Cross-chain, also known as chain abstraction, full chain, and chain interoperability, has three giants in this field, namely Wormhole, Axelar, and LayerZero. Among them, Wormhole and Axelar have been launched, and LayerZero has not yet issued a coin. Today we analyze the three giants from a data perspective to see who has the most potential?

1 Supported public chains

As a chain interoperability protocol, the number of public chains supported is a very important indicator. According to the official data of three

Axelar supports a total of 66 public chains.

Wormhole supports more than 30 public chains.

LayerZero supports more than 50 public chains.

In terms of the number of public chains supported, Axelar is bullish. The specific public chains supported show their own characteristics. The core of Axelar is the EVM series and the Cosmos series. Because it is developed based on the Cosmos framework, it supports a large number of Cosmos series public chains, such as Celestia, Dymension, Fetch.AI, etc.

The public chains supported by Wormhole include not only the EVM series and the Cosmos series, but also Aptos/Sui of the Move framework, Polkadot, and Solana.

LayerZero is mainly in the EVM series, and has begun to try other series, such as the Aptos cross-chain bridge and the Merlin cross-chain bridge with the BTC ecosystem.

2. Cross-chain information transmission

The top 3 public chains for Axelar information transmission are Polygon, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum

Wormhole’s top 3 are Arbitrum, Solana, and BNB Chain

LayerZero's top 3 are Polygon, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum

In terms of cross-chain information, we found that Axelar and LayerZero’s Top3 public chains all overlap, and Wormhole’s biggest feature is Solana.

From the perspective of the amount of cross-chain information

Wormhole’s average daily cross-chain information is 4,000 pieces. Axelar provides monthly information, which is 5,600 pieces per day. LayerZero’s daily cross-chain information is 270,000 pieces.

Although LayerZero’s cross-chain information is dozens of times that of the other two, I think the main contribution comes from the interaction of the gamblers. LayerZero is the only one that has not issued a coin. It is a project that the gamblers must participate in. Once it goes online, its real users are still unknown. From the trend of change, the amount of LayerZero’s cross-chain information this year is lower than last year. The monthly data in March this year is less than 50% of the peak last year.

But we can see from Axelar that its data is steadily improving, because Axelar has been online for a year and there is no such thing as airdrops.

Axelar’s ​​monthly information has increased from 59,000 in September last year to 170,000 in March. This data reflects Axelar’s ​​more realistic data, and also reflects that when the market is hot, the demand for cross-chain will also increase synchronously.

3 Financing and Market Value

From the perspective of financing, the three giants are backed by top investment institutions. LayerZero is led by A16Z, and there are also first-tier VCs such as Sequoia and Coinbase. Axelar has investments from Dragonfly, Polychain, and Binance Labs. Wormhole has investments from Coinbase, Multicoin Capital, etc.

In terms of valuation at the time of financing, LayerZero has the highest valuation, reaching $3 billion. Wormhole's valuation is also very high, reaching $2.5 billion. Its current FDV is $10.7 billion, and it has a 4-fold profit. In comparison, Axelar has the lowest valuation, and its current FDV is basically the same as its financing valuation.

4 Conclusion

In terms of the number of involved public chains, Axelar has the highest number of 66, while Wormhole has the least number of more than 30. The public chain development of the three giants has their own advantages and development directions. Axelar's advantage lies in the Cosmos series. Now most modular public chains will be developed based on Cosmos, including infrastructure Celestia and Dymension, which may bring great growth in the future. Wormhole focuses on Solana, and also supports Aptos/Sui and Polkadot of the Move framework. LayerZero focuses on layer2, and is now actively trying Aptos and BTC layer2.

From the cross-chain information, the number of LayerZero is dozens of times that of the other two, but the real retention after removing the "money-grabbing party" is still unknown. The remaining Axelar data is higher than Wormhole. From the previous data, only Axelar has been growing steadily over the past year.

From the perspective of the price potential, I think Axelar is more worthy of attention. Wormhole's data is worse than Axelar's, but its FDV is about 10 times that of Axelar. The real data of LayerZero is still unknown, but its financing valuation has reached 3B, and it may reach 10B after listing, which is also 10 times that of Axelar.