Important events
Aug 302022
The Good Lawyas
Avalanche came tumbling down the mountain on Friday after a ‘whistleblower’ accused the company of using lawyers to thwart competitors.- Avalanche has been accused of ‘weaponizing’ litigation against its competitors in a report by a self-proclaimed whistleblower. The report claimed that Ava Labs “used the American Legal system – gangster style – to attack and harm crypto organizations…that might compete with Ava Labs”. Speaking of gangsters…
- AVAX slept with the fishes and sank by more than 10% on Friday after the news hit, and fell by a further 10% through to Sunday – tho tbf the token has been climbing its way back up with a 4% price gain on Monday. Having seen explosive growth in 2021, Avalanche might now have to fight to keep its ‘golden boy’ reputation after an 82% YTD loss.
- Emin Gün Sirer has dismissed the accusations, with the Avalanche CEO and founder describing them as “conspiracy theory nonsense”. Roche Freedman LLP, the law firm alleged to have colluded with Ava Labs also combated the claims, describing the allegations as “lies” and “an obvious fraud”.
Avax
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Apr 082022
Terra skis into the avalanche
Terra continues its spending spree to support its stablecoin, this time adding $200m worth of Avalanche tokens to the snow pile.- AVAX will now be a reserve alongside BTC for Terra’s UST stablecoin, a method the platform is using to keep the coin at its dollar peg. It was a bit of a “I'll scratch your back” kind of deal – Terra bought up $200m AVAX, while the Avalanche Foundation bought $200m worth of UST and LUNA in return. Talk about a win-win.
- Terra co-founder Do Kwon wants LFG to buy up to $10bn worth of Bitcoin, which’ll make it one of the biggest holders in the space. The $200m spent on AVAX seems like loose change in comparison, but who are we to judge? The best thing to do after a morning of skiing on the Bitcoin alps is to av-a-lanche in a nice café.
- AVAX snowballed 5% up on Thursday, while Terra’s native token LUNA did the opposite and sledged down 5%. The two may be hitting après together too, with Terra announcing its plan to split-screen with Avalanche on a new gaming subnet later in the year.
Illustration by TradingView
Mar 232022
Ava Labs earns an applause
The Avalanche token spent last week leading the charts, and Ava Labs is taking advantage of the attention to release a new feature.🔍 Key points:
- Its native token ended last week up just under 25% for the biggest growth in market cap among the major cryptos, hitting a one-month high on Monday before taking a turn into the red.
- The Avalanche Summit this week was causing a stir, with Ava Labs’ Head of Product Nick Mussallem announcing the launch of Avalanche’s own wallet application called Core – with Bitcoin bridging functionality – to bring more assets into the ecosystem.
- De-Fi usage on the blockchain has soared, making Avalanche the most popular Ethereum-connected bridge with over $6bn in total value locked. Bridges are very susceptible to hacks though, as we learned from Wormhole, so they’d better be careful.
Illustration by TradingView
Mar 092022
Avalanche woos investors to the slopes
The Avalanche Foundation wants to make it snow in the Metaverse with a new developer incentive program.🔍 Key points:
- The foundation has launched a 4m AVAX token fund (which is about $290m at the token’s current price) to incentivize Web3 builders to develop subnetworks using its technology.
- It has a vision for the “Avalanche Multiverse”. Essentially the idea is that loads of smaller networks (subnets) will be built on top of the blockchain, which will reduce network congestion, lower transaction costs, and encourage the staking of AVAX tokens – ultimately helping to break down barriers between traditional and decentralized finance.
- The token got another boost of confidence on Tuesday after Europe’s largest crypto exchange, Bitstamp, said it will list AVAX later in the week. Prices ended the day up a modest 1.71%, but are up 8% on Wednesday morning thanks to a broader crypto rally.
Joshua Sukoff / Unsplash
Mar 022022
Avalanche joins the mainstream
Avalanche snowballs after getting handed access to 4.5m new customers.Key points:
- The token is up over 13% for the week so far, finally recovering from a broader crypto sell-off earlier this month that came as fighting in Ukraine escalated and worried global investors.
- Avalanche's crypto network will be accessible to 4.5m more users after the recently launched (and award-winning app) Wirex Wallet expanded its ecosystem onto the Avalanche blockchain yesterday, providing a whole new avenue of mainstream adoption.
- Crypto has been getting a lot of attention recently, with people exploring new ways to utilize the digital asset market in Eastern Europe – both sides of the current conflict are finding ways of using cryptocurrencies to aid their causes.
