The Avalanche Treasury Company saw a rocky start as it debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker AVAT on Thursday, with shares dropping 16% by the end of the day.
The new company gained access to the Nasdaq after merging with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Mountain Lake Acquisition in a $675 million deal first announced in October.
The company, with support from institutional backers including Dragonfly, Pantera, ParaFi Capital, VanEck, Galaxy Digital and Kraken, aims to give investors exposure to the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem without holding the cryptocurrency.
Bart Smith, Avalanche Treasury CEO and former Susquehanna executive, said Thursday that it wasn’t a bet on price, but an investment that “represents meaningful potential for the repositioning of institutional finance.”
Avalanche launched in 2020 with proof-of-stake consensus, high throughput and a multi-chain architecture. Today, more than 550 projects are building in the ecosystem, with more than $1 billion in institutional funds deployed and more than $1.65 billion in real-world assets tokenized on the network.
Tough first day trading for AVAT
AVAT shares fell 16% from their open at $2.20, ending the day at $1.85, according to Google Finance. This has been a typical pattern for crypto company initial public offerings, especially in a bear market.
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AVAX saw a small 3.4% gain on the day, but the asset has lost 33% over the past 30 days and remains down 95% from its November 2021 all-time high. It is currently trading at its lowest level since early 2021, at $6.61, according to TradingView.
Altcoins have been crushed in 2026, and AVAX is at a five-year low. Source: TradingView
DATs are having a rough ride
Avalanche is the latest crypto ecosystem to launch a publicly listed company, but it comes amid a difficult time for crypto treasury firms.
The weekly net flow of BTC into digital asset treasuries has declined to around $266 million this week, following weekly highs of over $2 billion in April and May, according to Coinglass.
The world’s largest BTC treasury, Strategy, has seen its stock value tumble 69% over the past 12 months as the Bitcoin bear market deepens.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies pivoted from BTC mining to an Ethereum treasury in mid-2025. Its shares (BMNR) saw explosive growth, reaching an all-time high of $135 in July that year, but have since tanked by 88% to $16.50 a year later.
SOL Strategies Inc., a Solana-focused DAT, began trading in September 2025 under STKE, but share prices have also collapsed by 92% over the past 12 months.
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