As the crypto world anxiously awaits the approval of several institutional Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, Avalanche has been carving its own path, unveiling groundbreaking upgrades, forging strategic partnerships, and showcasing impressive ecosystem metrics.
This report aims to encapsulate the most recent milestones within the Avalanche universe, spotlighting the advancements in its partnerships with respected teams across web2 and web3, along with robust transaction activity and network performance. While we've strived to be comprehensive, some nuances may have been overlooked. For a more detailed exploration, please check out Avalanche's Twitter and their blog as they’re invaluable resources. Now, let's navigate through Avalanche's recent endeavors.
The third quarter has been nothing short of transformative for Avalanche. The Avalanche Summit in Barcelona not only garnered attention but also set the stage for future innovations. The Cortina Mainnet Upgrade further fortified Avalanche's commitment to refining its consensus mechanism. As we previously highlighted, Ava Labs' Evergreen testnet, Spruce, has been a magnet for industry stalwarts like T. Rowe Price Associates and Wellington Management. With its promise to integrate third-party applications, assets, and processes, Spruce is poised to redefine on-chain trade execution and settlement.
The collaboration between Avalanche, Playthink and the Japanese enterprise, Loyalty Marketing, is another testament to Avalanche's expansive vision. With the aim to bring Loyalty Marketing’s renowned loyalty rewards program, “Ponta”, on-chain, this partnership is set to cater to approximately 100 million user accounts, revolutionizing the way digital collectibles like NFTs are issued and distributed. The combination of these teams working together on a consumer blockchain product is extremely impressive, with the scope extending beyond traditional crypto goals.
Furthermore, the partnership between Korean game publisher Neowiz and Ava Labs is pushing the boundaries of Web3 gaming. Neowiz's anticipated game, Lies of P, coupled with their impressive Q2 revenue of
51M
USD, showcases the potential of this collaboration.
Sigma Prime's involvement is another feather in Avalanche's cap. With a focus on enhancing AvalancheGo's stability, Sigma Prime's expertise in security will ensure that the Avalanche network remains robust and secure.
But Avalanche's journey isn't solely about partnerships and enhancements. The network's performance metrics, such as the surge in monthly active addresses and transaction count, are a testament to its growing influence. In the realm of cross-chain integrations, Avalanche is emerging as a versatile Omnichain Hub, catering to a variety of applications across sectors. As Avalanche continues its upward trajectory, the future looks promising.
Network Performance Updates
We’ve highlighted a few graphics from Dune and Avalanche’s official block explorers showcasing network activity through the year so far. While overall activity across Avalanche has fallen off since the peaks of the bull market, there are still a wide variety of exciting developments that we’ll highlight later giving new and existing users a reason to return to the chain.
Taking a look at this excellent Dune board from sixdegree, we see that Avalanche’s monthly transaction count has recovered significantly from the lows of early 2022, boosted with some help from the variety of institutional partnerships Avalabs has landed which has sparked significant interest in Avalanche subnets. For the most part, this monthly transaction count has stabilized and hasn’t gone down after its levels spiked. As more users look to Avalanche to explore opportunities across DeFi, NFTs, and the numerous advantages of building on Avalanche, this activity should only increase further.
Additionally, Avalanche’s monthly active user count has grown tremendously, setting new highs recently with close to 1 million users a month. Much of this can be attributed to the previously mentioned institutional subnet partnerships, but renewed interest has come as more look to explore some of the opportunities we’ll highlight later.
DeFi Overview
Over the past month, the Avalanche blockchain has seen its TVL fall by approximately $124.64 million. This decline indicates a shift in capital allocation and shares the same price action as the broader DeFi market after issues with Curve Finance led to an increase in the mass exodus of TVL. It’s worth noting that DeFi is highly volatile, especially on alternative L1s like Avalanche, and isn’t encompassing the success Avalanche has seen throughout 2023. TVL remains fairly stable at roughly $1.3 billion at the time of writing, indicating at least a general interest of users to keep capital deposited in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Avalanche Ecosystem Highlights
Now that we’ve taken a closer look at what’s been going on across Avalanche on a broader level, let’s explore these partnerships and other exciting announcements that should continue to light the ecosystem up and provide value to users of all kinds.
Avalanche Insights
Avalanche has been actively engaging with teams from both the crypto and traditional financial sectors that have recently launched tokenized US money market funds, T-bills, and similar short-duration products. Through discussions with over 20 of these teams, Avalanche has been exploring their deployment strategies and go-to-market (GTM) plans, which often aim to attract on-chain capital. To better understand the landscape, Avalanche surveyed partners about their treasury management, stablecoin balances, and on-chain yields. Feedback from nearly 100 entities, including protocols, DAOs, hedge funds, and venture capital funds, revealed several key insights:
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Different personas, like Protocol & DAO Treasuries, Liquid Token Funds, Quant Funds, DeFi Funds, Digital Asset Managers, VC Funds, and Family Offices, have varied perspectives on on-chain cash management. For instance, Protocol & DAO Treasuries are still establishing their treasury management processes, while Liquid Token Funds are comfortable with established dApps. Quant Funds are potential buyers of tokenized T-bills, and DeFi Funds focus on yield-generating strategies. Digital Asset Managers lean towards traditional finance, VC Funds have a strategic approach to on-chain yield, and most Family Offices are distant from on-chain investments.
Balancer x Avalanche
Balancer, a leading decentralized automated market maker (AMM) with over 1B in assets locked, has expanded to Avalanche to stimulate the growth of liquid staking and introduce new DeFi opportunities. Recognizing Avalanche's capabilities, including high throughput, rapid finality, and scalability through custom Subnets, Balancer aims to offer a more adaptable DeFi tech stack. As part of this expansion, Balancer will partner with four primary Avalanche Liquid Staking Token (LST) protocols, consolidating the Avalanche LST market.
Balancer's unique approach to DeFi infrastructure, especially its Composable Stable Pools, ensures that yield-bearing tokens' full benefits are channeled to liquidity providers. These pools utilize an embedded rate provider that continuously updates the token ratio, ensuring that yield accrual benefits the LPs. Additionally, Balancer's Boosted Pools merge its Liquidity Pools with single-sided yield markets, maximizing LP positions. In standard Liquidity Pools, a mere 20% of liquidity aids swaps. However, Boosted Pools redirect idle liquidity to external yield-generating protocols, offering users an added Liquidity Mining incentive source. Key Avalanche LST protocols, including sAVAX by BENQI, ankrAVAX by Ankr, yyAVAX by Yield Yak, and ggAVAX by GoGoPool, will collaborate with Balancer to enhance Avalanche's LST offerings. This partnership is anticipated to redefine LSTfi on Avalanche, with Balancer poised to become the primary destination for staked derivatives on the platform.
CavalRe and Multiswap
Multiswap, a novel "multi-asset" decentralized exchange, has been introduced on Avalanche with the ambition to revolutionize on-chain token exchanges. Developed by Eric Forgy and his CavalRe team, Multiswap capitalizes on Avalanche's rapidity and adaptability, allowing users to swap potentially hundreds of tokens in a single transaction. A notable feature of Multiswap is its ability to host pools with any number of tokens, even tokenized off-chain assets. This capability was demonstrated by CavalRe with a mockup of the S&P 500 represented in a single Multiswap pool, offering traders 125K trading pairs without fragmenting liquidity. Such pools enable Liquidity Providers (LPs) to gain exposure to all assets within, resembling the properties of a rebalancing ETF or index fund, but in a decentralized manner. Instead of incurring fees, LPs on Multiswap can potentially earn from transaction fees. As Multiswap evolves, it plans to delve into diverse pools, including those in FX, commodities, and equity markets, each resembling distinct ETFs. Forgy envisions Multiswap as the foundational element of a broader CavalRe ecosystem aimed at reshaping capital markets.
