\u201cA key difference between Avalanche and other decentralized networks is the consensus protocol. Over time, people have come to a false understanding that blockchains have to be slow and not scalable. The Avalanche protocol employs a novel approach to consensus to achieve its strong safety guarantees, quick finality, and high-throughput without compromising decentralization.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAVAX is the native token of Avalanche. It\u2019s a hard-capped, scarce asset that is used to pay for fees, secure the platform through staking, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche. 1 nAVAX is equal to 0.000000001 AVAX.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n Avalanche is being developed by\u00a0Ava Labs, a blockchain startup founded in Brooklyn, New York in 2018 by\u00a0Professor Emin G\u00fcn Sirer\u00a0(CEO), who does computer science research at Cornell University, Kevin Sekniqi (COO), and Ted Yin (Chief Protocol Architect).<\/p>\n On Tuesday (December 14), FinTech firm Circle, which is the principal operator of USD Coin ($USDC),announced \u201cnative support for USDC on the\u00a0Avalanche\u00a0public blockchain- an eco-friendly, decentralized smart contracts platform empowering the next generation of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) with low fees and near-instant finality.\u201d<\/p>\n The press release went on to say that \u201cwith more than\u00a0$40B\u00a0USDC in circulation as of\u00a0December 2021, USDC is the world\u2019s fastest-growing dollar digital currency and that \u201cthe integration will create more seamless transaction and payment options for developers and participants in Avalanche\u2019s exponentially growing, interconnected ecosystem of DeFi protocols, enterprise applications, NFT marketplaces, and more.\u201d <\/p>\n Customers will be able to \u201cdeposit, withdraw, send and receive payments, and settle transactions with USDC on Avalanche.\u201d And Developers are now able to \u201ctake advantage of Circle\u2019s suite of developer APIs, which have been updated to support USDC on Avalanche.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeremy Allaire, CEO and Co-founder of Circle, had this to say:<\/p>\n \u201cSupport for USDC on Avalanche comes at an exciting and pivotal moment for the growing, multi-billion dollar DeFi market. With USDC as the leading dollar digital currency for the decentralized economy, this integration will be instrumental for developers and communities looking to participate in one of the fastest, organically growing ecosystems in crypto.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\n According to data by TradingView, on cryopto exchange Coinbase, shortly before Circle\u2019s announcement, $AVAX was trading around $78.49 and and at the time of writing it is trading around $110.87, which means that it is up 41.25% since then.<\/p>\n$USDC Launches on Avalanche<\/h2>\n
$AVAX\u2019s Price Action<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cryptoglobe.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/12\/AVAXUSD_2021-12-18_08-46-22-1-1280x732.png\")
<\/p>\nDisclaimer<\/h2>\n