Avalanche (AVAX) is the native gas and staking token of Avalanche, an independent layer-1 blockchain whose Primary Network comprises three chains: X-Chain, C-Chain, and P-Chain.
AVAX pays transaction fees, secures the network through staking, and also secures additional Avalanche L1s (subnets) built on top of the Primary Network. Avalanche's mainnet launched in September 2020.
Avalanche differentiates itself through a subnet architecture that lets developers launch independent, application-specific L1 blockchains that still settle back to the Primary Network and remain secured by AVAX staking.
As of 2026-08-31, ecosystem-wide Avalanche applications hold $3.36 billion in Total Value Locked and record roughly 1.6 million monthly active addresses, with average daily protocol fees near $3,184.
AVAX is a utility and staking token rather than a governance token. It pays gas fees on the C-Chain, is delegated or staked to validators to secure the Primary Network, and is used as collateral within Avalanche's DeFi ecosystem.
Validators must stake a minimum of 2,000 AVAX to participate in consensus, while holders can delegate smaller amounts to earn staking rewards. New Avalanche L1s can also pay AVAX-denominated continuous validation fees instead of locking stake.
AVAX has a maximum supply of 720,000,000 tokens and a circulating supply of 431,771,961 AVAX as of 2026-08-31, with total supply (including non-circulating allocations) at approximately 463.4 million.
AVAX's current net token emission is classified as low.
Ava Labs funded AVAX's launch through three rounds: a seed round closing in February 2019, a private sale in June 2020, and a public sale in July 2020. Seed investors included Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Balaji Srinivasan; the private sale raised $12 million, and the public sale closed within 24 hours on July 15, 2020, raising $37.58 million.
Avalanche's mainnet launched on September 25, 2020, after Ava Labs was founded in 2019.
AVAX runs on Avalanche's own layer-1 blockchain, secured by its Primary Network of three interoperating chains — X-Chain, C-Chain, and P-Chain — plus additional Avalanche L1s (subnets) built on top of it.
The network uses Proof-of-Stake consensus via the Snowman and Snowman++ protocols, production implementations of the "Snow" consensus family. Approximately 1,300 validators secure the Primary Network.
Avalanche was created by Cornell University computer science professor Emin Gün Sirer together with PhD researchers Kevin Sekniqi and Maofan "Ted" Yin.
Sirer founded Ava Labs in 2019 to commercialize the technology and serves as its CEO; Sekniqi is COO and Yin is Chief Protocol Architect. The underlying consensus protocol traces to a 2018 whitepaper published by a pseudonymous group called "Team Rocket," later developed by Sirer's team into production Avalanche.
Ava Labs, Inc., a US-based company founded in 2019 by Emin Gün Sirer, builds and maintains Avalanche's core protocol software.
The separate Avalanche Foundation runs ecosystem grants and governance-adjacent programs, and holds an exclusive relationship with Avalanche Treasury Co. (AVAT), a publicly traded digital-asset-treasury company merging with Nasdaq-listed Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. in a deal targeting a $1 billion AVAX treasury.
Avalanche secures its Primary Network through Proof-of-Stake, so AVAX staking and validator participation give token holders a practical role in network security and protocol-upgrade adoption.
In 2026, Charles Schwab announced plans to add spot AVAX trading for its roughly 39 million brokerage account holders, alongside Solana and Chainlink.
Other named 2026 developments include Kenya's national examinations council (KNEC) migrating academic and certificate records onto the Avalanche C-Chain with Ava Labs (announced August 3, 2026), and POSCO International completing a trade-finance pilot tokenizing trade receivables on Avalanche via the Intain L1. These build on the "Avalanche9000" upgrade (December 16, 2024), which cut L1-validator costs and lowered C-Chain gas fees.
Halborn audited the Avalanche Bridge, its bridge nodes, and associated smart contracts, and Trail of Bits is listed as a security-assessment partner for Avalanche-ecosystem protocols on Ava Labs' Builder Hub.
CertiK maintains a dedicated Avalanche ecosystem coverage page, and a third-party audit of Avalanche smart contracts was published by Beosin in July 2022. Ava Labs also maintains a public repository of audit reports for its core protocol software.
