Axelar has introduced Interchain Token Services (ITS) to address the complexities of distributing a token across multiple chains. This technology ensures that ERC-20 tokens maintain their attributes and fungibility while seamlessly traversing any of Axelar's 15 EVM-compatible blockchains. Jason Ma, Axelar's DeFi Head, emphasizes that ITS is permissionless and minimizes trust bridging via a mint or burn mechanism, a feature not yet available in the industry.

In contrast, LayerZero OFT, another solution, requires significant time and effort investment due to its non-code-free nature. Frax plans to launch its Ethereum rollup soon, starting with the implementation of ITS through Fraxtal. Co-founder Nader Ghazvini anticipates strong developer interest in their chain with this solution.

By integrating Interchain Token Services initially, Fraxtal Layer 2 facilitates seamless interoperability among developers, allowing connections at the grassroots level without coding. ITS enables the distribution of new tokens across multiple chains, offering a token manager for synchronizing traditional token positions across different blockchains, akin to Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP).

Teams prefer conventional minting methods for essential chains like Polygon, Ethereum, and Arbitrum, while using ITS with an Axelar variant for other chains. Although ITS currently supports only EVM-chains, Axelar plans to expand its support to Cosmos chains in the future.