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%.

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.

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.

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.