What is Avalanche?
Avalanche is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform built to run smart contracts quickly and at low cost. Its main smart-contract chain works with the same code, tools and wallets as Ethereum, and a transaction on it is usually final in about a second. Avalanche also lets any project launch a blockchain of its own, called an Avalanche L1, with its own rules, validators and fees.
AVAX is Avalanche's native token. It pays the fee for every transaction, and those fees are burned. It is staked by the validators that secure the network, and it is the common currency across Avalanche's chains. People often say "Avalanche" when they mean the coin, but strictly speaking Avalanche is the network and AVAX is the asset. The supply of AVAX is capped at 720 million.
Avalanche at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Proof-of-stake smart-contract platform |
| Native asset | AVAX |
| Created by | Emin Gün Sirer, Kevin Sekniqi and Maofan "Ted" Yin; developed by Ava Labs |
| Mainnet launch | 21 September 2020 |
| Consensus | Avalanche consensus (Snowman), secured by staked AVAX |
| Main network | The Primary Network: X-Chain, P-Chain and C-Chain |
| Block time | About one second on the C-Chain |
| Maximum supply | 720 million AVAX, of which 360 million were created at launch |
| Fees | Paid in AVAX and burned in full |
| Gas price unit | nAVAX (one billionth of an AVAX) |
| Compatibility | The C-Chain runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine; its addresses start with 0x |
How does Avalanche work?
Consensus by sampling: instead of every validator exchanging votes with every other validator, each one repeatedly asks a small, random sample of other validators which block they prefer, and switches its own choice if a large enough majority of the sample disagrees. Once enough rounds in a row agree, the decision is locked in. This consensus mechanism, known as Avalanche consensus, settles transactions in about a second, and a settled transaction cannot be reversed.
Validators: the network is run by validators who lock up AVAX as stake, and the more AVAX a validator has staked, the more weight it carries. This is a form of proof of stake.
The Primary Network: Avalanche's main network is made up of three built-in chains, each with its own job, and every Primary Network validator runs all three.
C-Chain (Contract Chain): the smart-contract chain, where nearly all apps, tokens and exchange deposits live. It runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so its addresses start with 0x and Ethereum apps work on it with few or no changes. When people talk about using Avalanche, they usually mean the C-Chain.
P-Chain (Platform Chain): coordinates validators and staking, and keeps the register of Avalanche L1s and their validators. Its addresses start with P-avax1.
X-Chain (Exchange Chain): a chain for creating and sending assets, including AVAX. Its addresses start with X-avax1.
Each chain keeps its own AVAX balance, and AVAX can be moved between them in a wallet that supports all three. Because C-Chain addresses look exactly like Ethereum addresses, always check which network an address belongs to before you send.
Avalanche L1s (formerly subnets)
Avalanche was designed so that projects could run their own blockchains next to the main network. Until late 2024 these were called subnets, and every subnet validator also had to validate the Primary Network, which meant staking at least 2,000 AVAX.
The Avalanche9000 upgrade, which went live on 16 December 2024 under the name Etna, renamed subnets Avalanche L1s and changed how they work. L1 validators no longer have to validate the Primary Network or stake AVAX on it. Instead, each pays a continuous fee in AVAX to the P-Chain, about 1.33 AVAX a month at the minimum rate, which made launching an L1 far cheaper.
Each Avalanche L1 chooses its own validators, its own gas token and fees, and whether it is open to everyone or limited to approved participants. L1s can pass messages and tokens to each other and to the C-Chain through Avalanche's built-in Interchain Messaging, a form of cross-chain interoperability. An L1 is secured by its own validators, not by the Primary Network, so how safe it is depends on who runs it.
What is Avalanche used for?
Decentralized finance: the C-Chain hosts exchanges, lending markets and other DeFi apps that work from a self-custody wallet.
Stablecoins: USDC and USDT are issued natively on the C-Chain and are used for payments and trading. Native USDC is not the same token as USDC.e, an older version bridged over from Ethereum. Learn more about stablecoins.
Real-world assets and settlement: BlackRock's tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, has been available on Avalanche since November 2024. Wyoming launched its state-issued stablecoin, FRNT, on Avalanche and other chains in August 2025. In September 2026 Goldman Sachs began offering its Treasury money market fund to institutional crypto firms through Lynq, a private Avalanche L1 used for settlement. See our guide to real-world assets.
Ticketing and fan apps: FIFA runs its own Avalanche L1, which issued the Right-to-Buy and Right-to-Ticket tokens used to sell tickets for the 2026 World Cup.
Government services: in September 2026 the United Arab Emirates announced that the digital document vault in UAE PASS, its national digital identity app, will move to a dedicated Avalanche L1.
AVAX has a part in all of this: it pays C-Chain fees, secures the Primary Network through staking, and pays the fee that keeps every L1 validator active.
Fees: how using Avalanche is paid for
Every transaction on Avalanche pays a fee in AVAX, and the whole fee is burned, meaning those AVAX are destroyed. Validators earn staking rewards, not fees.
On the C-Chain, fees work much as they do on Ethereum. Each action uses computation measured in gas, the price of gas is quoted in nAVAX (one billionth of an AVAX), and a base fee rises when the chain is busy and falls when it is not. You need some AVAX to do anything on the C-Chain, including sending USDC or another token.
