The day before yesterday, a landmark event occurred. Circle acquired the Interop Labs team. This team is the original developer of the cross-chain network Axelar.
But the follow-up to this matter has caused a stir in the community.
The acquisition announcement clearly stated that the Axelar network, its foundation, and its token AXL all operate independently and are unrelated to Circle. The development of the original project will be handed over to another company.
To put it simply, Circle only wants this team and technology to advance its USDC business. As for the project originally created by the team and the token holders above it, Circle does not recognize them at all and does not care.
Once the news broke, the price of AXL coin fell accordingly. This revealed a brutally common reality in the crypto world: large institutions acquire projects, taking only the team and technology, while abandoning the tokens and holders on the spot.
This is not the first time.
In July last year, Kraken's Ink Foundation acquired the decentralized exchange Vertex Protocol. They took away the entire engineering team and all the technical code, then directly shut down the original project's services on nine chains. The project token VRTX nearly went to zero, and holders were left waiting for a 1% airdrop promise.
In October last year, pump.fun acquired the trading terminal Padre. Upon acquisition, they directly announced that Padre's tokens would be rendered worthless, with no future plans. The coin price collapsed instantly.
In November last year, Coinbase acquired the Solana trading terminal built by the Tensor Labs team. The technology was integrated into Coinbase, but had nothing to do with the Tensor NFT market behind the project and its token TNSR.
This kind of operation has a term in the traditional tech world, called 'acquihire.' Large companies buy small teams to quickly acquire talent and technology, which is, in itself, a legitimate business practice.
But the problem lies in the special structure of the crypto circle.
The project party often raises funds from retail investors by selling tokens. But when an acquisition actually happens, the team and technology are sold for a good price, equity holders (usually the team and venture capitals) reap the benefits, while token holders, who do not legally possess 'equity' attributes, may end up with nothing.
Tokens have become an awkward existence. The project party attracts holders with narratives of 'governance rights' and 'usage rights,' but the real economic benefits and core asset disposal rights are often decoupled from the tokens.
The day before yesterday, in response to this situation, someone finally fired the first shot of resistance. The former CTO of Aave released a governance proposal, the core assertion being that all core assets of the Aave protocol, including intellectual property, brand, potential equity, and revenue, must be explicitly controlled by the Aave DAO and its token holders.
This is essentially a rights dispute between 'token holders' and the 'project development team.' Proposal supporters believe that the revenue generated by the project should return to the DAO treasury, to be distributed at the discretion of the token holders, rather than flowing into private addresses controlled by the team.
This incident exposed the deepest contradictions in the current industry; when we buy tokens, what exactly are we buying?
If tokens cannot represent ownership, cannot guarantee profit-sharing, and are even directly abandoned during an acquisition, then what is their core value? Is it merely a certificate of 'powering with love'?
When 'acquisition without tokens' becomes the norm, it reveals not only valuation bubbles but also the fundamental fragility of the token economic model regarding rights. This is no longer just a narrative issue, but a very real rights issue.
The story can be very touching, but when the tide goes out, or when the acquisition invitation arrives, who is dressed and who is swimming naked becomes clear.
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