Axelar Network node operators validate cross-chain transactions. They currently take a cut of transfer fees (supply-side fees).

Axelar Network is an interoperability protocol that allows for decentralized transfers of data and assets between blockchains. Axelar Network was founded by Sergey Gorbunov and Georgios Vlachos, and was launched in 2022. This dashboard currently only includes data for the following chains: Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Celo, Ethereum, Fantom, Optimism, and Polygon.

AXL tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of transfer fees paid by transfer senders (revenue). Axelar Network’s investors include Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures, etc.

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Axelar Network

# Axelar Network Average revenue per user (ARPU) Methodology

## 1. Overview

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Axelar measures the daily revenue generated per active user of the Axelar interoperability protocol. ARPU is calculated by dividing total daily revenue by the number of daily active users. This metric helps assess the monetization efficiency and user value generation of Axelar's cross-chain infrastructure. Currently, the revenue component is set to zero, resulting in an ARPU of 0 across all time periods.

## 2. Data sources

The calculation relies on several key data sources:

- **Axelar Gateway event logs**: Parsed `Gateway_ContractCallWithToken_event`, `Gateway_ContractCall_event`, `Gateway_Executed_event`, and `Gateway_TokenSent_event` logs from Axelar Gateway contracts deployed across nine supported chains
- **Blockchain transaction records**: Transaction data from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BSC, Celo, Fantom, Optimism, and Polygon networks to identify user addresses and transaction contexts
- **Token transfer events**: ERC-20 token transfer logs from all supported chains to capture token movement volumes and associate them with Gateway activities
- **End-of-day price feeds**: Daily closing prices for AXL tokens to enable USD conversion of protocol fees
- **Token metadata**: Symbol and decimal place information for tokens involved in cross-chain transfers
- **Chain mapping data**: Internal mappings between chain identifiers to prevent double-counting of cross-chain transactions

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Daily active user identification

- **Purpose**: Identify and count unique users who interact with Axelar's cross-chain infrastructure daily
- **Logic**: Users are identified as transaction senders (`from_address`) across three types of Axelar activities. First, GMP (General Message Passing) messaging transactions are captured through `Gateway_ContractCallWithToken_event` and `Gateway_ContractCall_event` logs. Second, destination chain token transfers are identified via `Gateway_Executed_event` logs paired with corresponding token transfer events. Third, source chain token transfers are captured through `Gateway_TokenSent_event` logs, but only for transfers to non-EVM destination chains to avoid double-counting with destination events. Transaction timestamps are truncated to day boundaries, and users are deduplicated using HyperLogLog aggregation across multiple dimensions including project level, individual chains, user types, and product identifiers.
- **Key fields**: `user_address` from transaction sender identification, `timestamp` truncated to daily boundaries, `chain` for multi-chain aggregation, `user_type` marked as 'Sender'

### Component B: Revenue calculation

- **Purpose**: Calculate total daily revenue generated from Axelar protocol usage
- **Logic**: The theoretical revenue model is based on GMP transaction fees where users pay 0.2 AXL tokens per transaction to Axelar validators. Transaction counts are multiplied by 0.1 to avoid double-counting between source and destination chain events. These AXL-denominated fees would be converted to USD using end-of-day price feeds for the AXL token. However, in the current implementation, the revenue is explicitly set to 0 regardless of the fee calculation, effectively nullifying any revenue recognition.
- **Key fields**: `fees` calculated from transaction counts and AXL token amounts, `token_address` for AXL token identification, price conversion to USD values

### Component C: Transaction counting for fee basis

- **Purpose**: Count distinct transactions across Axelar's three activity types to serve as the basis for fee calculations
- **Logic**: Transaction counts are aggregated daily from three sources: GMP messaging transactions from Gateway contract calls, destination chain transfers from executed events, and source chain transfers from TokenSent events. Transactions are identified by unique `transaction_hash` values and deduplicated using approximate distinct counting. Daily aggregation uses timestamp truncation to day boundaries, and counts are grouped by chain, business line, and product identifiers.
- **Key fields**: `transaction_hash` for unique transaction identification, `transaction_count` from approximate distinct counting, daily `timestamp` boundaries

### Final aggregation

- **Combining components**: The ARPU calculation divides the revenue component by the daily active user count using the `calculate_arpu` macro. Revenue data (currently set to 0) is joined with daily active user counts based on matching timestamps and dimensional attributes.
- **Currency conversion**: AXL token fees are converted to USD using end-of-day price feeds, though this conversion is ultimately unused due to the zero revenue setting
- **Time aggregation**: All data is aggregated to daily boundaries using timestamp truncation, with consistent day-level granularity maintained across all components
- **Final calculation**: ARPU equals total daily revenue divided by total daily active users. Given that revenue is set to 0, the resulting ARPU is 0 for all time periods. Missing days are filled with zeros using the fill_zeros strategy to ensure complete time series data.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

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