Avalanche Foundation Raises $250 Million in Private Token Sale
The Avalanche Foundation raised $250 million through a private token sale, one of the largest fundraising efforts in the crypto sector since the 2022 market downturn. The funds will enhance Avalanche’s infrastructure, focusing on scalability and efficiency for decentralized applications, according to a recent Forbes report.
Notable investors included Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, ParaFi Capital, SkyBridge, and Morgan Creek Digital, with over 40 investors contributing to the sale. This reflects growing confidence in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Despite holding approximately $3 billion worth of its native #AVAX tokens, the Avalanche Foundation pursued this fundraising initiative to cultivate strategic partnerships. Co-founder Emin Gün Sirer stated that the primary goal was to align and incentivize partners to build within the ecosystem.
This is not the first significant fundraising milestone for the Avalanche Foundation, which previously secured $230 million through a token sale in December 2021.
Upcoming Upgrade
The announcement precedes the “Avalanche9000” upgrade scheduled for December 16, which introduces a subscription-based fee model, reducing costs for validators launching blockchains on the platform. Validators will now pay a monthly fee of 1.33 AVAX instead of an upfront payment of 2,000 AVAX.
Gün Sirer emphasized the need for a multi-chain architecture to effectively accommodate diverse use cases, differentiating Avalanche from platforms like Ethereum and Solana. According to DefiLlama, Avalanche currently has $1.62 billion in total value locked (TVL).
Avalanche is gaining traction in gaming and finance. The battle royale game Off The Grid, built on Avalanche, became the most downloaded free game on the Epic Games store in October. Additionally, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund and Franklin Templeton’s OnChain US Government Money Market Fund have migrated to Avalanche from Ethereum.
AVAX Price Gains
Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, has seen positive movement following the funding news. Currently, AVAX is trading at $52.89, up by about 10% in the past 24 hours. With a market cap of $21.63 billion, it ranks 11th among the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
The daily chart from TradingView shows the Relative Strength Index (RSI) for Avalanche at 62.61, indicating high buying pressure. The gradient suggests potential for higher prices in the short term.
The MACD indicator, which previously indicated bearish divergence, has turned slightly optimistic as the signal line and MACD line converge. A bullish divergence may push AVAX towards the $60 price level.