Avalanche Launches $290 Million Incentive Program to Accelerate Growth of Subnets

The Avalanche Foundation recently announced “Multiverse” – an up to $290 million (about 4 million AVAX) incentive program to help develop subnets on its network.

• According to a Medium blog post, the initiative will begin by supporting subnets dedicated to blockchain gaming, DeFi, NFTs, and institutional use-cases.
• One of the projects will focus on making a horizontally integrated blockchain built for institutional DeFi, with embedded KYC functionality. Ava Labs, Aave Companies, Golden Tree Asset Management, Wintermute, Jump Crypto, Valkyrie, and Securitize will collaborate on its creation.
• This may seem contradictory, as part of DeFi’s perceived benefit comes from it being anonymous and permissionless. However, Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo believes KYC implementation will remove a major roadblock to institutional DeFi adoption.
• “This is a significant leap toward a future where the barriers between traditional and decentralized finance cease to exist,” added Aave CEO Stani Kulechov.
• Subnets allow for “scalable” and “application-specific” blockchains to be integrated with the broader Avalanche ecosystem, while not competing with each other for network resources.
• These alternative chains are highly customizable, letting users select which validators secure the chain and which token is used for gas fees, among other things.
• Multiverse will be divided into six phases for supporting burgeoning subnets at different times in the future.
• This program is different from the “Avalanche Rush” program that incentivized project development on Avalanche’s default smart contract chain.
• AVAX is currently trading at $75 and is the 10th largest crypto by market cap.