CavalRe, founded by Eric Forgy in October 2020, initially aimed to become a licensed reinsurer and capital management solutions provider. However, a pivot to DeFi occurred in September 2021 upon recognizing the potential of AMMs for efficiently pricing illiquid assets, such as insurance risks. Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Head of DeFi and DevRel at Ava Labs, praised Multiswap's innovative approach, emphasizing the potential it holds when combined with Avalanche's capabilities. The Avalanche DeFi community is keen to observe how both sophisticated individuals and major financial institutions will leverage and expand upon this innovative platform.
Playthink x Avalanche
Japanese company Loyalty Marketing is collaborating with blockchain service provider PlayThink to transition its popular loyalty rewards program, "Ponta", to blockchain by the end of 2023 using Avalanche's Subnet infrastructure. This move aims to offer Web3 services to Loyalty Marketing's vast user base of approximately 100 million, which includes the issuance and distribution of digital collectibles like NFTs on a massive scale.
The decision to utilize Avalanche's Subnet was influenced by its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contract and its rapid transaction finality. Subnets are also highly adaptable, enabling PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing to design a high-speed blockchain tailored to serve hundreds of millions of users.
Loyalty Marketing's CEO, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, emphasized the importance of a top-tier smart contracts platform, expressing confidence in Ava Labs' advanced technology to facilitate future Web3 services. PlayThink's CEO, Junji Oshita, also highlighted Avalanche's scalability and reliability as crucial factors in their decision, especially given their ambition to cater to over 100 million users.
Avalanche ensures users of the PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing Subnet will experience near-instant transaction finality and a dedicated infrastructure, ensuring consistent service delivery without interference from other applications. John Nahas, VP of Business Development at Ava Labs, welcomed the partnership, underscoring the potential of blockchain to revolutionize existing services and introduce new Web3-based programs.
The upcoming Subnet aims to provide a smooth onboarding experience, eliminating the need for users to purchase digital assets to engage in the enhanced rewards system centered around NFT games and collectibles. Initially, the Ponta Subnet will operate under a consortium model, with PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing overseeing the Subnet's activities. Both companies have teamed up with Ava Labs to launch the Subnet via its AvaCloud services division, a platform that facilitates the quick development, deployment, and scaling of decentralized networks.
Brief Descriptions:
The Avalanche Foundation has announced an incentive of up to $3 million in AVAX tokens for Dexalot, a decentralized exchange with a central limit order book (CLOB) feature, built on an Avalanche Subnet. This funding is part of the Avalanche Multiverse initiative, aimed at promoting the growth and adoption of Avalanche Subnets. Launched in February, Dexalot's Subnet offers enhanced speed, throughput, and time-to-finality for digital asset traders. Unlike many DEXes, Dexalot allows users to place orders at specific price levels, ensuring transparency in order viewing and potentially neutralizing the speed advantage of trading bots. The platform's primary goal is to ensure increased liquidity, transparency, and minimal slippage for its users.
The Avalanche Multiverse funds will be allocated over a year, starting this fall, via the existing Dexalot Incentive Program. The distribution of these funds is contingent upon Dexalot Subnet achieving specific milestones. Since its inception, the Subnet has already processed over 12 million transactions.
Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, head of DeFi and DevRel at Ava Labs, emphasized the potential of Dexalot's fully on-chain CLOB in offering competitive swap pricing within the Avalanche ecosystem. He highlighted the increasing shift towards non-custodial DeFi solutions that facilitate trustless transactions, with Dexalot being a crucial component in this infrastructure.
Additionally, Dexalot has introduced a new feature for its user base known as SimpleSwap. At its core, SimpleSwap was designed to bridge the gap between AMMs and order book designs, meaning traders no longer have to choose between speed and accurate pricing. SimpleSwap is also compatible out of the box with third party aggregators, making this a versatile tool for crypto traders of all backgrounds.
The Avalanche Multiverse program, launched in March 2022, focuses on fostering new ecosystems, including blockchain gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and institutional applications. Dexalot, like other beneficiaries of the Avalanche Foundation grants, exemplifies the capabilities of the Avalanche platform. Tim Shan, COO at Dexalot, expressed gratitude to the Avalanche Foundation for their generous incentives and continued support.
About Dexalot: Dexalot is a pioneering decentralized exchange that merges the familiarity of centralized exchanges with decentralized on-chain applications. Powered by Avalanche, Dexalot provides a transparent and efficient trading environment for users, eliminating slippage and custody risks.
Solert x Avalanche
Solert Games, in collaboration with Ava Labs, is launching a dedicated Avalanche Subnet, offering a state-of-the-art gaming sandbox for its gamers and developers. This Solert Subnet will highlight enhanced player support, a private high-speed network configuration, and Subnet multiverse incentives, all leveraging Avalanche's rapid transaction finality. The inaugural venture of this partnership will be the introduction of Solert's latest medieval-themed mobile game, "Legends at War," on their custom Subnet. Wojciech Kaszycki, Co-Founder and CEO of Solert Games, emphasized the transformative potential of integrating Ava Labs' blockchain infrastructure, merging the social dynamics of Web2 with the user-centric decentralization of Web3 for a unique gaming experience.
The Avalanche subnet by Solert will be driven by its proprietary gas token, $LAW. This foundation will enable gaming studios globally to harness Solert Games' advanced technology stack, equipping developers with a comprehensive set of proven tools for crafting immersive gaming experiences. The collaboration aims to redefine mobile gaming, fostering an environment where players have a say in governance and multiplayer strategies. Solert, with its 15-year history of acclaimed game development, is renowned for its commitment to producing enthralling, competitive gameplay using blockchain technology. On the other hand, Avalanche, since its inception in 2020, has pioneered a new age of decentralized computing with its subnets, supporting over 500 applications and safeguarding billions in value with minimal environmental impact. Ed Chang, Head of Gaming at Ava Labs, expressed excitement about the partnership, highlighting the integration of virtual and real-world economies and anticipating the innovative realms Solert Games will conceive within Avalanche.
Elastic Subnets Overview
In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain, Elastic Subnets have emerged as a unique entity. Unlike traditional subnets, Elastic Subnets allow for permissionless validation, relying heavily on economic incentives for their growth and functionality. When designing a token model for an elastic Subnet, builders face a myriad of choices, each representing a trade-off. The optimization goal varies depending on the use case, whether it's user acquisition, network distribution, performance, or any other objective. The article by Matthew Schmenk and Nadim Chamoun delves deep into the parameters to consider, from staking tokens, which ensure validators' eligibility, to gas token considerations and validator revenue models. The staking token, for instance, should be chosen with care to prevent potential malicious takeovers by actors with significant capital.
Bootstrapping validators and ensuring a decentralized ecosystem is another challenge. The article provides practical examples from various blockchains on how they achieved this. For instance, Avalanche used its Denali Testnet to attract over 1,000 validators, while Aptos airdropped tokens to incentivize testnet participation. Other strategies include subsidized validation, incentivized testnets, and token call options. The overarching goal is to ensure the security and decentralization of the Subnet, especially given the potential high economic value they might secure. With the right balance of decentralization and token economics, Elastic Subnets can scale massively, potentially accommodating tens of thousands of validators. As the Avalanche tech stack gains traction, the role of Elastic Subnets becomes even more pivotal, promising enhanced security and a thriving Subnet economy.
Nodekit and Avalanche
NodeKit, co-founded by Noah Pravecek, Ricardo Tavarez, and Nick Preszler, is a groundbreaking blockchain startup that leverages Avalanche's HyperSDK toolkit. HyperSDK offers developers a streamlined approach to creating their own custom blockchain with a tailored virtual machine (VM), emphasizing speed and customizability. Recognizing the potential of HyperSDK, the NodeKit team utilized it to power their custom blockchain, aiming to launch a decentralized shared sequencer L1 on a Subnet. This would enable a significant majority of rollups to initiate on Avalanche, enhancing the decentralization of roll-ups and cross-chain interoperability. NodeKit's primary objectives are to address the centralization issues of roll-ups and potential uptime challenges while enhancing MEV capture capabilities and securing a significant portion of sequencer fees. Noah Pravecek praises Avalanche for its reliability, security, and collaborative environment, emphasizing that its capabilities, especially with tools like HyperSDK, empower small teams to realize ambitious blockchain projects efficiently.
