Voyager Expands AVAX, NFT, DeFi Offerings with Avalanche Integration

Voyager Digital is integrating with Avalanche to include transfers and staking of the AVAX token into its brokerage platform, it announced Tuesday. The initiative will also give Voyager customers access to Avalanche-based DeFi tools and NFTs. 

Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich told Blockworks in an email that the company chose to partner with Avalanche because of the platform’s powerful ability to create secure and reliable applications. He called it “the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry,” noting that it processes thousands of transactions a second.

“As the rise of gas fees continues to affect Ethereum and Ethereum-based applications, Avalanche makes a perfect partner for Voyager as it is cost-efficient and compatible with the Ethereum virtual machine,” Ehrlich explained. “Avalanche’s growing ecosystem is a great fit as we continue to expand the Voyager ecosystem toward DeFi and NFTs.”

Voyager will begin rolling out the integration with staking rewards and transfers of AVAX, he added, followed by DeFi, NFTs and other wealth-building tools.

The company partnered with Blockdaemon in April to enable its users to earn interest on a wider scope of coins offered on the platform. Voyager CFO Evan Psaropoulos noted during a call on Oct. 29 that he expects to see consistent staking revenues of $40 million to $50 million per quarter, beginning this quarter.

“By enabling individuals to earn rewards on staked AVAX, deposit and withdraw AVAX, and easily access Avalanche DeFi and NFT products on the Voyager app, Voyager is allowing its users to tap into the rapidly growing Avalanche DeFi ecosystem directly from its trusted platform,” John Nahas, Vice President of Business Development at Ava Labs, said in a statement.  

AVAX’s price was $70.96 as of 11:45 a.m. ET, according to CoinGecko – up nearly 8% in the last 24 hours. The coin’s market cap is now roughly $15.6 billion, the 13th-highest among crypto tokens.  

Voyager has been busy recently, announcing last week a $75 million investment from crypto market maker Alameda Research, which trades over $5 billion per day. The company also partnered with the Dallas Mavericks as part of a five-year deal to make cryptocurrency more accessible through educational and community programs, as well as fan engagement promotions.  

Ehlrich said during last week’s call that the company intends to make NFTs on multiple platforms accessible in 2022 to its users, which now total more than 2 million. He noted that Alameda Research, which has helped build out the Solana network, would be able to assist the firm in doing so.

“While the management team has not defined the structure of this play on NFTs, the company’s network of sports and social influencers make Voyager a potential launch pad for social NFTs connected to these partners,” Compass Point Research & Trading Analyst Chris Allen said in a Tuesday research note. “We note that the NFT marketplace, while still small relative to the greater cryptocurrency space, is becoming increasingly competitive with platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, and FTX all entering the market.”

Nahas added that Avalanche would work with Voyager to add more products and services related to the Avalanche platform.

Avalanche announced the launch of a new $200 million fund on Monday that would focus on growing decentralized finance, enterprise applications, NFTs and culture applications across its blockchain. 

Ava Labs President John Wu said during Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in September that the layer-1 protocols that are competing with Ethereum, such as Avalanche, will be the home of economies.

“You can have internet of value, you can have ecosystems, but you don’t have an economy unless transactions are easily done and affordably done,” he said.