Axelar’s AXL token fell as much as 13% on Tuesday, according to CoinDesk market data, after stablecoin giant Circle said it had signed an agreement to acquire the team and proprietary intellectual property of Interop Labs, the initial and core developer behind the Axelar Network.

The deal explicitly excludes the AXL token and the network itself from the acquisition.

Interop Labs’ engineers and IP will instead join Circle, while Common Prefix, another long-time contributor, is set to assume a larger role in maintaining and developing the Axelar ecosystem.

Axelar is a crypto network designed to help different blockchains communicate and transfer assets with each other.

Markets reacted swiftly as traders sold AXL after it became clear that the acquisition does not create direct value accrual for tokenholders, despite validating the underlying interoperability technology.

The move suggests potential buyers may be interested in teams, intellectual property, and enterprise-facing infrastructure — but not the 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 with no formal link to the transaction’s economics.

The token does not receive any buy pressure, revenue sharing, or governance influence over the acquired assets.

Such a deal challenges the assumption that protocol success automatically benefits token prices, and the takeaway is increasingly clear: M&A activity in crypto may strengthen infrastructure and teams, but unless a token is structurally tied into the deal, it can just as easily become collateral damage.