"Axelar's 'Cobalt' Upgrade: Tokenizing Interoperability, Scaling Web3"

The Axelar Network has completed a significant upgrade, dubbed "Cobalt," which introduces new AXL tokenomics and strengthens the network's interoperability capabilities. The upgrade, approved through on-chain governance, implements a fee-burning mechanism that sends network gas fees paid in AXL to a burn address, hardening the AXL token supply and incentivizing interoperability at an unlimited scale.

The Cobalt upgrade builds upon the Axelar Virtual Machine (VM), the only open-source programmable interop layer, making Axelar an engine for permissionless new connections at a global scale. With each new blockchain connection, the utility of the AXL token grows, driving decentralized infrastructure for a globally connected Web3.

Georgios Vlachos, director at Axelar Foundation and co-founder of the Axelar protocol, commented on the upgrade, stating, "We are tokenizing interoperability. With this community-approved upgrade, Axelar is the only interoperability network with scalable tokenomics, powering decentralized infrastructure for a globally connected Web3."

The demand for blockchain interoperability is driven by several factors, including financial institutions issuing stablecoins and other tokenized assets, stablecoins driving mass adoption, and AI applications requiring connectivity across specific blockchains. The Axelar Network addresses these needs by offering an easy-to-use solution for new blockchains to connect to all chains using the Interchain Amplifier, part of the Mobius Development Stack (MDS).

With the Cobalt upgrade now live, gas fees paid in AXL are sent to a burn address, combining with the explicitly funded reward pool to provide unmatched scalability properties and clear utility. Early metrics show that recent connections Sui and Flow are currently locking more than 300,000 AXL in Verifier reward pools, per month. The current list of major blockchains set to integrate via Amplifier includes Monad, Solana, Stellar, TON, XRP Ledger, and dozens of other L1s, L2s, and application-specific blockchains.

The Cobalt upgrade follows the release of Axelar's Mobius Development Stack (MDS) in October, which includes the Axelar VM, Interchain Amplifier, and the Interchain Token Service (ITS). New connections to the Axelar Network are subject only to on-chain votes by AXL tokenholders and can be as simple