Sigma Prime x Avalanche
Since early 2023, the Avalanche Foundation has been collaborating with Sigma Prime to further strengthen AvalancheGo’s stability as a codebase. The goal is to provide the best assurance that the Avalanche network maintains its established stability, giving builders and users an extra measure of confidence. Security is critical in maintaining a thriving blockchain ecosystem. Sigma Prime is one of the most reputable, battle-tested security firms in the blockchain field.
Specifically, Sigma Prime is writing a collection of fuzzers for AvalancheGo. Fuzzers provide a helpful way to detect “panics/crash” bugs beyond what would normally be expected. The Foundation plans to incorporate these fuzzers into the AvalancheGo codebase and to extend them.
"As part of a continuous effort to improve AvalancheGo’s reliability and robustness, we engaged Sigma Prime, one of the most experienced fuzzers in the space, to build a dedicated framework to continuously fuzz AvalancheGo,” said Aytunç Yildizi, Executive Director at the Avalanche Foundation. “Fuzzing has uncovered critical bugs across the entire blockchain ecosystem, and this new framework will allow us to detect and remedy critical issues before they make an impact."
Why Sigma Prime?
Sigma Prime was founded in late 2016 shortly after Ethereum Devcon 2 in Shanghai by a team of developers, researchers, and security engineers. The team has extensive expertise in vulnerability research, penetration testing, and secure software development making them an ideal partner for assisting with the security posture of the Avalanche blockchain.
Over the years, Sigma Prime has completed hundreds of security assessments on smart contracts, DeFi protocols, entire blockchains and core cryptography primitives. In addition to their contribution to the security space, they actively contribute to protocol-level research and development by building a free open-source Ethereum consensus client, Lighthouse. The domain expertise of building a blockchain client from the ground up further makes them an excellent choice for working with a layer-1 blockchain such as Avalanche.
The Lighthouse Story
Sigma Prime originally started contributing to proof-of-stake research by producing an experimental implementation of Casper TFG (“Vlad’s Casper”) and working on a voting smart contract proposal (EIP-1011). Although EIP-1011 was later deprecated, Sigma Prime embraced the Ethereum consensus spec and started work on a Rust-based open source client, called Lighthouse. Lighthouse aimed to prioritize the protocol over product delivery and focused on establishing a secure, decentralized, and efficient protocol for Ethereum.
Lighthouse is the leading open-source Ethereum consensus client, which leverages the safety features of Rust while being highly efficient. Lighthouse is funded by various organizations, including (but not limited to) the Ethereum Foundation, the Protocol Guild, Arbitrum and Gitcoin Grants.
Today, Sigma Prime continues to stand at the forefront of maintaining the safety and reliability of Ethereum and other blockchains, including Avalanche.
For more on Sigma Prime and Lighthouse:
Sigma Prime Website: sigmaprime.io
Sigma Prime Blog: blog.sigmaprime.io
Sigma Prime Twitter: twitter.com/sigp_io
Lighthouse Website: lighthouse.sigmaprime.io/
Lighthouse Blog: lighthouse.sigmaprime.io
DBOE
DBOE, a prominent name in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, announced its live launch on the Avalanche blockchain. This innovative platform boasts unique risk management features, ensuring all trading activities are conducted on the blockchain with a fully on-chain Central Limit Order Book (CLOB). DBOE's journey began with the establishment of the DBOE Academy in August 2022, which provided free courses on blockchain and DeFi, coupled with hands-on trading experience on its paper trading platform. By the end of 2022, DBOE had transitioned to real DeFi risk management, adopting a fully decentralized architecture that bolstered security, transparency, and streamlined trading. Their partnerships with industry giants like Chainalysis, Chainlink, Bitquery, and Nautilus Chain have further solidified their position as pioneers in the DeFi sector. With a vision focused on growth and expansion, DBOE aims to revolutionize options trading and promote the widespread adoption of options across the Avalanche ecosystem and beyond.
Struct Finance Update
In the ever-evolving cryptocurrency landscape, liquidity is paramount. Its significance is underscored by instances like Luna and UST's downfall during liquidity shortages. Without it, assets find it challenging to flourish. Deep liquidity ensures seamless trading and exchange of digital assets, minimizing price disruptions. The advantages of robust liquidity are manifold: it results in minimal price impact, higher trading profits, and fewer trading errors due to reduced slippage.
Within the Avalanche ecosystem, Struct Finance is emerging as a key player in amplifying liquidity. It integrates with two major entities in the Avax world: Trader Joe and GMX. Trader Joe, a well-recognized name in DeFi, boasts features like Liquidity Books and Autopools. These tools empower users with concentrated liquidity pool provision and automated position management to counteract impermanent loss. Currently, Trader Joe is a frontrunner in Avax trading volume. Given more liquidity, its potential to reshape trading is immense.
On the other hand, GMX is another name that resonates loudly in the DeFi realm. As a trailblazer of Perp DEXs, GMX has consistently showcased innovation, evident from its recent V2 launch. This new version introduces an exciting feature: users can now make deposits in isolated GM pools, further enhancing the platform's versatility and appeal.
Hyperspace x Avalanche
Hyperspace, a multichain NFT marketplace with a focus on analytics and enhanced trading experiences, has made its debut on the Avalanche blockchain, marking its first entry on an EVM-compatible chain. The platform aims to revolutionize the NFT experience on Avalanche by introducing innovative features such as real-time trading, collection bidding, wallet analytics, activity monitoring, and cross-chain swaps. In the near future, Hyperspace will undergo several iterations as new features are added. Additionally, the platform will release user-friendly APIs and is set to launch Dokyo, a highly anticipated Avalanche mint. Kamil Mafoud, the co-founder of Hyperspace, expressed enthusiasm about the expansion, emphasizing the significance of this move in their multichain journey.
In alignment with its launch on Avalanche, Hyperspace will also be introducing Dokyo through its launchpad product, which has previously facilitated over 50 NFT mints on other platforms like Solana and Sui. Dominic Carbonaro, Head of NFTs at Ava Labs, highlighted the importance of Hyperspace's presence, noting its role in scaling and growing the ecosystem. Hyperspace, backed by funds like Dragonfly, Pantera, and Coinbase Ventures, is dedicated to promoting the widespread adoption of digital assets, offering a fast and intuitive user experience for NFT enthusiasts and a comprehensive platform for creators.
AvaCloud Launch
Ava Labs, the organization behind the layer 1 blockchain Avalanche, has unveiled AvaCloud, a Web3 launchpad designed to facilitate businesses in constructing no-code, fully managed blockchain ecosystems. AvaCloud encompasses four primary features: an automated blockchain builder, managed validators, extensive data tools, and chain interoperability. The automated blockchain builder offers businesses a no-code portal with continuous technical support and a specialized infrastructure team to oversee a tailored network. With AvaCloud, companies can swiftly establish a free testnet, transition to the mainnet, and progressively enhance functionality. Nicholas Mussallem, Ava Labs' senior vice president of product, emphasized that AvaCloud enables faster and lower-risk Web3 product launches without the need for specialized blockchain personnel. He highlighted the challenges of traditional custom blockchains, both in terms of time and cost, and noted that AvaCloud's adaptability meets the diverse needs of various industries, paving the way for broader blockchain adoption across sectors with stringent regulations.
