Lucas Robbins 🔺

BREAKING: $​AVAX staking is now available on Kraken. Eligible @krakenfx clients can now earn rewards on AVAX through multiple staking and earning options, without managing validator infrastructure themselves. Built for access. Built for adoption. 🔺

The Avalanche Foundation is pleased to introduce the selection committee for its Call for Research Proposals on Avalanche Network Economics. The committee brings together members from Ava Labs, the Avalanche Foundation, and leading academics with deep expertise in economics, finance, and decentralized network design - assembled to evaluate proposals for grants of up to $50,000 USD ⤵️

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The Avalanche Foundation is hiring 🔺 We are seeking a T-shaped Software Engineer to join our Treasury team, building data infrastructure, analytics, and tooling that power DeFi strategy across Avalanche, owning features end-to-end from design to production.

Bitwise launches Avalanche ETF with plans to stake AVAX held theblock.co/post/397615/bi…

BIG milestone to see the Bitwise AVAX ETF going live $BAVA 🔺 Bitwise is doing a great job making inroads with RIAs and having the important conversations/education with allocators.

Mastercard buying BVNK for up to $1.8B isn’t just a deal — it’s a signal. The legacy rails see what’s coming: stablecoins are faster, cheaper, global, and always on. This isn’t adoption anymore… it’s capitulation. The old payments model isn’t evolving — it’s being replaced.

The Retro9000 C-Chain Round is now live 🔺 This round supports builders with retroactive grants for generating real activity on the Avalanche C-Chain from the $40M funding pool. Build. Burn. Earn. Here's how it works ⤵️

I’m going to say what most in this industry already know about tokenomics but find too controversial to admit: • The primary value accrual mechanism of major L1s is structurally broken • Token burns are a strong narrative but weak long-term value mechanics Here’s why 🧵👇

New Retro9000 Grantees Selected 🔺 6 projects have been awarded retroactive grants totalling $160K from the $40M funding pool, recognising teams shipping L1s and infrastructure tooling live on Avalanche. Build. Deliver impact. Get rewarded.

Matias A. joins Avalanche Foundation as Chief Investment Officer, bringing over a decade of experience managing $20+ billion in institutional portfolios across traditional finance and digital assets. Most recently serving as Head of Treasury at the Avalanche Foundation, Matias has been instrumental in architecting treasury strategies, designing DeFi-centric investment frameworks, and building algorithmic execution systems that bridge institutional rigor with crypto-native innovation. His background spans roles as Portfolio Manager at World Bank Treasury, where he directed $4.3B across fixed-income portfolios, created the backend infrastructure to manage $60B, and contributed to the external managers selection and tactical positioning for a $25B world bank pension fund portfolio, consistently delivering above-benchmark performance. Matias combines rare expertise across macroeconomic policy and capital markets execution. His career began as a Research Analyst at the International Monetary Fund, where he developed analytical frameworks for evaluating and designing policies for sovereign economies of European countries. At the World Bank, he worked on critical macroeconomic challenges including fiscal sustainability for El Salvador and the unfreezing of bond markets in Jamaica. These experiences gave Matias firsthand experience in how policy interventions can restore market function and catalyze economic growth. This dual foundation in macroeconomics and asset management gives him a distinctive lens: understanding both how economies generate growth and how capital markets channel resources to productive uses. Now applied to building Avalanche as the infrastructure for bringing real-world economic activity onchain at scale 🔺

