What Is Avalanche?

Avalanche (AVAX) is a cryptocurrency and blockchain platform that rivals Ethereum. AVAX is the native token of the Avalanche blockchain, which—like Ethereum—uses smart contracts to support a variety of blockchain projects.1

The Avalanche blockchain can provide near-instant transaction finality. AVAX is used to pay transaction processing fees and secure the Avalanche network, and acts as a basic unit of account among blockchains in the Avalanche networkThe Avalanche blockchain reportedly can process 4,500 transactions per second.2 Launched in 2020, Avalanche aims to be fast, versatile, secure, affordable, and accessible.3 Avalanche is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can view and contribute to the platform's code.Coin creation rate: The maximum supply of AVAX is capped at 720 million tokens, but AVAX users govern how fast new coins are minted. AVAX holders can control the rate of new coin creation by voting to adjust the amount of AVAX that is paid as a reward for adding a new block to the Avalanche blockchain..1