Ava Labs, the developer of the increasingly popular Avalanche blockchain, has reportedly raised $350 million from private investors at a valuation of $5.25 billion according to an exclusive report from Bloomberg published yesterday.
The price of AVAX – the blockchain’s native token – reacted positively to the news as it advanced 5% during the day. However, the price is declining 1.2% during early crypto trading action today at $79.16 per coin.
The Avalanche blockchain is a direct competitor to Ethereum – the popular and widely-adopted decentralized smart contracts network. Its value proposition involves faster execution speeds and lower transaction costs compared to its peer.
According to data from Outlier Ventures, the number of developers currently opting to build their decentralized apps (dApps) on the Avalanche network has exploded in the past year.
Analysts attributed this phenomenon to the launch of the Ethereum-Avalanche bridge, a feature that allows the transfer of ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens between the two networks.
This latest capital raise has made Ava Labs one of the most valuable crypto projects. This $5 billion valuation should not be confused with the total market capitalization of the AVAX token.
The funding obtained by Ava Labs should help the team to keep launching solutions that promote the widespread adoption of the Avalanche blockchain among developers.
Avalanche has progressively become one of the most widely used layer-1 blockchains in the ecosystem behind Ethereum – currently the most used – the Binance Smart Chain, and Terra.
Infrastructure Blockchains Keep Competing to Attract Developers
So-called infrastructure blockchains, which are layer-1 networks that can be used by developers to power decentralized apps (dApps) and other layer-2 applications, have been competing with each other to attract the largest number of web 3.0 programmers by improving their efficiency.
Ethereum, the most widely used network for the launch of crypto projects, has been struggling to maintain leadership as developers constantly complain about elevated transaction costs and relatively low processing speeds.
Other projects that have come up with alternative solutions and consensus mechanisms include IOTA (MIOTA) and Cardano (ADA).
The significant fragmentation of this particular segment of the ecosystem has prompted heated discussions within crypto enthusiasts in regards to which protocol has the most promising future.
Avalanche has been deemed by many as a potential “Ethereum killer” that uses the same language as its peer – Solidity – while adopting a more eco-friendly and allegedly more optimal protocol known as Proof of Stake (PoS).
Staking rewards for AVAX currently stand at 9.43% per year and the current staking ratio – the number of issued tokens that are currently staked – is standing at 67.34%.
Some prominent dApps have migrated to Avalanche as is the case of The Graph (GRT) and Chainlink (LINK).
A Closet Look at Avalanche (AVAX) Price Action
Avalanche (AVAX/USD) price chart – 1-day candles with multiple indicators – Source: TradingView
The price of the AVAX token has declined 27.5% so far this year as the market experienced a flush amid an expected shift in macroeconomic conditions including tighter monetary policies to be implemented in the United States and some other major developed economies.
In April, the price has gone down 14% but the price action remains on an uptrend as indicated by the chart above. In this regard, AVAX has made higher highs and higher lows since the year started which indicates that the token is on an uptrend.
Momentum indicators have plunged to negative territory lately with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) standing at 44 (bearish) while the MACD has drifted to negative territory and below the signal line.
According to Wallet Investor, an algorithm-based forecasting service, the short-term outlook for AVAX is bullish. According to this provider, the price is forecasted to rise to $156 per coin a year from now resulting in a 97% upside potential if that target is hit.
Meanwhile, predictions from another third-party forecasting service, Gov.Capital, state that the price could rise to $360 per coin in the next 12 months.
Crypto assets are highly volatile unregulated assets. Your capital is at risk.
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