Axelar
DAMASCUSBridge / Messaging · Multi-chain · $500M+ TVL · 10 contracts
Public risk assessment — scores are produced with the same methodology as monitored protocols
Security Profile
72
68
75
55
58
78
50
75
60
72
99
72
68
75
55
58
78
50
75
60
72
99
Audit History
Bug Bounty Program
Assessment
Cross-chain messaging protocol with 52-month track record, no exploits. D4 and D10 low due to extreme cross-chain composition surface (60+ chains). Governance concerns (D5) and validator centralization risk limit score.
Dimension Breakdown
How scores work →- Validator set controls message relay (threshold signature)
- Gateway contract with admin upgrade capability
- Governance multisig can pause/unpause
- Concerns: validator collusion threshold, upgrade key centralization
- AXL token staking secures network (moderate security budget)
- No direct lending/borrowing economics to exploit
- Bridge relay fees are minimal attack surface
- Risk: validator slashing economics untested at scale
- Validators act as oracle for cross-chain state
- Multi-validator attestation reduces single-point failure
- No external price oracle dependency
- Risk: validator set IS the oracle, shared trust assumption
- Mainnet live since January 2022 (52 months)
- No protocol-level exploit (bridge hacks are common in sector)
- Processed billions in cross-chain volume
- Z-factor: 0.897
- Maximum resilience under independent adversarial testing
- Comprehensive security coverage across all attack surfaces
- Active bounty program incentivizes continuous scrutiny
- No validated adversarial findings — score set to neutral baseline
- Cross-chain message relay = extreme compositional surface
- GMP (General Message Passing) can compose arbitrary logic
- Connected to 60+ chains, each adds risk surface
- Squid Router integration adds DeFi composition layer
- Cosmos SDK governance with AXL token voting
- Gateway upgradeable via governance proposals
- Validator governance concerns raised by community
- Limited timelock visibility on critical operations
- Core product IS cross-chain messaging
- 60+ chain connections = massive bridge surface
- Validator-based relay model (not trustless)
- Governance concerns about validator centralization
- Professional team (Interchain.io / Axelar Foundation)
- Validator monitoring infrastructure
- Incident response capabilities demonstrated
- Operational complexity of 60+ chain support
- Appears in 1 cross-protocol cascade chain(s)
- Failure cascades to 1 downstream protocol(s)
- Member of 2 dependency cluster(s)
- Score: 99/100 (higher = more isolated from systemic risk)
- Source: cross_protocol_composition.json dependency analysis
- Cosmos SDK base (well-maintained)
- Solidity gateway contracts on EVM chains
- Multiple chain deployments increase supply chain surface
- Dependency on relayer infrastructure
Risk Drivers
Primary risk factors driving this score, ordered by severity.
Adversarial Risk Signals
Observable security posture indicators. These signals reflect publicly verifiable information and responsible disclosure outcomes. No specific vulnerability details are exposed.
Score History & Verification
Score provenance tracking begins with the next reassessment.
On-Chain Data
- Protocol Slug
- "axelar"
- Oracle
- BRORegistry (Base)
- Evidence
- IPFS (pinned)
- Staleness Threshold
- 24 hours
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