Avalanche competes for ETF: US concept dividends support, executive turmoil and ecological problems to be solved

Author:Nancy , PANews

In the last bull market, Avalanche, which focuses on the narrative of "Ethereum Killer", achieved the prosperity and development of the ecosystem with the help of strategic layout of tracks such as DeFi, and its market value once ranked among the top ten. However, with the cooling of the crypto market and intensifying competition, the momentum of this once high-performance public chain has gradually faded. Today, Avalanche is exploring new growth paths through technological upgrades, ecological expansion and real-life applications. Although the chain activity has rebounded recently, management turmoil and external market pressure have caused its ecology to recover in an all-round way.

The activity on the chain has recovered, but **it is difficult to

hide the ecological challenges**

During this round of crypto market cycle, most L1 public chains gradually faded out of the mainstream vision, and only a few remained active. Avalanche is no exception. Avalanche's overall ecological vitality has declined significantly compared with its peak period, and on-chain activities have gradually declined, and indicators such as total lock-up value (TVL), trading volume and user activity have declined significantly.

According to DeFiLlama data, Avalanche's TVL was about US$1.02 billion as of March 11, a sharp drop of about 91.1% from its all-time high. At the same time, Avalanche's daily transactions fell sharply from 6.36 million in 2023 to 427,000, and daily revenue also fell from 9.72 million at the end of 2023 to about 60,000. Although the recession of Avalanche ecosystem is not an isolated phenomenon, but also a microcosm of the overall weakness of the crypto market, this series of data still reflects that Avalanche's ecological scale and economic activity are facing severe challenges.

However, recent technological and ecological adjustments have brought some signs of recovery to it. According to official website data, as of March 11, the number of daily transactions on Avalanche Network reached a high of 4.55 million this year, setting a new high in the past year. The total number of independent addresses has climbed to about 28.66 million, of which the number of daily active addresses once reached 359,000 this year, the best performance since February 2024.

In addition, data from Avalanche's official website and Staking Rewards show that as of March 13, nearly 250 million AVAXs were pledged, with a pledge ratio of up to 56.16%, making it the tenth largest PoS blockchain network.

In the community's view, the recovery of data on multiple necklaces may indicate that Avalanche has not completely lost its competitiveness, but the full recovery of the ecosystem still has multiple tests. Especially as most L1 public chain living space is constantly compressed, Avalanche's recovery not only depends on the improvement of the external market environment, but also requires ecological revitalization and breakthroughs.

Technology, ecology and ETF narrative resonance, **internal crisis

may become hidden worries**

From technological upgrades to real-life application implementation, to potential ETF narratives, Avalanche's recent market trends show that it is trying to revitalize its ecological vitality through multi-dimensional efforts. However, Avalanche is also facing uncertainty due to internal governance crisis and external market pressure.

At the technical level, at the end of December 2024, Avalanche announced the launch of the Avalanche9000 upgrade, which can significantly reduce the cost of deploying "subnet" blockchains and running smart contracts, while optimizing the verification model and reducing the basic cost of C-chain (from 25 nAVAX to 1 nAVAX). Moreover, this upgrade supports the independent operation of the chain through the "Etna" module, significantly reducing project startup costs and meeting different regulatory needs. It is worth mentioning that the Avalanche Foundation also raised $250 million from investment institutions such as Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly and ParaFi Capital to support the upgrade deployment that month, and is expected to be launched in hundreds of first-tier blockchains in the next few months.

Earlier this month, Avalanche also announced its 2025 roadmap, with major updates including Etna network upgrades, global adoption of the Avalanche 9000 Campaign, and renaming the subnet to Avalanche L1 for increased flexibility. This also further demonstrates the continuous and in-depth optimization of Avalanche in technology.

At the ecological application level, Avalanche shows a trend of blooming in multiple points. On the one hand, Avalanche has polished its own products. For example, Avalanche core wallet Core has ushered in a comprehensive upgrade at the beginning of this month, including new brand identity, UI optimization of mobile terminals and browser plug-ins. The new version is expected to be released in early spring, aiming to lower the threshold for new users through simplified user interfaces and enhanced functions (such as AI-driven interactions) and improve ecological stickiness. On the other hand, Avalanche is expanding real-life cases. For example, in February this year, the Avalanche Visa card was launched, allowing users to use AVAX, encapsulated AVAX, as well as stablecoins USDT and USDC in any Visa-accepted store; and Avalanche cooperates with technology company Republic, Red Bull Football Team in New York, Dantevada County, India, crypto disclosure solution provider Bluprynt and crypto payment solution NOWPayments to achieve real-life application scenarios such as movies, sports, land and payments. In addition, Avalanche is also achieving ecological expansion. For example, in the field of AI, in addition to the Avalanche Foundation joining forces with Aethir to launch the $100 million fund infraBUIDL (AI) Program to support ecological AI innovation projects.

As a US concept project, Ava Labs, the parent company of Avalanche, is a local American company, which may benefit from the gradual opening of the US crypto regulatory environment. Ava Labs founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer revealed last year that Avalanche is discussing with the incoming new U.S. administration, but the team will not show off their political relationship with the government on social media, but will directly show the results in a "complete Avalanche style" and recommend that the community "develop plans accordingly."

In addition, according to Delaware company registration information, VanEck registered the "VanEck Avalanche ETF" on March 10, 2025. In addition to Avalanche, VanEck also applied for spot ETFs such as Solana and Ripple. Although these cryptocurrencies may attract more institutional attention and capital inflows after the ETF application is approved, it is generally believed by the market to only stay in the hype stage of creating topics, rather than based on solid ecological value, and it is difficult to convert into long-term growth driving force.

Despite impressive external progress, Avalanche faces turbulent challenges within. According to a recent statement released by Omer, former director of the Avalanche Foundation, on X, three directors, including Omer, Aytunç Yildizli and Vikram Nagrani, have officially resigned from the board of directors of the foundation and its subsidiaries earlier this week. Among them, Executive Director Aytunç Yildizli stopped performing his duties on February 28, 2025. This collective resignation was a difficult decision. Since then, the board of directors has been in a state of stagnation, trying to find a way forward. Management turmoil may affect Avalanche's strategic execution and weaken community confidence, especially during market downturns.

In general, current technology upgrades and real applications have injected vitality into the Avalanche ecosystem, and the US regulatory dividends and ETF potential have added room for imagination. However, whether Avalanche can sound the counterattack horn may not only depend on the internal cultivation of technology and ecology, but also rely on the recovery of the market.