Avalanche experiences Q4 tokenization surge driven by BlackRock's BUIDL fund
According to Messari's analysis, institutional capital flowing into Avalanche reached millions throughout last year, yet the network's native token experienced a steep decline of approximately 60% during 2025's final quarter.
The Avalanche blockchain platform experienced growing institutional interest throughout the final quarter of the year, with tokenized money market funds, loan products, and index instruments driving activity. This momentum pushed the total value of real-world assets on the layer 1 network to unprecedented levels, despite the native token's weakness relative to the wider cryptocurrency market.
Real-world asset tokenization on Avalanche witnessed total value locked growth of 68.6% during the fourth quarter of 2025, with annual growth reaching nearly 950% to exceed $1.3 billion. This expansion was significantly influenced by the $500 million BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) that went live in November, according to Thursday's report from Messari research analyst Youssef Haidar.
November also saw Fortune 500 financial technology company FIS collaborate with Intain, an Avalanche-based marketplace, to introduce tokenized loan products, providing additional momentum to Avalanche's TVL, Haidar noted. Through Intain's platform, 2,000 financial institutions across the United States can securitize loans exceeding $6 billion in value on the Avalanche network.
Additionally, S&P Dow Jones entered into a partnership with Dinari, a blockchain platform powered by Avalanche, to introduce the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index. This index monitors 35 cryptocurrency-related equities alongside 15 digital tokens on the Avalanche blockchain.
Traditional finance institutions are demonstrating increased willingness to explore cryptocurrency tokenization initiatives under the leadership of Paul Atkins at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where regulators have demonstrated greater receptiveness toward approving novel crypto-based financial products throughout the previous year.
Investment management firms Bitwise and VanEck submitted S-1 registration documents in late 2025 seeking approval for spot Avalanche exchange-traded funds that would incorporate staking functionality. VanEck successfully launched its spot Avalanche ETF at the beginning of this week.
AVAX continues to tank
The native Avalanche (AVAX) token experienced challenging market conditions throughout Q4, declining 59% to reach $12.3, and has experienced an additional 10.5% decrease year-to-date in 2026, currently trading near $11.
Unlike Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which have both established new all-time price peaks during this market cycle, AVAX has failed to generate comparable momentum. The token currently trades more than 92% below its historical peak of $144.96 reached in November 2021, based on data from CoinGecko.
Avalanche DeFi on the up
Native decentralized finance activity on Avalanche showed positive momentum, with value locked in AVAX climbing 34.5% throughout Q4 to reach 97.5 million AVAX. Simultaneously, average daily transaction volume on the Avalanche blockchain experienced a 63% increase during the identical period, reaching 2.1 million transactions, according to Haidar's findings.
Stablecoin market capitalization on the primary Avalanche chain demonstrated minimal movement during Q4, registering a marginal 0.1% increase to finish at $1.741 billion, representing approximately $1 million in growth.
By the conclusion of 2025, Tether's USDt (USDT) stablecoin had surpassed Circle's USDC (USDC) to claim the position as the leading stablecoin on the Avalanche network, accounting for 42.3% of total supply with $736.6 million in circulating tokens.