Neowiz x Avalanche
Korean game publisher Neowiz is partnering with Ava Labs through its Web3 division, Intella X, to delve into Web3 gaming opportunities on the Avalanche platform. Neowiz, with a 25-year history of successful game releases, recently reported a Q2 2023 revenue of
51M
USD. Their upcoming game, Lies of P, is highly anticipated for 2023.
The collaboration will be highlighted during a strategy discussion between Intella X and Ed Chang, Ava Labs' Head of Gaming, at the Avalanche House Seoul 2023 event, part of Korea Blockchain Week. This partnership strengthens Avalanche's growing presence in Asia, especially in the Korean gaming sector. Notably, Neowiz is the fourth major gaming company to collaborate with Avalanche, joining the ranks of Alibaba, Tencent, and GREE.
A recent Xangle research report highlighted that around 70% of the top-100 gaming companies are based in Asia, with Korean companies leading in blockchain game development. Another significant player, Japanese media giant Gumi, is also part of Avalanche's Arcad3 initiative.
Ed Chang expressed enthusiasm about Neowiz joining Arcad3, emphasizing the value of their gaming expertise. Intella X sees this partnership as a golden opportunity to work alongside top Web3 game developers, enhancing their understanding of NFTs, blockchain gaming strategies, and more.
Avalanche Arcad3 is a Web3 gaming education program tailored for industry leaders. It offers content by Ava Labs, technical support, networking opportunities, and more. Taegeun "Andrew" Bae, Co-CEO of NEOWIZ, highlighted the mutual exchange of Web3 gaming knowledge and operational expertise between Intella X and Ava Labs. Both Neowiz and Avalanche Gaming aim to establish a high-quality Web3 gaming industry.
Brief Descriptions:
Zero One x Avalanche
In mid-August, the Avalanche blockchain witnessed the launch of a groundbreaking NFT marketplace: zeroone. This platform isn't just another addition to the burgeoning NFT space; it's a cultural distribution engine that's poised to redefine how we perceive, interact with, and value digital art and creativity.
At its heart, zeroone is built on three pillars: create, collect, and connect. These actions are not mere functionalities but are the essence of the platform, ensuring that users experience a seamless interplay of interconnectivity, discoverability, and preservation. It's a space where every individual, regardless of their background or expertise, can express their creativity, thoughts, and ideas.
Thanks to its innovative approach to digital art, zeroone is set to be a game-changer in the NFT marketplace on Avalanche. It's not just about buying or selling digital assets; it's about being a part of a larger narrative, a global story where every individual has a role to play, a story to tell, and a legacy to leave.
Avalanche Vista
The Avalanche Foundation has announced "Avalanche Vista," a $50M initiative dedicated to the purchase of tokenized assets minted on the Avalanche blockchain. This move underscores the foundation's commitment to advancing a more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective financial system by leveraging Avalanche's unique consensus mechanism, Subnet architecture, and technical prowess. The program aims to bolster the growth of asset tokenization in on-chain finance ("OnFi") by showcasing the benefits of blockchain in traditionally manual and operationally-intensive areas such as asset issuance, settlement, transfer, and administration. Avalanche Vista will encompass a wide range of assets, from equity, credit, and real estate to blockchain-native commodities.
Recent milestones in asset tokenization include Securitize's tokenization of a flagship KKR fund interest on Avalanche, the introduction of IntainMARKETS (a tokenized marketplace for asset-backed securities on an Avalanche Evergreen Subnet), and the Avalanche Spruce testnet launch, which explores the advantages of OnFi. John Wu, President of Ava Labs, emphasized that asset tokenization is not just the future but a pivotal driver of the present financial landscape.
Historically, private market investments have been predominantly accessible to large institutional investors and ultra-wealthy individuals, with barriers such as high operational costs and manual processes. However, combining on-chain asset issue
ance with tokenization can introduce significant efficiencies, enhancing the experience for both asset issuers and investors. Recent trends indicate a surge in both traditional and crypto-native entities adopting on-chain use cases for off-chain tokenized assets. Reports suggest that the majority of capital market participants anticipate the digitization of traditional securities within a decade, with the tokenized securities market projected to reach $20T by 2030.
Uniswap V3 x Avalanche
Uniswap, the leading Automated Market Maker (AMM) by volume, has officially launched on the Avalanche C-Chain, joining other DeFi giants like Curve and Aave that have expanded to Avalanche. This move was initiated by a governance proposal from the University of Michigan's blockchain club, Michigan Blockchain, advocating for a multi-chain future and leveraging Avalanche's burgeoning ecosystem. The proposal garnered overwhelming support, with 95% of on-chain votes in favor. LayerZero, an interoperability protocol, played a pivotal role in this integration, enabling seamless messaging between Ethereum, the original host chain for Uniswap, and Avalanche, facilitating cross-chain asset transfers and governance proposals.
Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Head of DeFi and Developer Relations at Ava Labs, expressed excitement about Uniswap's arrival on the C-Chain, emphasizing the vast potential for DEXes on Avalanche, especially with the introduction of new Subnets. He also highlighted the unique opportunities presented by Avalanche Warp Messaging, which are not feasible on other EVM chains. Since its inception in 2018 on Ethereum, Uniswap has been a trailblazer in the AMM model, facilitating over 139 million trades and achieving $1.5 trillion in trading volume. The platform's latest version, V3, focuses on concentrated liquidity, allowing liquidity providers to tailor their positions based on specific pools, potentially leading to innovative strategies and increased fee generation.
Avalanche Teleporter
In August 2023, a new cross-chain messaging protocol named Teleporter was introduced on Avalanche. Built atop Avalanche's Warp Messaging, Teleporter facilitates easy and native interactions for smart contract developers to invoke contracts on other EVM-based chains within Avalanche. To demonstrate its capabilities, a demo was set up, showcasing the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between three subnets: Amplify, Bulletin, and Conduit. These subnets, present on the Fuji test network, are equipped with the latest Teleporter smart contracts and an AWM Relayer. The AWM Relayer is a pivotal component, ensuring smooth message delivery across chains by listening for new messages, aggregating signatures, and transmitting them to the destination chain. As Teleporter and the Warp precompile undergo testing, the anticipation is to roll them out to existing subnets and the C-chain in the upcoming months, marking a significant stride towards enhancing interoperability in the blockchain space. For more information on Teleporter, you can read this very informative Twitter thread at this link.
Covalent Subnet Integrations
Covalent, a prominent data analytics company in the blockchain space, has announced an expanded partnership with Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain. This collaboration will see Covalent integrate over 30 Subnets from Avalanche's ecosystem, enabling developers to access real-time data from these Subnets through Covalent's Unified API and the BI Tool, Increment HQ. Among the indexed Subnets are notable names such as DeFiKingdoms, Dexalot, MELD Defi, Gunzilla Games, Deloitte, and many others. David Tsocy, a representative from Covalent, emphasized the significance of Subnets, particularly for high-performance applications in the gaming and entertainment sectors. He expressed enthusiasm about the continued partnership with Avalanche, highlighting the efficiency and time-saving benefits of accessing data from every Subnet. Covalent has also provided resources for those interested in leveraging their tools to explore Avalanche's capabilities further.
For the full report and disclaimer, click here.
This report aims to encapsulate the most recent milestones within the Avalanche universe, spotlighting the advancements in its partnerships with respected teams across web2 and web3, along with robust transaction activity and network performance. While we've strived to be comprehensive, some nuances may have been overlooked. For a more detailed exploration, please check out Avalanche's Twitter and their blog as they’re invaluable resources. Now, let's navigate through Avalanche's recent endeavors.
The third quarter has been nothing short of transformative for Avalanche. The Avalanche Summit in Barcelona not only garnered attention but also set the stage for future innovations. The Cortina Mainnet Upgrade further fortified Avalanche's commitment to refining its consensus mechanism. As we previously highlighted, Ava Labs' Evergreen testnet, Spruce, has been a magnet for industry stalwarts like T. Rowe Price Associates and Wellington Management. With its promise to integrate third-party applications, assets, and processes, Spruce is poised to redefine on-chain trade execution and settlement.
