The Avalanche Foundation has established a new $290M “multiverse” program, dubbed Avalanche Multiverse, to promote the adoption and development of its unique “subnet” functionality, which allows for a complex ecosystem of scalable app-specific blockchains. The initiative initially targets emerging ecosystems including blockchain-enabled gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and corporate applications.
What is Avalanche Multiverse?
For AVAX and CRYSTAL, the Avalanche Multiverse will provide a DeFi Kingdoms-specific Subnet with a maximum of $15M in incentives.
CRYSTAL is a new Avalanche-native cryptocurrency introduced by DeFi Kingdoms to pair with its existing JEWEL token. Information regarding the distribution of rewards will be made available at a later date.
“The entire DeFi Kingdoms universe is written into smart contracts, pushing the envelope of what is possible with blockchain technology. We began looking very early on for technology that could help us scale and introduce new features like using our native tokens for gas fees, without sacrificing security or decentralization. Avalanche’s revolutionary subnet technology is the perfect fit,” says Frisky Fox, Executive Director of DeFi Kingdoms.
Additionally, Ava Labs, a major contributor to the Avalanche client, will work with Aave Companies, Golden Tree Asset Management, Wintermute, Jump Crypto, Valkyrie, Securitize and other firms to create the first horizontally-integrated blockchain specifically built for Institutional DeFi with KYC capability. This will allow regulated organizations to use Subnet’s power to access DeFi primitives on a large scale and speed up the adoption of DeFi by institutions.
“Avalanche Subnets enable us to create an ideal environment for institutions to migrate on-chain and experience the power of DeFi protocols first-hand as users rather than just as investors,” said Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave. “This is a significant leap toward a future where the barriers between traditional and decentralized finance cease to exist.”
“DeFi will increasingly become the foundation of the global financial system,” said Saurabh Sharma, Partner and Head of Venture Investments at Jump Crypto. “Working with Ava Labs to create a space for institutions to adopt DeFi at scale aligns perfectly with our objective of helping builders build the blue chip financial projects of the future.”
“Avalanche’s subnet with KYC infrastructure, will be a massive step forward for institutional adoption and we are proud to support the implementation,” said Wes Cowan, Managing Director of DeFi at Valkyrie Investments. “The subnet structure uniquely stays true to our beliefs of how we envision DeFi’s continued development with a decentralized mainnet, in parallel to a permissioned subnet. At Valkyrie we look forward to bringing our institutional partners into the permissioned ecosystem & working within future regulatory frameworks to utilize decentralization ledger technology for both retail and institutional partners alike.”
“There is significant demand by regulated financial institutions to participate in the growth of decentralized finance. The integration of Securitize iD natively into wallets through the Avalanche C-Chain will provide regulatory consistent, direct access to all DeFi apps,” said Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize. “With Securitize iD providing on-chain identity verification attestations, a major regulatory roadblock to institutional adoption has been removed. The development of an Avalanche variant tailored for institutional DeFi will be another significant step in accelerating adoption.”
Subnets let everyone quickly and simply construct powerful, dependable, and safe permissioned or permissionless networks with their own customizations. Selecting which validators secure the Subnet activity, which token is used for gas fees, customized economic models, and more are all examples of capabilities that aren’t available on other chains.
Subnets are fully integrated into the Avalanche ecosystem and don’t compete for network resources with other projects, yet they are limitless in supply. This allows Web3 apps to differentiate on user experience because previously with unitary regulations underpinning all applications on a smart contract network.
“Subnets will be the next growth engine in crypto, enabling novel functionality only possible with network-level control and open experimentation on a scale we haven’t yet seen,” said Emin Gün Sirer, Director of the Avalanche Foundation. “Smart contracts underpinned the amazing innovation in blockchains over the last five years, and no technology is better positioned to help carry on this tradition than Subnets.”
The Avalanche Multiverse will be divided into at least six phases to support future groups of projects in the program, and it will not be limited by a specific duration.
It’s a distinct project from Avalanche Rush, the DeFi incentive program that supports digital assets and applications launched on the company’s default smart contract chain called C-Chain.
The debut of Avalanche Rush sparked the second wave of DeFi growth. Total value locked (“TVL”) on Avalanche has increased from $312M to almost $16B since August 18, 2021, with unique addresses increasing from 137K to 2.2M and transactions rising from 4M to 112M.
The program will continue to grow, with several more Avalanche Multiverse projects expected to be announced in the near future. Those who are interested in participating in the program should fill out this form.
