The Defiant

Avalanche Surges to New High in Boost for 'Subnet' Strategy

DFK Chain Subnet Drives 51% Jump in Transactions Processed in September

By: Samuel Haig Loading...

Avalanche Surges to New High in Boost for 'Subnet' Strategy

Avalanche is on a roll.

Even as crypto wrestles with existential questions in the wake of the FTX disaster, transaction volumes on Avalanche, a Layer 1 network, surged to new highs in the third quarter amid the growth of its DFK Chain subnet.

According to data provided to The Defiant by Nansen, Avalanche processed 68M transactions during September, a 51% jump from August.

Network Upgrades

“Despite the complexities brought about by the present bear market, Avalanche’s transactions this quarter continued to grow in volume, supported by a number of significant network upgrades and additions to its ecosystem,” said Mega Septiandara, a research analyst at Nansen.

Monthly transaction volume for Avalanche. Source: Nansen

Avalanche is a smart contract protocol that positioned its Layer 1 C-chain as a low-cost alternative to Ethereum, which alarmed users in 2021 with skyrocketing gas fees. Avalanche offers a multichain framework composed of application-specific “subnets” built on top of its main chain.

Most of Avalanche’s value resides on its C-chain, which hosts a total value locked of $850M according to DeFi Llama. However, the C-chain’s TVL has plummeted 93% from a high of $12B last November.

But Ava Labs now appears to be redirecting its efforts toward cultivating a multi-chain ecosystem of specialized subnets.

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Nansen reports that subnets drove significant transactional volume on Avalanche during the third quarter. The leading subnet, DFK, processed 1.1M transactions daily. By contrast, between 120,000 and 240,000 transactions were executed on the C-chain each day.

Ecosystem

The DFK Chain is an Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible subnet that hosts DeFi Kingdoms, a gamified DeFi and decentralized exchange platform. The subnet was built by Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche. Ava Labs hopes the DFK Chain will become a hub for GameFi projects.

The broader Avalanche ecosystem has also been building amid the bear trend.

TraderJoe, Avalanche’s top decentralized exchange, deployed its v2 iteration in August. Joe v2 introduces concentrated liquidity features popularized by Uniswap v3. JoePegs, an NFT marketplace launched by TraderJoe in May, emerged as the network’s top NFT platform with daily volume peaking above $117,000 in July.

Native Bridge

In September, Boba Network also became the first Layer 2 chain to launch on top of Avalanche. Boba offers a native bridge for NFTs and off-chain APIs.

Avalanche also deployed its Banff upgrade on Sept 29, paving the way for “Elastic Subnets” — subnets that offer developers greater customization. The new features are currently being explored on the Fuji testnet, with Ava Labs gearing up for a mainnet launch in the future.

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