The collaboration between Avalanche, Playthink and the Japanese enterprise, Loyalty Marketing, is another testament to Avalanche's expansive vision. With the aim to bring Loyalty Marketing’s renowned loyalty rewards program, “Ponta”, on-chain, this partnership is set to cater to approximately 100 million user accounts, revolutionizing the way digital collectibles like NFTs are issued and distributed. The combination of these teams working together on a consumer blockchain product is extremely impressive, with the scope extending beyond traditional crypto goals.
Furthermore, the partnership between Korean game publisher Neowiz and Ava Labs is pushing the boundaries of Web3 gaming. Neowiz's anticipated game, Lies of P, coupled with their impressive Q2 revenue of
51M
USD, showcases the potential of this collaboration. Sigma Prime's involvement is another feather in Avalanche's cap. With a focus on enhancing AvalancheGo's stability, Sigma Prime's expertise in security will ensure that the Avalanche network remains robust and secure.
But Avalanche's journey isn't solely about partnerships and enhancements. The network's performance metrics, such as the surge in monthly active addresses and transaction count, are a testament to its growing influence. In the realm of cross-chain integrations, Avalanche is emerging as a versatile Omnichain Hub, catering to a variety of applications across sectors. As Avalanche continues its upward trajectory, the future looks promising.
Network Performance Updates
We’ve highlighted a few graphics from Dune and Avalanche’s official block explorers showcasing network activity through the year so far. While overall activity across Avalanche has fallen off since the peaks of the bull market, there are still a wide variety of exciting developments that we’ll highlight later giving new and existing users a reason to return to the chain.
Taking a look at this excellent Dune board from sixdegree, we see that Avalanche’s monthly transaction count has recovered significantly from the lows of early 2022, boosted with some help from the variety of institutional partnerships Avalabs has landed which has sparked significant interest in Avalanche subnets. For the most part, this monthly transaction count has stabilized and hasn’t gone down after its levels spiked. As more users look to Avalanche to explore opportunities across DeFi, NFTs, and the numerous advantages of building on Avalanche, this activity should only increase further.
Additionally, Avalanche’s monthly active user count has grown tremendously, setting new highs recently with close to 1 million users a month. Much of this can be attributed to the previously mentioned institutional subnet partnerships, but renewed interest has come as more look to explore some of the opportunities we’ll highlight later.
DeFi Overview
Over the past month, the Avalanche blockchain has seen its TVL fall by approximately $124.64 million. This decline indicates a shift in capital allocation and shares the same price action as the broader DeFi market after issues with Curve Finance led to an increase in the mass exodus of TVL. It’s worth noting that DeFi is highly volatile, especially on alternative L1s like Avalanche, and isn’t encompassing the success Avalanche has seen throughout 2023. TVL remains fairly stable at roughly $1.3 billion at the time of writing, indicating at least a general interest of users to keep capital deposited in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Avalanche Ecosystem Highlights
Now that we’ve taken a closer look at what’s been going on across Avalanche on a broader level, let’s explore these partnerships and other exciting announcements that should continue to light the ecosystem up and provide value to users of all kinds.
Avalanche Insights
Avalanche has been actively engaging with teams from both the crypto and traditional financial sectors that have recently launched tokenized US money market funds, T-bills, and similar short-duration products. Through discussions with over 20 of these teams, Avalanche has been exploring their deployment strategies and go-to-market (GTM) plans, which often aim to attract on-chain capital. To better understand the landscape, Avalanche surveyed partners about their treasury management, stablecoin balances, and on-chain yields. Feedback from nearly 100 entities, including protocols, DAOs, hedge funds, and venture capital funds, revealed several key insights:
•
- Risk-Adjusted Yields: Most respondents prioritize better risk-adjusted yields over the choice between on-chain and off-chain UST yields.
- • Size and Location: Larger entities are less inclined to access UST yields on-chain. Geographically, Asian respondents show a higher interest in on-chain UST yields due to limited access.
- • Smart Contract Reliability: Established on-chain entities prefer deploying funds in proven DeFi codebases, like Aave.
- • KYC Process: While institutional entities are generally open to KYC processes, they oppose overly complex onboarding. DAOs and some protocol treasuries find KYC processes challenging.
- • Product Preference: Most respondents are inclined towards short-term UST yields, valuing the liquidity and simplicity of such instruments.
Different personas, like Protocol & DAO Treasuries, Liquid Token Funds, Quant Funds, DeFi Funds, Digital Asset Managers, VC Funds, and Family Offices, have varied perspectives on on-chain cash management. For instance, Protocol & DAO Treasuries are still establishing their treasury management processes, while Liquid Token Funds are comfortable with established dApps. Quant Funds are potential buyers of tokenized T-bills, and DeFi Funds focus on yield-generating strategies. Digital Asset Managers lean towards traditional finance, VC Funds have a strategic approach to on-chain yield, and most Family Offices are distant from on-chain investments.
Balancer x Avalanche
Balancer, a leading decentralized automated market maker (AMM) with over 1B in assets locked, has expanded to Avalanche to stimulate the growth of liquid staking and introduce new DeFi opportunities. Recognizing Avalanche's capabilities, including high throughput, rapid finality, and scalability through custom Subnets, Balancer aims to offer a more adaptable DeFi tech stack. As part of this expansion, Balancer will partner with four primary Avalanche Liquid Staking Token (LST) protocols, consolidating the Avalanche LST market.
Balancer's unique approach to DeFi infrastructure, especially its Composable Stable Pools, ensures that yield-bearing tokens' full benefits are channeled to liquidity providers. These pools utilize an embedded rate provider that continuously updates the token ratio, ensuring that yield accrual benefits the LPs. Additionally, Balancer's Boosted Pools merge its Liquidity Pools with single-sided yield markets, maximizing LP positions. In standard Liquidity Pools, a mere 20% of liquidity aids swaps. However, Boosted Pools redirect idle liquidity to external yield-generating protocols, offering users an added Liquidity Mining incentive source. Key Avalanche LST protocols, including sAVAX by BENQI, ankrAVAX by Ankr, yyAVAX by Yield Yak, and ggAVAX by GoGoPool, will collaborate with Balancer to enhance Avalanche's LST offerings. This partnership is anticipated to redefine LSTfi on Avalanche, with Balancer poised to become the primary destination for staked derivatives on the platform.
CavalRe and Multiswap
Multiswap, a novel "multi-asset" decentralized exchange, has been introduced on Avalanche with the ambition to revolutionize on-chain token exchanges. Developed by Eric Forgy and his CavalRe team, Multiswap capitalizes on Avalanche's rapidity and adaptability, allowing users to swap potentially hundreds of tokens in a single transaction. A notable feature of Multiswap is its ability to host pools with any number of tokens, even tokenized off-chain assets. This capability was demonstrated by CavalRe with a mockup of the S&P 500 represented in a single Multiswap pool, offering traders 125K trading pairs without fragmenting liquidity. Such pools enable Liquidity Providers (LPs) to gain exposure to all assets within, resembling the properties of a rebalancing ETF or index fund, but in a decentralized manner. Instead of incurring fees, LPs on Multiswap can potentially earn from transaction fees. As Multiswap evolves, it plans to delve into diverse pools, including those in FX, commodities, and equity markets, each resembling distinct ETFs. Forgy envisions Multiswap as the foundational element of a broader CavalRe ecosystem aimed at reshaping capital markets.
