Avalanche Secures $250M to Advance Blockchain Ecosystem and Launch Avalanche9000 Upgrade
In a significant move aimed at bolstering its blockchain ecosystem, the Layer 1 platform Avalanche has raised $250 million through a locked token sale. The funding round, led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital, involves tokens subject to vesting or lock-up periods, underscoring the long-term commitments of its backers.
Additional participants in the raise included SkyBridge, SCB Limited, Hivemind, Big Brain Holdings, Hypersphere, Lvna Capital, Republic Capital, Morgan Creek Digital, FinTech Collective, CMCC Global, Superscrypt, Cadenza, Chorus One, and Tané Labs, among others. Emin Gün Sirer, a co-founder of Avalanche, noted that the primary goal was to attract partners aligned with the project’s vision of building out the network. Sirer estimates the Avalanche Foundation holds approximately $3 billion worth of its native AVAX tokens. Previously, in 2021, Avalanche raised $230 million through a similar token sale led by Polychain.
Supporting the Avalanche9000 Upgrade
Proceeds from this round will help propel the forthcoming Avalanche9000 upgrade. The testnet for Avalanche9000 launched in November, complete with over $40 million in retroactive rewards for developers who build on the platform. According to a blog post released Thursday, Avalanche9000 aims to create scalable, purpose-built Layer 1 blockchains while reducing deployment expenses by nearly 100% and cutting transaction costs by a factor of 25.
“Our support of Avalanche, and the growth and scalability of blockchain protocols, is essential to the future of this industry,” said Jason Urban, Global Head of Trading at Galaxy. “At Galaxy, we are providing Avalanche with strategic resources and services to encourage institutional participation and ensure they lead the next wave of blockchain adoption with Avalanche9000.”
Expanding the Ecosystem
Avalanche reports that more than 500 Layer 1 chains are already in development across various sectors, including the tokenization of real-world assets, loyalty programs, gaming, payments, and institutional initiatives. Projects such as DeFi Kingdoms, Dexalot, Off The Grid, and Lamina1 are currently building on the network.
“Avalanche is uniquely positioned to be a driving force in the evolution of on-chain institutional finance,” said Ben Forman, founder of ParaFi Capital. “Its architectural advantages, like rapid transaction finality and high throughput, coupled with customizable virtual machines, make it ideal for securely and compliantly issuing and managing tokenized assets. That’s why ParaFi chose Avalanche—via Securitize—to tokenize a portion of our latest venture fund.”
The Avalanche9000 mainnet release is slated for early 2025, promising enhanced scalability, streamlined development, and improved tools for decentralized application builders. In a related development, Uplink became the first decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) platform to launch on Avalanche on Thursday, seeking to increase internet access by incentivizing users to share existing connectivity or deploy new infrastructure in underserved areas.