Bridge uses same key custody for >30% validators
Axelar Network's assessment for RD-F-156 — scored yellow on the v1.7.0 rubric. The evidence below is the curator's reasoning for this score.
Evidence summary #
Top 5 validators (Cosmostation, Everstake, Figment, Imperator.co, Citadel.one) control ~21% of visible stake. No single entity confirmed above 30% stake. Quadratic weighting reduces individual concentration impact further. However, institutional validators commonly use major cloud providers, introducing potential co-custodian risk. No OSINT evidence of a single custodian holding >30% of validator keys, but ASN/custody verification is not possible via available sources.
Sources #
- DocsAxelar Security — quadratic vote weightAxelar security — quadratic voting reduces concentration: 'number of votes each validator may cast is equivalent to the square root of their stake'retrieved 2026-05-17
- Axelar Validator Concentration Datastaking-explorer.com/staking/axelar — top 5 validators controlling ~21% of visible stake; no single entity above 5%retrieved 2026-05-17
Methodology #
Determine whether >30% of bridge validators share a single key custodian.
See the full factor methodology and distribution across all protocols →