Avalanche Treasury Co. posted a sharp loss in its first day on Nasdaq, with shares trading under AVAT closing at $1.85, down 38.13% on Thursday. Google Finance data showed the stock opened at $2.99, touched a high of $3.00, and fell as low as $1.75 during the session. In after-hours trading, the stock moved to $1.88, up 1.62%. Volume came in near 497,580 shares, and the company’s market value was listed at about $486.37 million.
SPAC merger sets up public-market Avalanche vehicle
The listing came after Avalanche Treasury merged with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. in a SPAC deal valued at roughly $675 million. That transaction turned the company into a publicly traded vehicle tied to the Avalanche ecosystem.
Avalanche Treasury has said it wants to give stock investors exposure to Avalanche without requiring them to hold AVAX directly. The company is set up as both an operating company and a digital asset treasury. Chief Executive Bart Smith said the firm plans to deploy capital across the Avalanche ecosystem and described it as something other than a pure price bet, positioning the business as an ecosystem investment platform instead of a passive token holder.
About 15 million AVAX on the balance sheet
The company holds about 15 million AVAX, equal to roughly 3.5% of the token’s circulating supply. That leaves Avalanche Treasury directly exposed to AVAX price swings while also giving it room to use capital for staking, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments.
Its backers include Dragonfly, ParaFi Capital, VanEck, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, Kraken, FalconX, and Borderless. The board and advisory group also include Ava Labs founder Emin Gün Sirer and Aave founder Stani Kulechov.
Weak AVAX price keeps pressure on related equities
AVAX was trading around $6.64 on June 12, according to crypto.news market data. The token was up 2.09% over 24 hours, but it was still down 13.02% over seven days and 33.3% over the past month. Its 24-hour trading volume stood near $184.9 million, with market capitalization around $2.87 billion. Over the latest 24-hour period, AVAX traded between $6.48 and $6.67.
The token remains far below its $144.96 all-time high from November 2021, leaving it down more than 95% from that peak. Earlier market reports had already shown AVAX falling back to levels seen in early 2021 after a broader crypto liquidation wave. That setting made AVAT’s first session harder, with investors weighing both the company’s structure and the token’s weak price trend.
Crypto treasury firms are meeting a tougher tape
AVAT’s debut landed at a time when digital asset treasury firms are facing a more difficult market. These companies have tried to package crypto exposure through public equities, but falling token prices have put demand under strain. Recent crypto.news reporting also pointed to pressure around BitMine’s Ethereum treasury strategy, with the company moving to raise $300 million through preferred stock.
Avalanche Treasury is trying to separate itself from simple token-holding vehicles. Its model depends on actively putting capital to work across the Avalanche network, not only on the market value of AVAX held on its balance sheet. The first trading day showed that investors are still cautious.