TechFlow Deep Dive: The Long-Term Logic of the Wall Street Chain — Why AXL Is the Ultimate Key to Unlocking Cross-Chain Narratives?
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TechFlow Deep Dive: The Long-Term Logic of the Wall Street Chain — Why AXL Is the Ultimate Key to Unlocking Cross-Chain Narratives?
The rising narrative of full-chain interoperability, along with AXL's fundamentally transformed fundamentals, easily brings to mind SOL at $20.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Terry
Have you ever thought that behind every market hype cycle, there's actually an underlying rotational logic?
Put simply, if you've stayed in the crypto market long enough and have sufficient sensitivity, you're likely to spot patterns and catch the next big moonshot token. Take the past year’s most lucrative trends—the inscription boom and the meme coin surge—as examples. Both followed a clear path: from Bitcoin to Ethereum and then to competing Layer 1s, and from Binance-linked chains to Solana, then to Base/TON and other emerging public chains.
The reason is straightforward—new assets like inscriptions and memes naturally emerge where liquidity is highest. This is essentially a transfer of on-chain liquidity from high-liquidity to lower-liquidity ecosystems. At its core, the driving force behind every hot sector or token remains liquidity.
Therefore, for ordinary users, the current environment of rapidly rotating narratives during this early bull phase isn't necessarily a bad thing—it offers ample opportunities to uncover subtle clues behind emerging sectors and position ourselves early for on-chain liquidity plays. This article aims to explore the rising cross-chain interoperability narrative and identify potential hidden gems within it.
The Long-Term Logic Behind the Rise of Cross-Chain Narratives
As a long-term theme in the crypto space, the cross-chain / omnichain interoperability sector was largely "forgotten" during the last bull-bear cycle, losing its appeal.
However, recent developments are clearly charting a different course. Binance has successively listed leading omnichain-related tokens such as Axelar (AXL), Wormhole (W), and Omni Network (OMNI). Meanwhile, LayerZero continues to fuel market speculation around potential token airdrops. These moves subtly signal a resurgence of interest in the cross-chain interoperability narrative.
From a capital speculation standpoint, the rotation from L2s/high-performance competing Layer 1s to cross-chain narratives makes perfect sense. In 2023, heterogeneous chains like Solana and Avalanche recovered, while Ethereum L2s such as Blast and Base generated continuous buzz. Additionally, numerous Bitcoin L2 projects emerged, revitalizing market activity—but also fragmenting traffic and capital into isolated value silos.
Entering 2024, with the expansion of modular architecture and data availability (DA) narratives, more and increasingly fragmented L2s are becoming the new trend. Many projects are now considering launching their own L2/L3 solutions. As a result, cross-chain and omnichain interoperability are poised to become central themes throughout 2024.
In short, as long as modularization keeps expanding in 2024 and new public chains/L2 networks continue multiplying, the omnichain narrative will grow in importance—the more islands at sea, the busier the ferry services connecting them will become. This is the strongest fundamental driver behind the rise of the omnichain narrative in 2024.
At the same time, from a liquidity rotation perspective, after Bitcoin reached new highs this year, altcoins have underperformed significantly. Traditional narratives like DeFi and NFTs have become “old news,” while incremental adoption stories focused on mass adoption are gaining increasing attention.
Looking ahead, whether for Web3-native projects or Web2.5 traditional players aiming to resolve fragmented blockchain experiences for new users, cross-chain/omnichain infrastructure will become essential. They’ll need to integrate omnichain services as foundational components for account abstraction and chain abstraction.
When the wind picks up, it's time to set sail. The omnichain narrative is expected to be one of the main themes of 2024. Beyond LayerZero, already-launched cross-chain/omnichain projects may become hotspots for hidden alpha—tokens like Celer (CELR) and Axelar (AXL) could see value re-rating.
Overall, however, focus should remain on tokens listed by top-tier CEXs like Binance. Why? Because higher user concentration makes them easier to pump, and centralized exchanges have strong incentives to amplify momentum—just as seen with meme coins and the inscription wave. Being listed on a CEX, especially becoming part of the “Binance ecosystem,” is almost a necessary condition for turning a token into a “god coin.”
The True Contenders in the Omnichain Space
Among the omnichain concept tokens recently listed on Binance, which ones deserve attention?
Even before this latest Binance listing wave, back in late last year, Binance Research published a report on interoperability protocols, highlighting only four major cross-chain interoperability protocols: Chainlink CCTP, Wormhole, LayerZero, and Axelar.
