Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62583d7c49a9d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The reported raise follows an incentive program aiming to develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche</li>
 <li>Previous investors in the Avalanche ecosystem include Andreessen Horowitz, Three Arrows Capital and Polychain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The lead developer of the Avalanche blockchain is reportedly in the midst of a funding round that puts its valuation at $5.25 billion. 



The latest Ava Labs raise, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-14/crypto-startup-ava-labs-is-said-to-raise-at-5-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Bloomberg News</a>, amounts to $350 million. The news organization cited “people familiar with the discussions.” 



A spokesperson for the company did not immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Founded in 2018, Ava Labs had <a href="https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avalanche-ava-monthly-update-may-2019-7a78657217f4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $6 million</a> in February 2019 from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain.



Avalanche <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-closes-230m-token-sale-backed-by-three-arrows-capital-polychain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed a $230 million token sale</a> led by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain in September. The company said at the time that it would use the proceeds to accelerate the growth of DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other new asset classes on its blockchain. 



The Avalanche Foundation also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-foundations-multiverse-incentive-program-to-invest-up-to-290m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed an incentive program</a> last month that would put up to four million AVAX tokens — currently worth about $312 million — toward a program called Avalanche Multiverse. The initiative aims to grow its “subnet” functionality, which helps develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche.



Currently, Avalanche’s C-chain, which is its Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contract chain, carries the bulk of its transaction volume. 



Along with other layer-1 protocols like Solana, Cardano and Polkadot, Avalanche has sought to solve for scale, speed and cost issues on the Ethereum blockchain. It touts itself as the fastest smart contracts platform, as measured by time-to-finality, and as having the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol.&nbsp;



Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, had a price of about $78 Thursday morning and a market capitalization of roughly $21 billion, according to data compiled by Blockworks.&nbsp;



Ava Labs President John Wu <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/das-2021-ava-labs-wu-says-economies-will-depend-on-next-gen-layer-1s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit</a> last September that the new wave of Ethereum competitors would be the home of economies. He noted at the time that “you don’t have an economy unless transactions are easily done and affordably done.” 



Ethereum is working to merge its mainnet with the Beacon chain proof-of-stake system later this year, in part to increase its energy efficiency. At a market cap of $367 billion and a DeFi total value locked of about $117 billion, it remains considerably larger than all other EVM-compatible smart contract platforms combined.



The report of Ava Labs’ funding round comes as crypto companies have reeled in huge valuations in recent months.&nbsp;



FTX’s company valuation <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-valued-at-32-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rose to $32 billion</a> after its funding round in January.  



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-aims-to-raise-400m-to-bring-valuation-over-7b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> and <a href="https://consensys.net/blog/press-release/consensys-raises-450m-series-d-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConsenSys</a> completed funding rounds in November and March, respectively, valuing the businesses at roughly $7 billion.



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Ava Labs Reportedly Hits $5.25B Valuation With New Raise

<div id="highlights-block_618055111404a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Support for projects will include equity investments and token purchases, as well as technology, business development and ecosystem integration support</li>
 <li>Avalanche’s total value locked has increased from $312 million in August to about $8.4 billion today.</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A new $200 million fund launched Monday will focus on the growth of decentralized finance, enterprise applications, NFTs and culture applications across the Avalanche blockchain.



Called Blizzard, the fund will also look for opportunities to support emerging use cases such as security token issuances, liquidity providers and self-sovereign identity. It comprises contributions from the Avalanche Foundation, Ava Labs, Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital and Dragonfly Capital, among others.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“A fund dedicated to supporting and cultivating innovation on Avalanche is a massive step in the maturation of the Avalanche ecosystem,” John Wu, president of Ava Labs, told Blockworks in an email. “It has investment from some of the largest, and most strategic investors in this space who have strong track records of building value within communities.” </blockquote>



Avalanche launched in September 2020 and now has roughly 320 projects building on the platform, including DeFi projects Tether, SushiSwap, Chainlink, Circle and The Graph, as well as more than 1,000 validator nodes staking tokens.&nbsp;



The blockchain announced its plan in August to introduce a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-to-add-defi-protocols-aave-and-curve/">$180 million liquidity mining incentive program</a>. That followed the launch of the <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=7-2Fu-2BFt8h-2F-2B8IbrV7wG96TB3SDjQMGMXyrg0AvkRCdnssRtYMHuTa71ctKHimdqNFOW5F_AtBOqtbz2wW6S0rSGnE7surmL2HP9eJM7-2F3Q6xGwu6sE3WjGc9HndL-2FskgH4k61EigRf9MfCGJvjQ7rkatSq5cegFYk-2FfVWZRFOYxlYptgCUP9PizJHpP15YX0Srecmvh3NRgRQ0jVSgb5cdgFGrj8sQwJgxFIBg7W5aDwbQFcEjUUg9pnxeMg3q7gnAU1eK7P-2FmjJ7XDIHdzD8zoHs6T5yX0P-2F1GrvT0SsML92m1YpHL-2BrAQYiLmlN-2BHfHxsuPzp-2FQJahd-2Bkdh235BRHlMtx75zbv9Xpc4mSmtA3jiaYEEURssHNTThLVYfOLDPoxqQ1uBidMxwnIneZg-2BYTtdVfg-3D-3D">Avalanche Bridge</a>, which transfers assets between blockchains.



