Avalanche Foundation’s ‘Multiverse’ Incentive Program To Invest up to $290M

The program will focus on supporting blockchain-enabled gaming, DeFi, NFTs and institutional use cases

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Avalanche Multiverse’s program and investments will be divided into at least six phases to support new cohorts and projects
  • Up to four million AVAX tokens will fund the program

A non-profit fund for the Avalanche blockchain has rolled out an incentive program with millions of dollars earmarked for the proof-of-stake ecosystem.

Up to four million AVAX tokens, or about $290 million at the time of publication, will fund the program, also known as Avalanche Multiverse.

The initiative will aim to grow its “subnet” functionality, which helps develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche. Subnets are natively integrated with Avalanche’s broader ecosystem, available in an unlimited supply and allow for custom implementations — or the ability to tack on features from other chains.

Avalanche Multiverse’s program and investments will be divided into at least six phases to support new cohorts and projects but will not be constrained to a specific time period. It’s a non-profit organization that is run separately from Ava Labs.

The first subnet to receive an investment from the program is DeFi Kingdoms, an NFT gaming project. It will get up to $15 million in incentives through AVAX tokens, as well as the game’s new Avalanche-native token CRYSTAL and existing token JEWEL.

Ava Labs, a core developer of Avalanche, will also partner with the Aave Companies, GoldenTree Asset Management, Wintermute, Jump Crypto, Valkyrie, Securitize and other organizations to build the subnet. This will allow regulated institutions that participate to leverage its subnets and access institutional DeFi (decentralized finance) after completing know-your-customer (KYC) checks.

“Avalanche Subnets enable us to create an ideal environment for institutions to migrate on-chain and experience the power of DeFi protocols first-hand as users rather than just as investors,” Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, said in a statement. “This is a significant leap toward a future where the barriers between traditional and decentralized finance cease to exist.”

In November, Avalanche launched a $200 million fund to support ecosystem growth on its blockchain. It also closed a $230 million token sale, backed by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain, a few months prior. 

Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, had a price of $75.39 as of 1:30 pm ET on Tuesday, according to CoinMarketCap data. The coin’s market capitalization is near $19.9 billion, which ranks the token as the 10th largest cryptocurrency, behind Solana (SOL) and ahead of Binance USD (BUSD), the data show.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

tg trading bot report graphic.png

Research

Telegram trading bots have found their primary niche in highly speculative token launches and retail-dominated memecoin markets, with many features specifically tailored to token sniping and copy-trading strategies.

article-image

Ethereum is hoping that increased DA will grow user demand — and its profits through DA fees

article-image

11 years ago, Bitcoin contributors prevented a supply crisis… two centuries from now

article-image

Both samczsun and ZachXBT have issued warnings after the Bybit hack last month

article-image

The investor criticized Michael Saylor’s plan to render his personal bitcoin holdings inaccessible to anyone else forever

article-image

The exchange has structural defenses and protocols to limit manipulations

article-image

Upshift is being spun out of August, which raised $10 million earlier this month