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Avalanche’s activity spikes to over 1 million daily transactions

The rise in transactions is driven by stablecoin usage, with most of the growth coming from transfers under $10.

Sage D. Young

Avalanche’s network activity is growing in multitudes. 

The network’s primary blockchain recorded over 1.2 million transactions on Monday, a sharp rise from last year when the figure was ranging between 100,000 and 250,000 daily transactions, per data platform Artemis.  

Chains - Daily Transactions
Daily transactions on Avalanche's primary blockchain since June 2024. (Artemis)

The bulk of the transaction activity comes from stablecoins, according to a Tuesday report from blockchain analytics firm CoinMetrics, which stated, “Most of the growth stems from low-value transfers under $10, with the majority clustered in the $5-10 range.” 

avalanche passing 1 million daily transactions comes after the network’s December upgrade called Avalanche9000, the network’s largest since its mainnet rollout, which resulted in an over 90% reduction in transaction fees on the blockchain. It also included a number of improvements aimed at increasing decentralization and built-in regulatory compliance, per a blog post written by Avalanche developers. 

One driver of increased transactions in the year stems from smart contracts from decentralized exchange aggregators. In decentralized finance, liquidity is spread across several on-chain exchanges where the price of a cryptocurrency differs on each venue, but an aggregator helps traders find the best price by combining the fractured liquidity together. 

The launch of NFT game MapleStory Universe in May also may have boosted transaction activity. “The timing of MapleStory’s launch closely aligns with the rise in Avalanche C-Chain transactions and active addresses. While not definitively linked, the parallel increase in USDC transfer counts may reflect users onboarding into the ecosystem,” the report said. 

Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, chief strategy officer at Ava Labs, the firm developing Avalanche, pointed to meme coin trading as well. 

“Meme coin activity helps to bring in exogenous liquidity and onboard a certain retail audience,” DeMeo told Sherwood News. Meme coin trading “is a good initial funnel for users that can be subsequently introduced to all the gaming and DeFi happening on Avalanche,” he added.

Even though Avalanche is seeing a rise in transactions, the price of its native token, AVAX, has not had a similar growth trajectory. The cryptocurrency has dropped 8% in the last 24 hours and about 34% from last June.

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter. 

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows. 

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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SEC and CFTC issue new guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto assets

On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities law applies to crypto assets, a first step toward developing a clearer regulatory framework. 

The interpretive guidance introduces a token taxonomy for different types of cryptocurrencies, with SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins adding that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities.”

Examples of a digital commodity, “a crypto asset that is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a crypto system that is ‘functional,’” include:

The guidance also includes definitions of digital collectibles (such as NFTs), stablecoins, digital tools, and digital securities (such as tokenized real-world assets and stocks).

This is a monumental step in the mainstream adoption of the industry and clears a hurdle in how crypto can operate going forward, according to David Pakman, head of venture investments at CoinFund. “This will allow new token designs with the confidence that their existence does not require registration with the SEC, etc.,” Pakman told Sherwood News.

Despite the clarification efforts from the two organizations, the market capitalization of the crypto industry has dropped about 2% in the last 24 hours as each of the tokens mentioned in the guidance are trading lower in the period, data from CoinGecko shows.

The joint agency action also complements congressional efforts to turn a crypto market structure framework into law. With the goal of providing regulations on the offer and sale of digital commodities, the CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives last year and is now sitting in the Senate.

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