January was for builders. No matter the conditions, we never learned how to stop. Here is a long, but incomplete list on what was shipped on Avalanche this month. Comment below if we missed anything: 1. The first AVAX ETF, $VAVX from @vaneck_us, went live on @Nasdaq 2. The Build Games began, a competition in which builders can create any type of app on Avalanche and win a share of $1,000,000 in prizes. 3. Retro-9000 C-Chain round dropped, incentivizing apps that organically burn AVAX on the C-chain. 4. The Avalanche network hit 5M total AVAX burned. Gone forever. 5. @LaRussellGC dropped his independent album on @even_biz, garnering a sale for $11,001. 6. Deribit by @coinbase began offering USDC-settled options trading for AVAX. 7. @galaxyhq introduced a first-of-its-kind tokenized CLO, issued exclusively on Avalanche with a $50M allocation from @grovedotfinance. 8. @DinariGlobal officially launches the The S&P Digital Markets 50 Index. 9. @John1Wu appeared on @Varneyco on Fox Business about Avalanche and The Build Games. 10. @ParadiseTycoon’s dedicated L1 went live, along with a big in-game tournament. 11. @TheGrottoL1 launched, driving a daily record in interchain messages. 12. Active addresses on the C-chain hit a daily all time high. 13. @avantprotocol launched new transparency dashboards on their platform for avBTC and avETH. 14. @Blaze_Stream announced an @playoffthegrid Trios Tournament, presented by @FlawGamingHQ. 15. The Avalanche C-chain saw 1B cumulative transactions. 16. @TippiklLabs launched tipping with The Grotto’s Heresy, @BensiBox, and @AvaxHefe. 17. @amichainORG shipped new tutorials, including ones focused on building AI agents on Avalanche. 18. Migration of the BTC.b bridge to @Lombard_Finance was completed. 19. @capysword launched their game, Skins & Swords. 20. Avalanche saw the lowest average transaction fees of all major chains for three consecutive weeks. 21. @WeKeepWinning_ integrates Kalshi into its analytics dashboard. 22. @irmr2 unleashed a fragrant game on the Grotto. 23. @Grayscale has amended its $AVAX ETF S-1 to include staking rewards. 24. Total tokenized RWAs on the entire Avalanche network pushed above $1.3 TVL. 25. @GoKiteAI appeared on the Layer One Podcast from @TheBlock__ 26. @leelaughs5x joined the Global Blockchain Business Council (@GBBC_io) on their new series Markets on Chain to discuss why institutions need clear rules when adopting new technology. 27. @SoonieTheSloth created a bot to track token activity and post in the Arena. 28. @LilCoqNft announces Lil-Burn 29. @avax_one unveiled their treasury dashboard. 30. @AvaxTeam1’s workshops and university tours continued strong, with presence in India, Vietnam, Turkey and more. 31. @UNDP dropped their most recent blockchain report in Davos which included two Avalanche powered projects. 32. The community remains 100% satisfied. 33. @IBKR introduced 24/7 account funding with native USDC on Avalanche in partnership with @zerohashx. 34. @WarpGameChain welcomed several new guilds to their ecosystem. 35. @blackholeDEX hit $35,000,000 for total veBlack holder revenue. 36. Blorps won the vote for the @bears_salmon bears den. 37. Bears & Salmon announces will be partnering with Baglords & Bandits, led by @thegamefather68. 38. @MaplestoryU launches the Henesys DEX. 39. Core app integrates @TippiklLabs for tipping. Incredible work everyone. Comment below anything we missed. Way to start 2026 strong🔺

The first ever AVAX ETF was listed on the @Nasdaq this morning. A big win for us all. Anyways, back to bringing the world onchain🔺

How builders win in 2026: 1. Apply to Build Games to launch your business ❄️ 2. Apply to Retro9000 to accelerate your business 🔥 3. Win 👍

Big news for Avalanche builders 🔺 Introducing Retro9000: C-Chain Round featuring new incentives from the $40M funding pool. This round rewards projects building on the Avalanche C-Chain, based on real onchain activity measured by AVAX burned. Build. Burn. Earn.

this isn’t a hypothetical institutional pilot that never reaches consumers. this is real activity happening today, at scale and it’s the perfect proof point for why @avax's architecture wins this year at one of the worlds largest holiday markets in the greatest city on earth, payments are powered by $USDC on @avax christmas powered by avalanche 🔺🎄