Avalanche Treasury Co., a digital asset treasury company focused on AVAX, began trading on Nasdaq on Thursday. Its first-day performance was harsh: the stock closed down 38.1% at $1.85.
Avalanche Treasury stumbles into Nasdaq debut
Avalanche Treasury Co. started trading on Nasdaq under the ticker “AVAT” on Thursday after completing a $675 million SPAC merger. The stock opened the session at $2.99, fell as low as $1.75 during the day and closed at $1.85. This marked a 38.1% decline compared with its pre-merger price. In after-hours trading, the stock recovered slightly to around $1.90.
The company became publicly listed after closing its merger agreement with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp., which was signed in October 2025. The deal included $460 million in treasury financing and a $200 million discounted AVAX purchase allocation provided through the Avalanche Foundation.
CEO Bart Smith compared the company’s strategy to a “corporate treasury” model. In a statement, he said: “AVAT aims to deploy capital deliberately to compound the value of the Avalanche ecosystem over time. This is not a price bet; it is an investment in Avalanche, which we believe has significant potential in the repositioning of corporate finance.”
The company aims to offer investors exposure to the Avalanche ecosystem without requiring them to directly hold or manage AVAX. Under this framework, capital will also be allocated to areas such as protocol investments, institutional partnerships and validator infrastructure. Avalanche Treasury currently holds about 15 million AVAX, representing roughly 3.5% of the token’s circulating supply.
Its leadership team includes names from both Wall Street and the crypto industry. Smith has more than two decades of experience at Susquehanna and AllianceBernstein. COO Laine Litman helped scale Hidden Road Partners through its acquisition by Ripple. The board and advisory group include Ava Labs founder Emin Gün Sirer, Dragonfly General Partner Rob Hadick, Blockworks CEO Jason Yanowitz and Aave founder Stani Kulechov.
The investor base is also notable. Dragonfly, ParaFi Capital, VanEck, FalconX, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital and Kraken are among the institutions backing the company.
Dragonfly’s Hadick said in the statement: “Avalanche has solidified its position as the blockchain of choice for institutions. A publicly listed treasury vehicle offers the entry point institutions have been waiting for.”
According to the company, Avalanche has attracted more than $1.02 billion in institutional funds and facilitated the tokenization of over $1.65 billion in real-world assets. More than 550 projects are active across the ecosystem.
The AVAX side of the picture is not particularly encouraging either. The token was trading around $6.62 after rising 1.27% over the past 24 hours, but it has lost more than 50% of its value over the past six months.
Avalanche Treasury joins the growing list of digital asset treasury companies built around the Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain. That list also includes Anthony Scaramucci-backed AVAX One Technology Ltd.