CavalRe, founded by Eric Forgy in October 2020, initially aimed to become a licensed reinsurer and capital management solutions provider. However, a pivot to DeFi occurred in September 2021 upon recognizing the potential of AMMs for efficiently pricing illiquid assets, such as insurance risks. Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Head of DeFi and DevRel at Ava Labs, praised Multiswap's innovative approach, emphasizing the potential it holds when combined with Avalanche's capabilities. The Avalanche DeFi community is keen to observe how both sophisticated individuals and major financial institutions will leverage and expand upon this innovative platform.
Playthink x Avalanche
Japanese company Loyalty Marketing is collaborating with blockchain service provider PlayThink to transition its popular loyalty rewards program, "Ponta", to blockchain by the end of 2023 using Avalanche's Subnet infrastructure. This move aims to offer Web3 services to Loyalty Marketing's vast user base of approximately 100 million, which includes the issuance and distribution of digital collectibles like NFTs on a massive scale.
The decision to utilize Avalanche's Subnet was influenced by its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contract and its rapid transaction finality. Subnets are also highly adaptable, enabling PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing to design a high-speed blockchain tailored to serve hundreds of millions of users.
Loyalty Marketing's CEO, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, emphasized the importance of a top-tier smart contracts platform, expressing confidence in Ava Labs' advanced technology to facilitate future Web3 services. PlayThink's CEO, Junji Oshita, also highlighted Avalanche's scalability and reliability as crucial factors in their decision, especially given their ambition to cater to over 100 million users.
Avalanche ensures users of the PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing Subnet will experience near-instant transaction finality and a dedicated infrastructure, ensuring consistent service delivery without interference from other applications. John Nahas, VP of Business Development at Ava Labs, welcomed the partnership, underscoring the potential of blockchain to revolutionize existing services and introduce new Web3-based programs.
The upcoming Subnet aims to provide a smooth onboarding experience, eliminating the need for users to purchase digital assets to engage in the enhanced rewards system centered around NFT games and collectibles. Initially, the Ponta Subnet will operate under a consortium model, with PlayThink and Loyalty Marketing overseeing the Subnet's activities. Both companies have teamed up with Ava Labs to launch the Subnet via its AvaCloud services division, a platform that facilitates the quick development, deployment, and scaling of decentralized networks.
Brief Descriptions:
- • Avalanche is a smart contracts platform designed for scalability and rapid transaction finality.
- • Ava Labs pioneers high-performance Web3 solutions, with a focus on Avalanche innovations.
- • Loyalty Marketing, Inc. operates the "Ponta" point program and offers marketing services to over 100 million members, aiming to foster a more efficient consumer society.
- • Playthink, Inc. is a startup dedicated to the social applications of Web3 and blockchain technology, specializing in custom NFT wallets, distribution tools, and proprietary blockchains.
- Dexalot Update
The Avalanche Foundation has announced an incentive of up to $3 million in AVAX tokens for Dexalot, a decentralized exchange with a central limit order book (CLOB) feature, built on an Avalanche Subnet. This funding is part of the Avalanche Multiverse initiative, aimed at promoting the growth and adoption of Avalanche Subnets. Launched in February, Dexalot's Subnet offers enhanced speed, throughput, and time-to-finality for digital asset traders. Unlike many DEXes, Dexalot allows users to place orders at specific price levels, ensuring transparency in order viewing and potentially neutralizing the speed advantage of trading bots. The platform's primary goal is to ensure increased liquidity, transparency, and minimal slippage for its users.
The Avalanche Multiverse funds will be allocated over a year, starting this fall, via the existing Dexalot Incentive Program. The distribution of these funds is contingent upon Dexalot Subnet achieving specific milestones. Since its inception, the Subnet has already processed over 12 million transactions.
Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, head of DeFi and DevRel at Ava Labs, emphasized the potential of Dexalot's fully on-chain CLOB in offering competitive swap pricing within the Avalanche ecosystem. He highlighted the increasing shift towards non-custodial DeFi solutions that facilitate trustless transactions, with Dexalot being a crucial component in this infrastructure.
Additionally, Dexalot has introduced a new feature for its user base known as SimpleSwap. At its core, SimpleSwap was designed to bridge the gap between AMMs and order book designs, meaning traders no longer have to choose between speed and accurate pricing. SimpleSwap is also compatible out of the box with third party aggregators, making this a versatile tool for crypto traders of all backgrounds.
The Avalanche Multiverse program, launched in March 2022, focuses on fostering new ecosystems, including blockchain gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and institutional applications. Dexalot, like other beneficiaries of the Avalanche Foundation grants, exemplifies the capabilities of the Avalanche platform. Tim Shan, COO at Dexalot, expressed gratitude to the Avalanche Foundation for their generous incentives and continued support.
About Dexalot: Dexalot is a pioneering decentralized exchange that merges the familiarity of centralized exchanges with decentralized on-chain applications. Powered by Avalanche, Dexalot provides a transparent and efficient trading environment for users, eliminating slippage and custody risks.
Solert x Avalanche
Solert Games, in collaboration with Ava Labs, is launching a dedicated Avalanche Subnet, offering a state-of-the-art gaming sandbox for its gamers and developers. This Solert Subnet will highlight enhanced player support, a private high-speed network configuration, and Subnet multiverse incentives, all leveraging Avalanche's rapid transaction finality. The inaugural venture of this partnership will be the introduction of Solert's latest medieval-themed mobile game, "Legends at War," on their custom Subnet. Wojciech Kaszycki, Co-Founder and CEO of Solert Games, emphasized the transformative potential of integrating Ava Labs' blockchain infrastructure, merging the social dynamics of Web2 with the user-centric decentralization of Web3 for a unique gaming experience.
The Avalanche subnet by Solert will be driven by its proprietary gas token, $LAW. This foundation will enable gaming studios globally to harness Solert Games' advanced technology stack, equipping developers with a comprehensive set of proven tools for crafting immersive gaming experiences. The collaboration aims to redefine mobile gaming, fostering an environment where players have a say in governance and multiplayer strategies. Solert, with its 15-year history of acclaimed game development, is renowned for its commitment to producing enthralling, competitive gameplay using blockchain technology. On the other hand, Avalanche, since its inception in 2020, has pioneered a new age of decentralized computing with its subnets, supporting over 500 applications and safeguarding billions in value with minimal environmental impact. Ed Chang, Head of Gaming at Ava Labs, expressed excitement about the partnership, highlighting the integration of virtual and real-world economies and anticipating the innovative realms Solert Games will conceive within Avalanche.
Elastic Subnets Overview
In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain, Elastic Subnets have emerged as a unique entity. Unlike traditional subnets, Elastic Subnets allow for permissionless validation, relying heavily on economic incentives for their growth and functionality. When designing a token model for an elastic Subnet, builders face a myriad of choices, each representing a trade-off. The optimization goal varies depending on the use case, whether it's user acquisition, network distribution, performance, or any other objective. The article by Matthew Schmenk and Nadim Chamoun delves deep into the parameters to consider, from staking tokens, which ensure validators' eligibility, to gas token considerations and validator revenue models. The staking token, for instance, should be chosen with care to prevent potential malicious takeovers by actors with significant capital.
Bootstrapping validators and ensuring a decentralized ecosystem is another challenge. The article provides practical examples from various blockchains on how they achieved this. For instance, Avalanche used its Denali Testnet to attract over 1,000 validators, while Aptos airdropped tokens to incentivize testnet participation. Other strategies include subsidized validation, incentivized testnets, and token call options. The overarching goal is to ensure the security and decentralization of the Subnet, especially given the potential high economic value they might secure. With the right balance of decentralization and token economics, Elastic Subnets can scale massively, potentially accommodating tens of thousands of validators. As the Avalanche tech stack gains traction, the role of Elastic Subnets becomes even more pivotal, promising enhanced security and a thriving Subnet economy.
