Circular Founder Ben: About 1% of Axiom's Lunar Bribes Traceable to On-Chain Incentives
Circular founder Ben said Axiom charged traders misleadingly labeled “validator bribes” and routed the funds to Lunar, a transaction landing service owned by HelloMoon. According to ChainCatcher, Ben said Axiom traders had paid Lunar about 530,166 SOL in bribes since April, based on Circular’s reconstruction of on-chain payment flows from April 26 to October 19, 2026. The payments corresponded to 189 million successful Axiom transactions that paid Lunar.In the latest 30-day period, 45 million Axiom transactions paid Lunar, representing 80.6% of successful Axiom transactions. Lunar received 138,964 SOL during that period, of which at most about 1,579 SOL, or 1.14%, was attributable to additional on-chain validator incentives, according to the analysis.Ben cited on-chain examples from September 26 and October 7, and said that when he paid the bribes recommended by Axiom’s interface, identifiable increases in priority fees were about 1% of the amounts paid to Lunar. He questioned whether Axiom received a share of the tip revenue and said Axiom controls transaction routing and fee recommendations. Circular published Lunar addresses it said were associated with Axiom on GitHub for verification. The figures and claims reflect Circular’s on-chain analysis and Ben’s assessment; the post noted that the percentages may not account for other service costs or off-chain payments, and its estimate of Axiom’s share was not based on tracked payments to the company.