**Avalanche Plans $1B Raise to Boost AVAX Holdings and Strengthen Ecosystem**

The Avalanche Foundation is working on a bold plan to raise $1 billion through two U.S.-based digital asset investment companies. This move is designed to create long-term holding structures for its AVAX token, similar to how MicroStrategy has been accumulating Bitcoin as part of its corporate strategy.

The $1 billion will be raised in two separate $500 million rounds. The first round is led by Hivemind Capital, which is connected to Dragonfly Capital. The investment will go through a private deal with a publicly traded company on Nasdaq, though the company’s name hasn’t been revealed. Former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci is advising the deal, which is expected to close by the end of September 2025.

The second round will be raised through a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) also backed by Dragonfly Capital, and it’s expected to close around October 2025. At AVAX’s current price of $28–$29, this $1 billion raise would purchase roughly 34–35 million tokens—about 8% of the circulating supply of 422 million AVAX.

This strategy could tighten AVAX’s available supply, support its price, and signal strong interest from institutions. It also aligns with a broader trend in 2025, where over $16 billion has been raised by companies building crypto treasuries. Avalanche is also attracting attention from major traditional finance players like BlackRock, Apollo, and Wellington as they explore tokenized fund pilots on its network.

Following the news, AVAX jumped around 8–10%, trading near $29, with a noticeable spike in network activity. On social media platform X, many users highlighted this as a “buyback-style” move that could drive adoption. The involvement of Hivemind and Dragonfly further boosted community excitement. This positions Avalanche as a serious competitor to Ethereum and Solana in the battle for Layer 1 dominance, even though AVAX has underperformed them in 2025 so far.

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**BitMine Becomes Largest ETH Corporate Holder with Over $9B in Ethereum**

BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), originally a Bitcoin mining company, has transformed into a major player in Ethereum treasury strategy. The company recently bought 46,255 ETH (worth about $201 million) from BitGo, bringing its total ETH holdings to over 2.1 million ETH—valued at around $9.24 billion at current prices ($4,350–$4,400 per ETH).

This move follows BitMine’s earlier purchases: 80,325 ETH ($358 million) from Galaxy Digital and FalconX last week and over 319,000 ETH ($1.4 billion) earlier in September. Altogether, BitMine now holds about 1.8% of all circulating ETH and aims to eventually control 5% of the total ETH supply (about 120 million tokens). It also holds 192 BTC ($215 million) and $266 million in cash reserves.

BitMine’s chairman, Tom Lee from Fundstrat, believes Ethereum represents a “supercycle” investment as Wall Street increasingly integrates blockchain and artificial intelligence into financial systems. The company is supported by big names like ARK Invest (Cathie Wood), Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Galaxy Digital.

BitMine also invested $20 million into Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: OCTO) via a $270 million PIPE deal to support OCTO’s plan to build a Worldcoin (WLD) treasury. This aligns with BitMine’s strategy of allocating at least 1% of its balance sheet to projects within the Ethereum ecosystem.

With these moves, BitMine now holds the largest ETH treasury of any company and ranks second overall in crypto holdings—just behind MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin position. Ethereum rose about 2.3% following the announcement, trading above $4,400 as institutional demand continued to rise. BlackRock’s ETH ETF (ETHA) led the way with $172 million in net inflows yesterday.

On-chain analysts confirmed the massive ETH transfers, sparking buzz online about growing institutional interest in Ethereum. BitMine’s stock dipped slightly (~0.5%) to $42 on high volume but remains among the top 10 most liquid U.S. stocks.

The trend highlights how corporate treasuries are becoming a major force in crypto markets—with more than $16 billion raised for digital assets in 2025 alone.

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**Ethena Bows Out of Hyperliquid Stablecoin Race After Community Pushback**

Ethena Labs has officially withdrawn from the race to issue Hyperliquid’s new native stablecoin, USDH. The decision came after feedback from Hyperliquid’s validator community, who felt Ethena wasn’t a truly “native” part of the ecosystem.

While Ethena is known for its successful synthetic stablecoin USDe (which hit a $12 billion market cap), many in the Hyperliquid community were concerned that Ethena had broader goals beyond just working with Hyperliquid and wasn’t fully committed to the platform.

Ethena’s founder, Guy Young, acknowledged these concerns were valid and praised the community for their engagement. He congratulated rival Native Markets for taking the lead position.

Hyperliquid is a fast-growing decentralized exchange focused on perpetual contracts. With over $330 billion in monthly trading volume and only 11 team members, it plans to launch USDH to reduce reliance on bridged stablecoins like USDC—which currently make up 95% of its $5.6 billion stablecoin supply.

The issuer of USDH will receive major revenue from managing reserves—potentially earning $200 million annually—making this a highly competitive bid. Ethena had entered the competition on September 9 as the sixth contender, offering a stablecoin backed by USDtb (linked to BlackRock’s BUIDL fund), and promising to return 95% of revenue back to Hyperliquid while offering up to $150 million in incentives.

Other contenders included Paxos (offering PayPal/Venmo integration), Frax, Agora, Sky (formerly MakerDAO), and Native Markets—a new team created specifically for this bid. Validator votes are based on staked HYPE tokens.

Before Ethena exited, Native Markets had already secured around 30–53% validator support, while Ethena had just 8%. Prediction markets now give Native Markets a 91–92% chance of winning ahead of the September 14 vote.

Community members favored teams deeply embedded in Hyperliquid’s culture. Despite having limited history, Native Markets was seen as more aligned with Hyperliquid’s values than more established but external players like Ethena or Paxos.

Some industry voices questioned whether the process was fair. Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly suggested that it was tailored for Native Markets to win. Guy Young disagreed but respected the community’s choice.

Even though Ethena pulled out of the bid, it plans to continue building for Hyperliquid through other projects like hUSDe—a synthetic dollar made for Hyperliquid users—and tools such as savings accounts, trading rewards, and risk management features for advanced users.

This withdrawal lets Ethena avoid a divisive vote and focus on higher-reward opportunities without being tied down by USDH’s potential revenue limits. It also highlights ongoing tensions between newer “native” projects and established DeFi teams.

Overall, this situation shows how important community governance is when launching stablecoins on decentralized platforms—and how native alignment can sometimes matter more than reputation or capital.