Across Protocol Proposes ACX Token Supply Cap

Across Protocol co-founder Hart Lambur proposed permanently capping the supply of ACX tokens to one billion on Monday after criticism from LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino. If approved, this proposal would also renounce the ownership of the ACX token by Across Governance, setting ownership to 0x0 to prevent future changes through minting or burning.

Earlier, Pellegrino raised a “critical issue” with the Across token contract. However, the community pushed back, suggesting it was more about transparency than security flaws.

> “You mistakenly exposed what was meant to be an internal private function… allowing you to take [burn] tokens out of any wallet at any point in time,” Pellegrino said.

Pellegrino also claimed that Across and UMA Protocol contracts could infinitely mint tokens. He suggested ownership should be transferred to an immutable smart contract to prevent minting beyond the total supply and disallow burning and ownership transfer.

Across Protocol serves as a decentralized cross-chain bridge for asset transfers between Ethereum and Layer 2 networks, while UMA Protocol enables users to create synthetic assets and financial contracts using self-enforcing smart contracts.

Lambur’s Response: Disingenuous FUD

Lambur labeled Pellegrino’s allegations as “disingenuous FUD and fear-mongering,” asserting that the contracts are secure and audited by OpenZeppelin. Jota Carpanelli, OpenZeppelin's head of security, also addressed the claims, explaining that the mint and burn functionalities are controlled by a Safe multi-sig wallet and function correctly, downplaying the idea of a critical issue.

> “Are you joking? An audit is not a defense against an issue,” Pellegrino retorted.

Later, Lambur acknowledged Pellegrino’s mischaracterization but stated that the design decision was flawed, framing the proposal in the context of decentralization and transparency.

> “If it was a critical vulnerability, I would have never publicly posted it,” Pellegrino responded on X, insisting that most users are unaware their tokens could theoretically be deleted.

The current non-binding temperature check vote reveals that 99.5% of the community supports the proposed supply cap. ACX's price has fallen about 4% following these allegations, currently sitting at $0.28, per CoinGecko data.

The Block reached out for comments from both Lambur and Pellegrino.