Wirex
Feb 242022
An Avalanche of inflows
Avalanche is among Wednesday’s crypto leaders as it enjoys floods of institutional interest.Key points:
- The blockchain has been grabbing the attention of institutional investors. A CoinShares report pointed to Avalanche as the second-biggest performer behind Bitcoin (BTCUSD) last week, with inflows totalling as high as $25m – nearly a quarter of the $109m in total inflows the crypto market saw.
- Avalanche has earned itself a top 10 cryptocurrency spot after taking over the Binance USD (BUSUSD) stablecoin, now boasting a market cap of around $16.6bn – it’s one of the fastest growing tokens out there, and analysts at Analytics Insight thinks this is the year that utility-based tokens will thrive.
- Its native token lifted 10% in Wednesday trading as one of the day’s biggest gainers, joined in by other so-called “Ethereum killers” like Solana (ETHUSD) and Cardano (ADAUSD) – though the entire crypto market took a dip later in the day as the Ukraine crisis intensified.
Krzysztof Kowalik / Unsplash
Feb 182022
Metaverse tokens make a name for themselves
Avalanche is February’s biggest crypto gainer so far as buzz builds for Metaverse tokens.Key points:
- The token has been flirting with the $100 mark this week after spending most of February in a rally that has added 25% to its price after 2 consecutive months of declines.
- A major exchange listing contributed to the gains. International brokerage eToro added the token to its platform on Tuesday, bringing the asset to a whole new demographic of investors and sending the stock up 14%.
- Metaverse is the new black, and Avalanche isn’t the only one on-trend. Decentraland’s native token (MANAUSD) and Axie Infinity (AXSUSD) are both up 8% this month, seemingly insulated from the recent cooling of the crypto market – though all three saw their winning streaks snapped on Thursday.
Krzysztof Kowalik / Unsplash
Dec 172021
Adding stablecoins to the snowball
Avalanche’s new stablecoin addition sends prices erupting.- The token jumped 16% on Wednesday, joining in on a broader crypto rally prompted by Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying stablecoins aren’t a risk to the financial system.
- The Ethereum rival added USD Coin (USDCUSD) to its arsenal as it makes a push for stablecoin diversity on its blockchain, which will promote stability on the network and is key for any emerging Layer 2 solution.
- It’s diving head first into De-Fi. The new addition builds on a recent $200m De-Fi project fund, which gave it the liquidity it needs to explore the growing sector.
Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash
Nov 292021
A snowdog pulls the rug out
Avalanche jumps on the bandwagon with its first dog-themed memecoin, but the Snowdog has dragged investors through the dirt so far. Can anyone say rug pull?- The network launched the Snowdog token, which lost 90% of its value in a few hours this weekend after hitting $44m in value in just eight short days on the market.
- A massive buyback ended in failure, but the development team swears that it was an 8-day “game-theory experiment” gone wrong instead of a rug pull.
- The Avalanche token lost 14% last week after a five week bull run that saw prices soar 130%.
Illustration by TradingView
Nov 222021
Dogecoin gets buried in an Avalanche
Avalanche ousts Doge from its spot on the top 10 crypto list, after hiking up 110% this month alone.- Avalanche hit an all-time high of $150 on Sunday, overtaking both Dogecoin (DOGEUSD) and Shiba Inu (SHIBUSD) with a $35.1bn market cap.
- Deloitte inked a deal with Ava Labs, which founded Avalanche, to build an Avalanche-based blockchain platform last week. Prices are up 25% since then.
- Ava Labs is investing in a big way, launching a $200m Blizzard Fund to help developers that want to deploy apps on the blockchain and boost the token’s utility.
Krzysztof Kowalik / Unsplash
Nov 182021
Feeling on top of the world
Smart-contracts platform Avalanche’s native token is quickly climbing to the snowy mountain top after its parent company partners with one of the Big Four.- The AVAX token lifted 9% to a new ATH on Wednesday, bucking the crash that took down the rest of the crypto market.
- Deloitte inked a deal with Ava Labs, which founded Avalanche, to build an Avalanche-based blockchain platform that helps natural disaster victims. Great idea – not sure the name goes that well with the cause though.
- It’s a key competitor to Ethereum and has climbed the ranks this month as Layer 1 blockchains, now up over 60% for the month and 3,200% for the year.
Illustration by TradingView