Avalanche Foundation Closes $250M Funding Round From Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital

This sizable investment is one of the largest fundraising rounds in the crypto sector since the 2022 market downturn, second only to Ava Labs

Avalanche Foundation has closed a $250 million funding round led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital, Forbes reported Thursday. This sizable investment is one of the largest fundraising rounds in the crypto sector since the 2022 market downturn, second only to Ava Labs’ $350 million funding round in 2022.

The latest private token sale also attracted more than 40 other investors, including SkyBridge and Morgan Creek Digital. Forbes said the raise comes as Avalanche’s treasury holds approximately $3 billion worth of its AVAX token.

“The primary goal was to get alignment and incentivize the right kinds of partners to build with,” said Avalanche cofounder Emin Gün Sirer. The foundation previously raised $230 million in a token sale in December 2021.

The announcement comes ahead of Avalanche’s highly anticipated “Avalanche9000” upgrade, scheduled for December 16.

This upgrade targets dramatically reducing the costs associated with launching blockchains on the Avalanche platform. Instead of a steep upfront payment of 2,000 AVAX, validators will now be able to pay a monthly subscription fee of 1.33 AVAX.

“A single chain cannot cater to all use cases, no matter how fast you make it. The only winning architecture is multi-chain,” Gün Sirer said. “Horizontal scaling that we can enjoy is fundamentally different from Ethereum, Solana and others.”

The platform has gained traction across the gaming and finance sectors. “Off The Grid,” a battle royale game built on Avalanche, became the most downloaded free game on the Epic Games store in October.

BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, with a $561 million market cap, expanded to Avalanche from Ethereum, alongside Franklin Templeton’s OnChain US Government Money Market Fund.