Avalanche Raises $230M in Private AVAX Sale
- Instead of equity, investors were able to purchase $230 million worth of AVAX tokens, giving them the right to participate in governance voting.
- The funds will be used to boost DeFi activity on the platform, facilitate grants, token purchases, and investment into projects looking to build on Avalanche.
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The Avalanche blockchain was able to raise $230 million from a private token sale led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, the Avalanche Foundation said in a blog post on 16 September.
According to the announcement, the investment round took place in June 2021, and was joined by R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital, and a group of family offices and angel investors. Instead of equity, the investors were able to purchase Avalanche’s native token AVAX, which allows them to participate in the blockchain’s governance voting.
The newly acquired funds will be used to support Avalanche, and accelerate the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on the blockchain. A portion of the capital will also go towards developing new enterprise tools, facilitate grants, token purchases, and investment into projects looking to build on Avalanche. Emin Gün Sirer, director at the Avalanche Foundation, said in a statement:
“Despite being years younger than its peers, Avalanche has quickly turned promise and potential into real-world impact and value creation for DeFi users and developers. 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.”
The private token sale also shows the confidence investors have in the Avalanche ecosystem, as they are betting on the growth of the blockchain, and in turn the price of their newly acquired AVAX tokens. While the blockchain is fairly new, having launched in September 2020, it has already attracted more than 225 projects, amongst which are organizations such as Tether, SushiSwap, and Chainlink.
Last month, the Avalanche Foundation launched the “Avalanche Rush” program, which is a $180 million liquidity mining incentive program aimed at growing the blockchain’s DeFi ecosystem. Phase 1 of the program will see Aave and Curve, two of the largest DeFi protocols by total value locked, launch on Avalanche.
- The frozen funds were allegedly obtained through the illegal sale of pre-issued LUNA tokens.
- Kernel Labs CEO Kim Hyung-joong reportedly held the largest amount of illegal funds, estimated to be at least $61 million.
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- MetaMask Bridges was designed to aggregate multiple blockchain bridges in one place, making it easier and more secure for users to transfer their assets from one network to another.
- The new feature currently supports the Ethereum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and Polygon blockchains, as well as the Connext, Hop, Celer cBridge, and Polygon Bridge.
- The private MINA token sale was co-led by FTX Ventures and Three Arrows Capital, and saw participation from new and existing backers.
- Most of the raised capital will be used in grants, meant to attract “world-class” developers and accelerate the adoption of the network.