Institutional adoption drives tokenized asset growth
Avalanche saw significant institutional activity in the fourth quarter of 2025, with tokenized real-world assets on the blockchain network reaching new highs. The total value locked for these assets jumped 68.6% during the quarter and nearly 950% over the full year, hitting more than $1.3 billion.
This growth was largely driven by BlackRock’s $500 million USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), which launched in November. The fund’s presence on Avalanche seems to have created a sort of validation effect, encouraging other traditional finance players to explore the network.
But it wasn’t just BlackRock. Fortune 500 fintech company FIS partnered with Intain, an Avalanche-based marketplace, to launch tokenized loans. Intain’s platform enables about 2,000 US banks to securitize over $6 billion worth of loans on Avalanche. That’s a substantial amount of traditional finance activity moving onto blockchain infrastructure.
Traditional finance embraces tokenization
There’s a broader trend happening here. Traditional financial firms appear increasingly willing to experiment with crypto tokenization under the current Securities and Exchange Commission leadership. The regulatory environment seems to have shifted somewhat, with more openness to innovative crypto products over the past year.
S&P Dow Jones also got involved, partnering with Dinari to launch the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index on Avalanche. This index tracks 35 crypto-linked stocks and 15 crypto tokens, creating another bridge between traditional markets and blockchain.
Asset managers are taking notice too. Both Bitwise and VanEck filed to launch spot Avalanche exchange-traded funds late last year, with VanEck’s actually launching this week. These filings included staking provisions, which is interesting because it shows they’re thinking about the native capabilities of the blockchain, not just treating AVAX as another asset.
AVAX token performance lags
Here’s where things get a bit contradictory. Despite all this institutional activity and growth in tokenized assets, the AVAX token itself didn’t perform well in Q4. It dropped 59% to $12.3 and has slid another 10.5% so far in 2026 to around $11.
AVAX hasn’t seen the same price action as Bitcoin and Ethereum this market cycle. While those two hit new all-time highs, AVAX remains down over 92% from its November 2021 peak of $144.96. It’s a strange disconnect—the network is seeing real adoption and growth, but the token price doesn’t reflect it.
DeFi activity shows mixed results
The value locked in native decentralized finance on Avalanche, measured in AVAX tokens, rose 34.5% over Q4 to 97.5 million AVAX. Daily transactions on the blockchain increased 63% to 2.1 million during the same period.
But the stablecoin market on Avalanche’s main chain remained relatively flat, increasing just 0.1% in Q4 to $1.741 billion. There was a shift in dominance though—Tether’s USDT overtook Circle’s USDC to become the leading stablecoin on the network, representing 42.3% of total supply by the end of 2025 with $736.6 million in circulation.
What I find interesting is how traditional finance adoption seems to be driving growth in one area while the native token struggles. Perhaps institutions are using Avalanche for its technical capabilities rather than speculating on the token. Or maybe there’s a lag effect—institutional adoption could eventually drive token demand, but we haven’t seen that yet.
The network metrics look strong, with transaction growth and DeFi activity increasing. But the token price tells a different story. It makes me wonder if we’re seeing two separate narratives here—one about blockchain infrastructure adoption by traditional finance, and another about crypto market speculation. They’re happening on the same network but don’t seem to be connected in the way you might expect.