Of these four, ChainLink (LINK) is still primarily categorized under oracle services, and LayerZero hasn’t launched its token yet. So the two most likely candidates to take center stage appear to be W and AXL.
Let’s first look at W. As widely known, Wormhole (W) is primarily backed by capital from Jump Trading (the parent company of Jump Crypto). For veteran users, Jump is no stranger—notably involved with Terra, and Pyth, and more recently, Monad, which raised $225 million—all considered part of the broader “Jump ecosystem.”
However, a hallmark of “Jump-affiliated” projects is their extremely high fully diluted valuations (FDV) relative to very low circulating supplies, often making them seem unapproachable. According to the latest CoinGecko data, even after a recent 50% drop, W still carries an FDV of $6.1 billion (market cap: $1.1 billion).
Less commonly known is that after Do Kwon was sued in early 2023, Jump Trading gradually exited the crypto space—terminating its partnership with Robinhood, withdrawing from spot Bitcoin ETF applications, and cutting ties with crypto incubation projects including Pyth, Wormhole, and Monad.
In essence, the primary purpose of W’s exchange listings may have been to provide an exit route for early VC investors—explaining why the token has continued to decline post-listing.
Axelar (AXL), on the other hand, is a seasoned leader in the omnichain narrative that launched its token earlier. Binance’s recent addition of AXL spot and futures trading pairs signals confidence in its future market performance.
Historically, exchanges are masters at counter-cyclical moves and sensing market sentiment. Leveraging superior market insights unavailable to retail investors, they can strategically position themselves in promising sectors early, capturing bull market benefits through flagship tokens.
Interestingly, the aforementioned Binance Research report specifically noted that among the four highlighted projects, Axelar was the most undervalued—hinting at a subtle but meaningful endorsement.
The Wall Street-Backed Capital Behind Axelar
Digging deeper into the elite funding and operational team behind Axelar (AXL), we find it shares strong connections with Wall Street’s old money—much like the resurgent Solana ecosystem.
As early as May 2022, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched “Project Guardian,” a collaboration with financial institutions to explore the economic potential and innovative use cases of asset tokenization, test DeFi applications, and manage risks related to financial stability and integrity.
Soon after, major financial players joined Project Guardian, including UK asset manager Schroders, UBS, and SBI Digital Markets—the digital asset arm of Japan’s SBI Group—launching tokenized financial innovation pilots.
By November last year, alternative asset manager Apollo partnered with JPMorgan’s Onyx digital asset platform and Axelar to deliver a new-generation proof-of-concept for managing a $5.5 trillion investment portfolio. Following this announcement, AXL surged about 50% (and caught Binance’s attention), marking a fundamental shift in its trajectory.
This collaboration demonstrated that over 3,000 manual operational steps for wealth managers could be reduced to a single automated process, programmatic settlement speeds could cut portfolio management costs by ~20%, and the AWM industry could unlock $400 billion in annual revenue opportunities.
This means Axelar, as foundational infrastructure, provides critical support for traditional financial giants entering tokenized investments. Moreover, Axelar stands to directly benefit from hundreds of billions of dollars in untapped liquidity from traditional finance, which can be brought on-chain via RWA (Real World Assets) through Axelar’s omnichain architecture—unlocking massive liquidity potential.
Beyond solidifying its leadership in the omnichain narrative, Axelar’s more crucial distinction lies in being the sole crypto project—and token—associated with both “Wall Street capital” and “JPMorgan.” Its potential is now as open-ended as when Lily Liu became Chair of the Solana Foundation: positioned as the key bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world.
In many ways, factors like JPMorgan have objectively introduced Axelar to broader off-chain institutional capital and traditional resources—an advantage that other omnichain projects will find difficult to replicate.
Conclusion
Crypto narratives come and go, but the market’s appetite for compelling stories is eternal. When viewed on monthly or yearly cycles, the logic behind any major market move is usually traceable.
For retail users, catching the next dominant narrative and identifying its leading token isn’t impossible. The rising omnichain narrative and AXL’s fundamentally transformed outlook since late last year evoke memories of SOL at $20:
Back then too, Wall Street capital began placing bets, ecosystem self-evolution accelerated, and across on-chain activity, tech upgrades, and investor attention, everything started moving at a completely different pace. The faint early signs that were quietly building up are now poised to gradually unfold throughout 2024.
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