Nodekit and Avalanche
NodeKit, co-founded by Noah Pravecek, Ricardo Tavarez, and Nick Preszler, is a groundbreaking blockchain startup that leverages Avalanche's HyperSDK toolkit. HyperSDK offers developers a streamlined approach to creating their own custom blockchain with a tailored virtual machine (VM), emphasizing speed and customizability. Recognizing the potential of HyperSDK, the NodeKit team utilized it to power their custom blockchain, aiming to launch a decentralized shared sequencer L1 on a Subnet. This would enable a significant majority of rollups to initiate on Avalanche, enhancing the decentralization of roll-ups and cross-chain interoperability. NodeKit's primary objectives are to address the centralization issues of roll-ups and potential uptime challenges while enhancing MEV capture capabilities and securing a significant portion of sequencer fees. Noah Pravecek praises Avalanche for its reliability, security, and collaborative environment, emphasizing that its capabilities, especially with tools like HyperSDK, empower small teams to realize ambitious blockchain projects efficiently.
Sigma Prime x Avalanche
Since early 2023, the Avalanche Foundation has been collaborating with Sigma Prime to further strengthen AvalancheGo’s stability as a codebase. The goal is to provide the best assurance that the Avalanche network maintains its established stability, giving builders and users an extra measure of confidence. Security is critical in maintaining a thriving blockchain ecosystem. Sigma Prime is one of the most reputable, battle-tested security firms in the blockchain field.
Specifically, Sigma Prime is writing a collection of fuzzers for AvalancheGo. Fuzzers provide a helpful way to detect “panics/crash” bugs beyond what would normally be expected. The Foundation plans to incorporate these fuzzers into the AvalancheGo codebase and to extend them.
"As part of a continuous effort to improve AvalancheGo’s reliability and robustness, we engaged Sigma Prime, one of the most experienced fuzzers in the space, to build a dedicated framework to continuously fuzz AvalancheGo,” said Aytunç Yildizi, Executive Director at the Avalanche Foundation. “Fuzzing has uncovered critical bugs across the entire blockchain ecosystem, and this new framework will allow us to detect and remedy critical issues before they make an impact."
Why Sigma Prime?
Sigma Prime was founded in late 2016 shortly after Ethereum Devcon 2 in Shanghai by a team of developers, researchers, and security engineers. The team has extensive expertise in vulnerability research, penetration testing, and secure software development making them an ideal partner for assisting with the security posture of the Avalanche blockchain.
Over the years, Sigma Prime has completed hundreds of security assessments on smart contracts, DeFi protocols, entire blockchains and core cryptography primitives. In addition to their contribution to the security space, they actively contribute to protocol-level research and development by building a free open-source Ethereum consensus client, Lighthouse. The domain expertise of building a blockchain client from the ground up further makes them an excellent choice for working with a layer-1 blockchain such as Avalanche.
The Lighthouse Story
Sigma Prime originally started contributing to proof-of-stake research by producing an experimental implementation of Casper TFG (“Vlad’s Casper”) and working on a voting smart contract proposal (EIP-1011). Although EIP-1011 was later deprecated, Sigma Prime embraced the Ethereum consensus spec and started work on a Rust-based open source client, called Lighthouse. Lighthouse aimed to prioritize the protocol over product delivery and focused on establishing a secure, decentralized, and efficient protocol for Ethereum.
Lighthouse is the leading open-source Ethereum consensus client, which leverages the safety features of Rust while being highly efficient. Lighthouse is funded by various organizations, including (but not limited to) the Ethereum Foundation, the Protocol Guild, Arbitrum and Gitcoin Grants.
Today, Sigma Prime continues to stand at the forefront of maintaining the safety and reliability of Ethereum and other blockchains, including Avalanche.
For more on Sigma Prime and Lighthouse:
Sigma Prime Website: sigmaprime.io
Sigma Prime Blog: blog.sigmaprime.io
Sigma Prime Twitter: twitter.com/sigp_io
Lighthouse Website: lighthouse.sigmaprime.io/
Lighthouse Blog: lighthouse.sigmaprime.io
DBOE
DBOE, a prominent name in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, announced its live launch on the Avalanche blockchain. This innovative platform boasts unique risk management features, ensuring all trading activities are conducted on the blockchain with a fully on-chain Central Limit Order Book (CLOB). DBOE's journey began with the establishment of the DBOE Academy in August 2022, which provided free courses on blockchain and DeFi, coupled with hands-on trading experience on its paper trading platform. By the end of 2022, DBOE had transitioned to real DeFi risk management, adopting a fully decentralized architecture that bolstered security, transparency, and streamlined trading. Their partnerships with industry giants like Chainalysis, Chainlink, Bitquery, and Nautilus Chain have further solidified their position as pioneers in the DeFi sector. With a vision focused on growth and expansion, DBOE aims to revolutionize options trading and promote the widespread adoption of options across the Avalanche ecosystem and beyond.
Struct Finance Update
In the ever-evolving cryptocurrency landscape, liquidity is paramount. Its significance is underscored by instances like Luna and UST's downfall during liquidity shortages. Without it, assets find it challenging to flourish. Deep liquidity ensures seamless trading and exchange of digital assets, minimizing price disruptions. The advantages of robust liquidity are manifold: it results in minimal price impact, higher trading profits, and fewer trading errors due to reduced slippage.
Within the Avalanche ecosystem, Struct Finance is emerging as a key player in amplifying liquidity. It integrates with two major entities in the Avax world: Trader Joe and GMX. Trader Joe, a well-recognized name in DeFi, boasts features like Liquidity Books and Autopools. These tools empower users with concentrated liquidity pool provision and automated position management to counteract impermanent loss. Currently, Trader Joe is a frontrunner in Avax trading volume. Given more liquidity, its potential to reshape trading is immense.
On the other hand, GMX is another name that resonates loudly in the DeFi realm. As a trailblazer of Perp DEXs, GMX has consistently showcased innovation, evident from its recent V2 launch. This new version introduces an exciting feature: users can now make deposits in isolated GM pools, further enhancing the platform's versatility and appeal.
Hyperspace x Avalanche
Hyperspace, a multichain NFT marketplace with a focus on analytics and enhanced trading experiences, has made its debut on the Avalanche blockchain, marking its first entry on an EVM-compatible chain. The platform aims to revolutionize the NFT experience on Avalanche by introducing innovative features such as real-time trading, collection bidding, wallet analytics, activity monitoring, and cross-chain swaps. In the near future, Hyperspace will undergo several iterations as new features are added. Additionally, the platform will release user-friendly APIs and is set to launch Dokyo, a highly anticipated Avalanche mint. Kamil Mafoud, the co-founder of Hyperspace, expressed enthusiasm about the expansion, emphasizing the significance of this move in their multichain journey.
In alignment with its launch on Avalanche, Hyperspace will also be introducing Dokyo through its launchpad product, which has previously facilitated over 50 NFT mints on other platforms like Solana and Sui. Dominic Carbonaro, Head of NFTs at Ava Labs, highlighted the importance of Hyperspace's presence, noting its role in scaling and growing the ecosystem. Hyperspace, backed by funds like Dragonfly, Pantera, and Coinbase Ventures, is dedicated to promoting the widespread adoption of digital assets, offering a fast and intuitive user experience for NFT enthusiasts and a comprehensive platform for creators.
AvaCloud Launch
Ava Labs, the organization behind the layer 1 blockchain Avalanche, has unveiled AvaCloud, a Web3 launchpad designed to facilitate businesses in constructing no-code, fully managed blockchain ecosystems. AvaCloud encompasses four primary features: an automated blockchain builder, managed validators, extensive data tools, and chain interoperability. The automated blockchain builder offers businesses a no-code portal with continuous technical support and a specialized infrastructure team to oversee a tailored network. With AvaCloud, companies can swiftly establish a free testnet, transition to the mainnet, and progressively enhance functionality. Nicholas Mussallem, Ava Labs' senior vice president of product, emphasized that AvaCloud enables faster and lower-risk Web3 product launches without the need for specialized blockchain personnel. He highlighted the challenges of traditional custom blockchains, both in terms of time and cost, and noted that AvaCloud's adaptability meets the diverse needs of various industries, paving the way for broader blockchain adoption across sectors with stringent regulations.
