AVAT stock sinks 38% on Nasdaq debut as AVAX hits $6.64

Avalanche Treasury Co. fell 38% to $1.85 on its Nasdaq debut Thursday, as the token backing the vehicle extended its slide to 33% over the past month.

"It is not a bet on price. We believe it is an investment into Avalanche that represents meaningful potential for the repositioning of institutional finance," Bart Smith, chief executive officer of Avalanche Treasury Co. and a former Susquehanna and AllianceBernstein executive, said in a statement.

The firm reached public markets through a $675 million merger with special-purpose acquisition company Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp., a deal first announced in October. AVAT holds roughly 15 million AVAX, equal to about 3.5% of the token's circulating supply, and is structured as an active ecosystem-investment vehicle rather than a passive token holder. Backers include VanEck, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital and Kraken.

The debut highlights the challenge facing crypto treasury stocks as major digital assets trade near multiyear lows. AVAX has fallen more than 95% from its 2021 all-time high, and the token's 33% monthly decline has erased any premium investors might have assigned to the Nasdaq-listed structure. The next sessions will test whether buyers can separate AVAT's ecosystem model from AVAX's depressed spot price.

The gap between Avalanche's institutional buildout and its token price has rarely been wider. CME Group listed cash-settled AVAX futures in May, adding Avalanche to a regulated-futures roster that already includes Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. The network is serving as backend infrastructure for the 2026 FIFA World Cup's digital ticketing and loyalty programs, and counts BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Apollo and the state of Wyoming among its users. More than $1.65 billion in tokenized real-world assets sit on-chain, according to DefiLlama data.

Yet that infrastructure has failed to translate into token demand. Three spot AVAX ETFs trading in the US drew just $340,060 in net inflows during the week of June 12, with most recent weeks showing zero flows, according to SoSoValue data. The standout weeks earlier in the year — roughly $8.97 million on May 1 and $5.26 million on April 17 — now look like isolated spikes rather than a trend. AVAX traded near $6.64 as of Thursday's US close, with its daily relative strength index at 31, just above oversold territory, after spending early June below 25.

Social sentiment around Avalanche has turned sharply negative, with critics pointing to lagging developer activity and user growth relative to faster-growing rivals such as Solana and Sui, according to Santiment data. Avalanche was among the top trending tokens this week not because of a rally but because of the volume of skepticism around it. Crowded bearishness has historically preceded sharp reversals in crypto markets, but the on-chain data has yet to show the usage growth that would support a sustained recovery.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.