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Institutional adoption on the Avalanche blockchain surged in the fourth quarter as tokenised real-world assets hit a record value, even as the AVAX token sharply underperformed the broader crypto market.
Tokenised real-world assets on Avalanche rose 68.6% in Q4 and nearly 950% year on year to more than $1.3 billion, driven largely by BlackRock’s $500 million USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, according to research from Messari.
The growth was supported by new institutional use cases, including a partnership between Fortune 500 fintech FIS and Avalanche-based marketplace Intain to launch tokenised loans for US banks.
S&P Dow Jones also expanded its presence on Avalanche through a partnership with Dinari to launch the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, tracking crypto-linked stocks and tokens on the network.
Despite the surge in tokenisation activity, the Avalanche token fell 59% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and has continued to slide in 2026, leaving it down more than 90% from its 2021 peak, CoinGecko data shows.
On the decentralised finance side, value locked in Avalanche-native DeFi rose 34.5% in Q4, while average daily transactions jumped 63% to about 2.1 million, Messari said.