The Avalanche Snow Report: April 2023 Welcome to The Avalanche Snow Report! This monthly newsletter brings you highlights from across the Avalanche ecosystem, including DeFi, Enterprise & Institutional, NFTs & Culture, Gaming, and Infrastructure & Enablement. Have feedback or want to learn more? Please contact luke.chmiel@avalabs.org. Network Highlights The Number of Avalanche Daily Active Users Reaches Six-Month High The number of unique active users on Avalanche peaked at nearly 82,000 per day on April 16th, reaching a new six-month high. 
Source: Artemis Terminal Cortina Upgrade Goes Live AvalancheGo’s Cortina update transitions the X-Chain to use Snowman++ consensus and allows for linearization of the X-Chain, enabling the X-Chain to be further adopted through the use of Avalanche Warp Messaging. Other aspects of the upgrade include higher gas limits on the C-Chain and batched UTXO fees on the P-Chain. Follow the latest updates on the upgrade here. DeFi Arrow Markets Goes Live on Mainnet This month, Arrow Markets launched Call Spread Option Vaults (CSOV) in the first deployment of its Generalized Options Vaults (GOVs) infrastructure on Avalanche Mainnet. Arrow allows users to take both sides of call option spreads. For more information on the product offering, click here. More DeFi Highlights
Enterprise & Institutions Evergreen Subnets Pave the Way for Institutional Blockchain Adoption Earlier this month, Avalanche launched Evergreen Subnets, which help institutional partners address company-specific and industry-wide considerations. Avalanche’s newest Subnet infrastructure enables chain-level permissioning, custom gas tokens, a permissioned validator set, and EVM compatibility. In the wake of the broader Evergreen Subnet launch, the Evergreen “Spruce” testnet was announced for an initial cohort of institutional partners, including T. Rowe Price Associates, WisdomTree, Wellington Management, and Cumberland. The testnet aims to provide a controlled environment for testing the benefits of on-chain trade execution and settlement. By participating in Spruce, institutions can experiment with the use of blockchain rails and decentralized applications in enabling payment versus payment transactions, atomic settlement, reduced counterparty and credit risk, and more. SK Planet Comes to Avalanche SK Planet, a subsidiary of SK Square and one of South Korea’s largest information and communications technology platforms, will be launching a dedicated Avalanche Subnet, named UPTN. The Subnetwill act as a Web3 portal for SK Planet’s millions of users and integrated with SK Planet’s many popular services and apps, such as OKcashbag (OCB). OCB is the largest e-commerce loyalty program in Korea, whose membership comprises almost half of the South Korean population. Through UPTN, OCB’s community gains access to NFTs, unique community features, and dynamic membership benefits powered by Avalanche. The partnership highlights Avalanche’s explosive growth, particular in South Korea. According to research by Ava Labs, Avalanche’s brand recognition in the country rose 139% QoQ in Q4 ‘22. More Enterprise & Institutions Highlights
Gaming Merit Circle DAO's Beam Is Coming to Avalanche Merit Circle, a gaming DAO with over 60 partner games, plans to launch Avalanche Subnet Beam, focused on Web3 game development and gameplay. Beam will offer existing Merit Circle products and extensive new gaming-focused tooling, NFT marketplace Sphere), and three new games. Merit Circle plans for Beam to support dozens of Avalanche games. Gunzilla Games Previews GUNZ Gunzilla Games, an independent AAA game studio, announced the launch of GUNZ, an innovative and sustainable blockchain-based digital economy platform fully built on an Avalanche Subnet. The Subnet is customized to enable seamless gameplay, utilize only in-game tokens for gas fees, and provide an intuitive, rewarding user experience for both Web3 and traditional gamers. Other gaming studios can leverage the GUNZ SDK and white-label components, such as a built-in companion app, marketplace, and NFT minting engine, to build and launch their own projects on GUNZ. NFTs & Culture Ava Labs Unveils “Avaissance” To Support Artists & Cultivate Ecosystem Growth Earlier this month, Avalanche unveiled Avaissance, an initiative supporting on-the-rise digital artists and cultivating Avalanche NFT ecosystem growth. The program has two signature components: the Artists in Residence Program and the Mona Lisa Initiative. The Artists in Residence program will provide 50+ artists with six months of funding, mentorship, and access to virtual workshops, and the Mona Lisa Initiative will see the Avalanche Foundation collecting NFTs for a permanent collection and gifting pieces to qualifying DAOs & Tastemakers. Learn more and explore the dedicated Art on Avalanche website. Snickerdoodle Labs Is Building a Novel Marketing Platform Snickerdoodle Labs is building a decentralized marketing platform that allows customers to control how they share their data with brands, maintain privacy, and receive rewards. Through its novel “consent layer,” the firm aims to provide brands with access to richer data troves, while allowing consumers to control and benefit from their own data. If users decide to share their anonymized data, they can receive rewards from the brands. Learn how deciding to share anonymized data affects users on the new platform here. More NFTs & Culture Highlights Infrastructure & Enablement Stack Up Developer Enablement Program Teams Up With Avalanche StackUp and Avalanche are working together to help individuals learn about the network, its architecture, core concepts and build basic level smart contracts and applications. Learn more about the opportunity here. Avalanche Partners With Columbia’s Lionhack During the most recent Lionhack hackathon at Columbia, Avalanche supported the creation of a custom VM or state machine subnet track. Learn more here. More Infrastructure & Enablement Highlights
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