Wu noted that Avalanche has recently hit all-time highs in user activity. It now has more than 500,000 unique addresses and assets transferred from Ethereum through the Avalanche Bridge have grown to $5.2 billion. Total value locked has increased from $312 million in August to about $8.4 billion today.&nbsp;



“This influx of activity aligns with user demand for more innovation in new use cases and applications, And Blizzard will play a vital role in supporting, and accelerating, that evolution,” Wu explained.



Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, had a price of $65 as of 4 pm ET on Monday, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_PE3oeP2QHvc1QhYwiVCjBQ6mqptDS4TDJ18U_L1bBlQ-1635783566-0-gqNtZGzNAiWjcnBszQeR'">CoinGecko</a>. The coin’s market capitalization is roughly $14.3 billion, which is currently the 14th highest, behind Chainlink (LINK) and ahead of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), the data shows.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Fund managers in the spaces of blockchain and DeFi research and development, capital markets and finance, business development and operations, marketing and community development will oversee the deployment of capital.



Though Wu said Avalanche can not yet disclose any potential investments, he noted that the fund will pursue projects that it deems to be most innovative and equipped to deliver new functionality for the Avalanche community.&nbsp;



Along with equity investments and token purchases, Blizzard will help projects accelerate its technology and partnership efforts.



“There’s still so much untapped potential in the blockchain ecosystem, including use cases that haven’t been possible with transaction finality in the range of 15 to 60 seconds, rather than near-instant as you see on Avalanche,” Wu said. “By supporting all of these projects, Blizzard is positioned to enrich the Avalanche user experience today, but it also has the potential to fund the next great culture or gaming application that breaks into the mainstream.”

Avalanche Launches $200M Fund to Support Ecosystem Growth

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_6143580ac52c3" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Round was led by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain with participation from R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency and Lvna Capital</li>
 <li>Avalanche said the proceeds will go to fueling the growth of its on-chain DeFi ecosystem, NFTs, as well as some new asset types</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Layer-1 protocol Avalanche announced today that it had closed a $230 million token sale in June with participation from some of the best known investors in the token space.&nbsp;



According to a release put out by the Avalanche Foundation, the round was led by Singapore’s Three Arrows Capital, Polychain, and included participation from R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital as well as an unnamed group of angel investors.



The Avalanche Foundation says that it will use the proceeds to accelerate the rapid growth of DeFi, NFTs, and other new asset classes on the Avalanche blockchain.&nbsp;



Speaking at Blockworks’ recent Digital Asset Summit in New York, Ava Labs, the development house behind Avalanche, president John Wu, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/das-2021-ava-labs-wu-says-economies-will-depend-on-next-gen-layer-1s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said that</a> layer-1 protocols like Avalanche will be where the crypto economy will be.



“You can have internet of value, you can have ecosystems, but you don’t have an economy unless transactions are easily done and affordably done,” Wu said at DAS.



Wu believes that the layer-1 ecosystem will be a ‘winner-take-most’ network, where the market rewards the platform that can quickly and efficiently solve Ethereum’s pain points.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“In the crypto, DeFi world, stickiness for users is an issue…so the competitive advantage for a protocol is going to be how fast can they innovate and how fast their business development team can get the best developers and best projects and decentralized apps onto their chain,” Wu said.</blockquote>



In order to help generate this competitive advantage, Avalanche recently unveiled a $180 million liquidity mining incentive — a form of yield farming where DeFi traders earn an additional token on top of the expected yield — to bring projects over to its protocol.



“Avalanche has quickly turned promise and potential into real-world impact and value creation for DeFi users and developers,” said Emin Gün Sirer, director at the Avalanche Foundation, in a press release. “The community of builders rallying around the network is a testament to its competitive edge, and there is still so much potential yet to be tapped at the intersection of institutional and decentralized finance on Avalanche.”



AVAX, the eponymous token behind the Avalanche protocol, is up 21% today to $64 on the news, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/avalanche" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinGecko</a>. It’s currently the twelfth largest digital asset with a market cap of $14 billion. In comparison, Solana, one of Avalanche’s competitors, has a market cap of just over $46 billion and trades at $154, but is down 18% on-week given the protocol’s<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sol-stumbles-as-solana-struggles-with-technical-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> technical troubles</a>. 



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