices, and the conclusion is increasingly clear: M&A activity in crypto can strengthen infrastructure and teams, but unless a token is structurally linked to the deal, it can easily become collateral damage.
