Avalanche really went big this time. Their newly established treasury company AVAT directly announced plans to go public on NASDAQ through a SPAC, with a valuation exceeding $675 million. Even more explosive is that they brought in Bart Smith, the former head of the crypto department at Susquehanna, to serve as CEO.
This move is actually quite smart. AVAT acquired $200 million worth of AVAX tokens from the Avalanche Foundation at a discounted price and secured priority purchase rights for the next 18 months. Their goal is very clear: to push the total value of AVAX in hand to over $1 billion after going public.
The lineup of investors is also quite luxurious, with top institutions like Dragonfly, ParaFi, Pantera, and VanEck all participating. This indicates that everyone recognizes the value of this model.
The addition of Smith is crucial. This veteran who has been navigating the quantitative trading circles on Wall Street for many years is now coming to manage on-chain assets. The boundaries between traditional finance and the crypto world are really becoming increasingly blurred.
The biggest advantage of this model is that it allows institutional investors who want to invest in AVAX but do not want to directly engage with cryptocurrencies to hold it indirectly by buying stocks. Moreover, the initial valuation offers a 23% discount, which is quite attractive for early investors.
