Animoca Taps Avalanche for Asia and Middle East Expansion
Web3 investment firm Animoca Brands announced on March 19 a strategic partnership and investment in the AVAX token to expand the Avalanche blockchain's footprint across Asia and the Middle East. While the specific investment amount was not disclosed, it was termed a "major" commitment. Animoca, which holds a portfolio of over 600 investments, will focus on deploying capital into AVAX-based projects and providing advisory support to foster growth in gaming, real-world assets (RWA), and digital identity.
Avalanche combines scalable subnet architecture with EVM compatibility, which makes it particularly well suited for sovereign and institutional deployments — areas where we see growing demand globally.
— Omar Elassar, Head of Global Strategic Partnerships, Animoca Brands.
AVAX Slips 3% Despite Growing Institutional Adoption
Despite the bullish partnership news, the AVAX token's price declined 3% to $9.41, falling below the key $10 level. The price action reflects Avalanche's current market position, where it ranks 22nd by market capitalization at approximately $4 billion but lags larger rivals in ecosystem activity. The network's total value of tokenized assets stands at $1.3 billion, significantly less than Ethereum's $15.7 billion. Similarly, Avalanche's DeFi total value locked (TVL) of $1.9 billion is a fraction of the $136 billion on Ethereum and $18 billion on Solana. However, underlying institutional interest is building. On March 17, publicly traded AVAX One Technology (Nasdaq: AVX) engaged digital asset firm Treehouse to stake over 800,000 AVAX, targeting an approximate 6% yield, signaling confidence in the network's on-chain financial capabilities.
