Axelar’s AXL token fell as much as 13% on Tuesday, according to CoinDesk market data, after stablecoin giant Circle announced it signed a deal to acquire the team and exclusive intellectual property of Interop Labs, the original and lead developer behind the Axelar network.
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The deal explicitly excludes the AXL token and the network itself from the acquisition.
Engineers and IPs from Interop Labs will join Circle, while Common Prefix, another long-time contributor, is expected to take on a larger role in maintaining and growing the Axelar ecosystem.
Axelar is a crypto network designed to help different blockchains communicate and transfer assets between each other.
Markets reacted quickly as traders sold AXL after it became clear that the acquisition did not create direct value for token holders, despite validating the underlying interoperability technology.
The move suggests that potential buyers may be interested in teams, intellectual property, and enterprise-facing infrastructure, but not in tokens associated with open networks.
In Axelar’s case, Circle gains engineering talent and interoperability expertise that can support its broader stablecoin and payments ambitions, while AXL holders are left without a formal connection to the transaction economy.
The token does not experience any buying pressure, revenue sharing, or influence over the governance of the acquired assets.
Such a deal challenges the assumption that protocol success automatically benefits token prices, and the conclusions are increasingly clear: M&A activity in crypto can strengthen infrastructure and teams, but unless a token is structurally tied to the deal, it can just as easily become collateral damage.
