Circular Founder Claims Axiom Bribery Only 1% Traceable to On-Chain Incentives

Circular founder Ben pointed out that the trading terminal Axiom charges traders fees through misleading validator bribes, routing funds to Lunar, a subsidiary of HelloMoon. Since April, Axiom traders have paid approximately $55.7 million in bribes to Lunar, but the latest analysis shows that only about 1% is traceable to additional on-chain validator incentives. Based on on-chain payment flows, Circular reconstructed the activities between Lunar and Axiom from April 26, 2026, to October 19, during which Lunar received 530,166 SOL in bribes, valued at approximately $55.67 million at $105/SOL, involving 189 million successful Axiom transactions. In the last 30 days, 45 million Axiom transactions made payments to Lunar, accounting for 80.6% of successful transactions; Lunar received 138,964 SOL, approximately $14.59 million, of which about 1,579 SOL was attributed to additional on-chain validator incentives, accounting for 1.14%. Ben also mentioned that after paying bribes as suggested by the Axiom interface, the identified additional priority fee increased by about 1% of the amount paid to Lunar. He stated that Axiom controls transaction routing and fee recommendations and has published the associated Lunar address on GitHub for verification.

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