Three upgrades cut C-Chain fees sharply. Etna lowered the minimum base fee from 25 nAVAX to 1 nAVAX in December 2024, a cut of about 96%. Octane, in April 2025, made fees respond more smoothly to demand and let validators adjust how much the chain processes. Helicon, in September 2026, made the minimum gas price adjustable by validators. Your wallet shows the fee before you confirm.
AVAX supply: is there a maximum?
Yes. AVAX has a hard cap of 720 million tokens. Half of that, 360 million AVAX, was created when the network launched in September 2020. The rest is released over time as staking rewards, at a rate that slows as the supply gets closer to the cap, so the cap can never be exceeded.
About 475 million AVAX had been created by early October 2026, and around 5.2 million AVAX had been burned in fees since launch. Since the fee cuts of 2024 and 2025, far less AVAX is burned each day than is paid out as staking rewards, so the total supply is still growing. The live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.
How validators secure Avalanche
Staking AVAX happens on the P-Chain, so AVAX held on the C-Chain has to be moved to the P-Chain first, in a wallet that supports it.
Running a validator: takes at least 2,000 AVAX and a node that stays online. Since the Helicon upgrade on 22 September 2026, a validator can stake for as little as 48 hours (it was two weeks) and up to one year, and can renew automatically. To earn rewards, a validator must be online at least 90% of the time, up from 80%.
Delegating: if you do not run a node, you can delegate at least 25 AVAX to a validator for two weeks to one year. The validator keeps a fee of at least 2% of your rewards.
Liquid staking: some services stake AVAX for you and give you a liquid staking token that represents it and can be used elsewhere in DeFi.
Rewards are paid in newly created AVAX at the end of the staking period, and longer periods earn a higher rate. Avalanche does not take away staked AVAX as a penalty: a validator that is offline too often simply earns no reward. Staked AVAX is locked until the period ends. About 180 million AVAX was staked in early October 2026. Staking rewards may be taxable where you live.
Avalanche's upgrades: from launch to Helicon
Avalanche changes through network upgrades made of Avalanche Community Proposals (ACPs). The main ones so far:
| Upgrade | Date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Mainnet launch | 21 September 2020 | The Primary Network and AVAX go live |
| Cortina | 25 April 2023 | The X-Chain moved to the same linear consensus as the other chains, and the C-Chain's capacity was raised |
| Durango | 6 March 2024 | Built-in cross-chain messaging came to the C-Chain, so chains can send each other messages directly |
| Avalanche9000 (Etna) | 16 December 2024 | Subnets became Avalanche L1s with a monthly validator fee instead of a 2,000 AVAX stake; the C-Chain minimum base fee was cut about 96% |
| Octane | 8 April 2025 | Dynamic C-Chain fees and a gas target that validators can adjust |
| Granite | 19 November 2025 | Adjustable block times, support for passkey and biometric signatures, and more reliable messaging between L1s |
| Helicon | 22 September 2026 | Validator minimum staking period cut to 48 hours, automatic renewal, a 90% uptime rule, C-Chain execution separated from consensus, and an adjustable minimum gas price |
Who created Avalanche and who runs it?
The Avalanche consensus protocol was first described in May 2018 in a paper posted online by a pseudonymous group calling itself Team Rocket. Emin Gün Sirer, a computer science professor at Cornell University, and his doctoral students Kevin Sekniqi and Maofan "Ted" Yin developed the research into a network and founded Ava Labs to build it. Avalanche's mainnet launched on 21 September 2020.
No one owns Avalanche. Ava Labs writes the main node software and many of the tools, and the Avalanche Foundation funds the ecosystem, but neither controls the network. Changes are proposed in public as ACPs and only take effect if validators run the new software, and some settings, such as the C-Chain's minimum gas price, are now set by the stake-weighted preferences of validators.
Avalanche ETFs
VanEck's Avalanche ETF (VAVX) was the first US spot AVAX fund, starting to trade on Nasdaq on 26 January 2026. Grayscale converted its Avalanche Trust into an ETF (GAVA) on Nasdaq on 12 March 2026, and Bitwise launched its Avalanche ETF (BAVA) on NYSE on 15 April 2026. All three are set up to stake part of the AVAX they hold. An ETF gives price exposure through an ordinary brokerage account, but you do not hold the AVAX yourself and cannot use it on the network.
Risks to know
AVAX's price can move sharply in either direction. Smart contracts on the C-Chain can contain bugs, and scams and phishing are common, so only connect your wallet to apps you trust and never share your recovery phrase. Sending AVAX on the wrong chain is an easy mistake: X-Chain, P-Chain and C-Chain balances are separate, and a 0x address works on Ethereum and many other networks too. Bridged tokens depend on the crypto bridge that issued them, and each Avalanche L1 is only as secure as its own validators. This page explains how Avalanche works and is not financial advice.
Buy, sell and hold AVAX with Bitcoin.com
You can buy AVAX with a card or bank transfer and have it delivered on the Avalanche C-Chain to an address you control, sell AVAX for cash paid to a bank account, card or payment app in supported regions, and check what your AVAX is worth with the AVAX to USD converter. To hold AVAX yourself, the self-custody Bitcoin.com Wallet supports AVAX on the Avalanche C-Chain and lets you swap it for other coins and tokens. It holds C-Chain AVAX, so ask anyone sending you AVAX to use the C-Chain. Our support guide shows how to add an Avalanche wallet in the app. You keep your own keys, so always store your recovery phrase safely.