Neowiz x Avalanche
Korean game publisher Neowiz is partnering with Ava Labs through its Web3 division, Intella X, to delve into Web3 gaming opportunities on the Avalanche platform. Neowiz, with a 25-year history of successful game releases, recently reported a Q2 2023 revenue of
51M
USD. Their upcoming game, Lies of P, is highly anticipated for 2023. The collaboration will be highlighted during a strategy discussion between Intella X and Ed Chang, Ava Labs' Head of Gaming, at the Avalanche House Seoul 2023 event, part of Korea Blockchain Week. This partnership strengthens Avalanche's growing presence in Asia, especially in the Korean gaming sector. Notably, Neowiz is the fourth major gaming company to collaborate with Avalanche, joining the ranks of Alibaba, Tencent, and GREE.
A recent Xangle research report highlighted that around 70% of the top-100 gaming companies are based in Asia, with Korean companies leading in blockchain game development. Another significant player, Japanese media giant Gumi, is also part of Avalanche's Arcad3 initiative.
Ed Chang expressed enthusiasm about Neowiz joining Arcad3, emphasizing the value of their gaming expertise. Intella X sees this partnership as a golden opportunity to work alongside top Web3 game developers, enhancing their understanding of NFTs, blockchain gaming strategies, and more.
Avalanche Arcad3 is a Web3 gaming education program tailored for industry leaders. It offers content by Ava Labs, technical support, networking opportunities, and more. Taegeun "Andrew" Bae, Co-CEO of NEOWIZ, highlighted the mutual exchange of Web3 gaming knowledge and operational expertise between Intella X and Ava Labs. Both Neowiz and Avalanche Gaming aim to establish a high-quality Web3 gaming industry.
Brief Descriptions:
- • Avalanche is a smart contracts platform known for its speed and scalability, enabling Web3 developers to launch custom blockchain solutions.
- • NEOWIZ is a leading game publisher and developer based in South Korea with a rich history in diverse game genres and a strong presence in the console market.
- • Intella X is a next-gen Web3 gaming platform aiming to redefine blockchain gaming and promote the broader adoption of Web3.
Zero One x Avalanche
In mid-August, the Avalanche blockchain witnessed the launch of a groundbreaking NFT marketplace: zeroone. This platform isn't just another addition to the burgeoning NFT space; it's a cultural distribution engine that's poised to redefine how we perceive, interact with, and value digital art and creativity.
At its heart, zeroone is built on three pillars: create, collect, and connect. These actions are not mere functionalities but are the essence of the platform, ensuring that users experience a seamless interplay of interconnectivity, discoverability, and preservation. It's a space where every individual, regardless of their background or expertise, can express their creativity, thoughts, and ideas.
Thanks to its innovative approach to digital art, zeroone is set to be a game-changer in the NFT marketplace on Avalanche. It's not just about buying or selling digital assets; it's about being a part of a larger narrative, a global story where every individual has a role to play, a story to tell, and a legacy to leave.
Avalanche Vista
The Avalanche Foundation has announced "Avalanche Vista," a $50M initiative dedicated to the purchase of tokenized assets minted on the Avalanche blockchain. This move underscores the foundation's commitment to advancing a more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective financial system by leveraging Avalanche's unique consensus mechanism, Subnet architecture, and technical prowess. The program aims to bolster the growth of asset tokenization in on-chain finance ("OnFi") by showcasing the benefits of blockchain in traditionally manual and operationally-intensive areas such as asset issuance, settlement, transfer, and administration. Avalanche Vista will encompass a wide range of assets, from equity, credit, and real estate to blockchain-native commodities.
Recent milestones in asset tokenization include Securitize's tokenization of a flagship KKR fund interest on Avalanche, the introduction of IntainMARKETS (a tokenized marketplace for asset-backed securities on an Avalanche Evergreen Subnet), and the Avalanche Spruce testnet launch, which explores the advantages of OnFi. John Wu, President of Ava Labs, emphasized that asset tokenization is not just the future but a pivotal driver of the present financial landscape.
Historically, private market investments have been predominantly accessible to large institutional investors and ultra-wealthy individuals, with barriers such as high operational costs and manual processes. However, combining on-chain asset issue
ance with tokenization can introduce significant efficiencies, enhancing the experience for both asset issuers and investors. Recent trends indicate a surge in both traditional and crypto-native entities adopting on-chain use cases for off-chain tokenized assets. Reports suggest that the majority of capital market participants anticipate the digitization of traditional securities within a decade, with the tokenized securities market projected to reach $20T by 2030.
Uniswap V3 x Avalanche
Uniswap, the leading Automated Market Maker (AMM) by volume, has officially launched on the Avalanche C-Chain, joining other DeFi giants like Curve and Aave that have expanded to Avalanche. This move was initiated by a governance proposal from the University of Michigan's blockchain club, Michigan Blockchain, advocating for a multi-chain future and leveraging Avalanche's burgeoning ecosystem. The proposal garnered overwhelming support, with 95% of on-chain votes in favor. LayerZero, an interoperability protocol, played a pivotal role in this integration, enabling seamless messaging between Ethereum, the original host chain for Uniswap, and Avalanche, facilitating cross-chain asset transfers and governance proposals.
Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Head of DeFi and Developer Relations at Ava Labs, expressed excitement about Uniswap's arrival on the C-Chain, emphasizing the vast potential for DEXes on Avalanche, especially with the introduction of new Subnets. He also highlighted the unique opportunities presented by Avalanche Warp Messaging, which are not feasible on other EVM chains. Since its inception in 2018 on Ethereum, Uniswap has been a trailblazer in the AMM model, facilitating over 139 million trades and achieving $1.5 trillion in trading volume. The platform's latest version, V3, focuses on concentrated liquidity, allowing liquidity providers to tailor their positions based on specific pools, potentially leading to innovative strategies and increased fee generation.
Avalanche Teleporter
In August 2023, a new cross-chain messaging protocol named Teleporter was introduced on Avalanche. Built atop Avalanche's Warp Messaging, Teleporter facilitates easy and native interactions for smart contract developers to invoke contracts on other EVM-based chains within Avalanche. To demonstrate its capabilities, a demo was set up, showcasing the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between three subnets: Amplify, Bulletin, and Conduit. These subnets, present on the Fuji test network, are equipped with the latest Teleporter smart contracts and an AWM Relayer. The AWM Relayer is a pivotal component, ensuring smooth message delivery across chains by listening for new messages, aggregating signatures, and transmitting them to the destination chain. As Teleporter and the Warp precompile undergo testing, the anticipation is to roll them out to existing subnets and the C-chain in the upcoming months, marking a significant stride towards enhancing interoperability in the blockchain space. For more information on Teleporter, you can read this very informative Twitter thread at this link.
Covalent Subnet Integrations
Covalent, a prominent data analytics company in the blockchain space, has announced an expanded partnership with Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain. This collaboration will see Covalent integrate over 30 Subnets from Avalanche's ecosystem, enabling developers to access real-time data from these Subnets through Covalent's Unified API and the BI Tool, Increment HQ. Among the indexed Subnets are notable names such as DeFiKingdoms, Dexalot, MELD Defi, Gunzilla Games, Deloitte, and many others. David Tsocy, a representative from Covalent, emphasized the significance of Subnets, particularly for high-performance applications in the gaming and entertainment sectors. He expressed enthusiasm about the continued partnership with Avalanche, highlighting the efficiency and time-saving benefits of accessing data from every Subnet. Covalent has also provided resources for those interested in leveraging their tools to explore Avalanche's capabilities further.
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