Avalanche Repositions as a Real-World Assets Powerhouse

Over the past month, Avalanche has emerged as one of the most active networks for real-world asset (RWA) expansion, institutional subnets, and tokenization pilots, repositioning itself at the forefront of the emerging tokenization landscape. 

Emerging focus on RWA tokenization 

This momentum is rooted in Avalanche’s subnet architecture – independent and customizable blockchains powered by Avalanche’s stack, allowing institutions to run their own networks with faster execution, built-in compliance rules and none of the congestion from the public network. 

Avalanche’s shift toward enterprise-grade subnets has made it a natural fit for real-world assets, drawing the attention of major financial institutions. The first signal came in November 2023, when JP Morgan’s Onyx Digital Assets used an Avalanche subnet during its tokenization pilot under the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian. More recently, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, expanded its BUIDL fund beyond Ethereum, reallocating capital across Aptos, Polygon and Avalanche, with AVAX capturing the largest share outside Ethereum. BUIDL now holds $553mn on Avalanche out of its $2.52bn AUM, making it the leading non-Ethereum venue for BlackRock’s tokenized liquidity and cementing AVAX as the firm’s preferred rail for scaling assets beyond Ethereum. 

This institutional pipeline is reflected in the data, as Avalanche’s real-world asset total value expanded almost 67% over the past 30 days, lifting cumulative value past $1.2bn according to RWA.xyz. Avalanche now holds the largest share of Distributed RWAs outside Ethereum, referring to real world assets that are issued natively on a chain and fully settled on that network. When including represented assets – originally minted elsewhere but bridged, mirrored, or wrapped onto another chain – Avalanche ranks fourth overall, underscoring both its native issuance strength and growing cross-chain presence. 

Momentum shift 

October 2025 marked Avalanche’s strongest month on record, with the network registering its highest-ever gas usage on the C-Chain and its second-highest month for transactions, according to Avalanche’s own data. This surge reflected a broader uptick across RWAs, subnets, and DeFi activity that has been building throughout the year. 

But the September and October spike wasn’t random. It was driven by a combination of higher real-world asset issuance with tokenized funds, treasuries, and institutional liquidity settling directly onto the network, along with increased subnet activity: gaming-focused appchains such as Beam, which generated sustained transaction flows across the broader ecosystem. The connection is straightforward: more RWAs and more active subnets mean more minting, transfers, settlements, and trading, all of which directly lift underlying transaction volumes. 

This has pushed Avalanche’s monthly ecosystem trading volume to levels not seen since late-2021, with trading activity reminiscent of a bull market as liquidity rotates back into Avalanche-native protocols. The impact is visible in fees, as cumulative year-to-date fees are up almost 95% over the past three months, with 49% of all 2025 fees generated since mid-August alone

And because 100% of Avalanche’s transaction fees are permanently burned, fee acceleration directly translates into structural supply reduction for AVAX. The trend extends beyond the last three months: 2025 has been an exceptional year overall, with total network transaction value rising 57% year-to-date, climbing from $529mn to $832mn. Over the same period, Total Value Locked jumped 35%, from $3.66bn to $4.96bn.

Granite upgrade

With the Granite upgrade landing on mainnet on 19 Nov, Avalanche is preparing for another step-change in performance. Granite introduces faster and more deterministic finality, better parallel execution for high-load applications, and more efficient gas handling. These improvements are precisely designed for the network’s fastest-growing segments: institutional subnets, tokenized assets, and high-throughput consumer chains. 

In practice, Granite will strengthen Avalanche’s positioning as a scalable, institution-ready execution layer, ensuring the network can absorb rising demand from RWAs, subchains, and DeFi without compromising speed or reliability. 

DATs

Additional structural tailwinds are emerging on the capital side as well. In Q3, two Avalanche-focused digital asset treasuries were announced: Avalanche Treasury Co. (AVAT) and AVAX One. According to crypto data platform Messari, both entities are designed to accumulate AVAX over the long term, with a combined $1.10 billion in committed capital and a target of $1.70 billion in total AVAX holdings. These treasuries introduce a sizable and programmatic source of demand for AVAX, reinforcing Avalanche’s monetary framework at a time when network activity and fee burn are already accelerating. 

Still, maintaining momentum won't be easy for Avax. It faces strong competition from larger ecosystems such as Solana and BNB layer 1s that continue to boost daily users and onchain activity. Other chains such as Aptos and Polygon are also vying with Avax as they too are rotating into RWAs.