Avalanche, Helix and Faculty Group have launched Fusion, a new blockchain ecosystem aimed at driving real-world adoption through modular infrastructure tailored to specific industries.

Built on Avalanche, Fusion features a two-layer architecture that includes composers, customizable layer-1 networks and modules, which offer plug-and-play services like compute, identity and data oracles. 

The team said this approach would be the answer for mainstream adoption, as they attempt to deliver “outcome-driven, domain-specific” blockchain-based economies. 

“In order to achieve widespread adoption, our industry needs to shift from selling blockspace to delivering business value,” a Fusion spokesperson told Cointelegraph. They added that Fusion integrates economic alignment, network design and composability to achieve real-world outcomes.  

Fusion expects traction in composer and module development

The Fusion team expects composers and modules — the two building blocks for the protocol — to gain traction in the next two to three years. 

The spokesperson told Cointelegraph that they are starting with five composers and nearly 100 modules in the first year. The team expects this to more than double over the next two to three years.

“Because of how the ecosystem is designed, in two to three years we expect that the Fusion ecosystem will consist of tens of composers and hundreds of modules,” the spokesperson said.

Fusion’s architecture is designed to let enterprises and Web3 builders combine technology, financial tools, and identity features in ways that were previously unavailable, the spokesperson added.

“Fusion is an initiative led and funded by the Avalanche community that is only technologically possible on Avalanche,” the spokesperson said, claiming that the initiative strengthens Avalanche’s position as a blockchain that delivers real-world business value. 

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$100 million fund to come from existing Avalanche programs

The project is funded by resources allocated in existing Avalanche programs. According to Fusion’s announcement, the funds will come from Avalanche’s Multiverse, an incentive program to accelerate the adoption of Avalanche subnets, and Retro9000, a grant program that rewards developers who build infrastructure and tools.

Fusion also uses funds from InfraBUIDL and InfraBUIDL AI, programs designed to fund Avalanche-based projects. 

“The funds will be distributed to support the medium-term growth of the Fusion ecosystem, including composers, modules and end-users,” the spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

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The German government missed out on more than $2 billion worth of Bitcoin profit after selling its holdings in 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham.

A “German Government (BKA)” labeled cryptocurrency wallet sold 49,858 Bitcoin (BTC) worth over $2.89 billion at an average price of $57,900 across multiple transactions during June and July in 2024.

The decision to sell the Bitcoin early cost the German government over $2.35 billion, according to crypto intelligence platform Arkham.

Source: Arkham 

“If they had held it, their BTC would now be worth $5.24B,” Arkham said in a May 19 X post, noting that Bitcoin has risen more than 80% since the sale.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at more than $104,700, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Related: Justin Sun offers to buy German gov’t’s $2.3B Bitcoin stack to minimize market impact

The German government-labeled wallet first raised speculation of a potential sell-off on June 19, 2024, when it executed a 6,500 BTC transfer worth over $425 million.

The wallet originally held around 50,000 BTC, believed to have been seized from the operators of Movie2k, a now-defunct pirated film site.

Related: Bitcoin bottom signal? German gov’t runs out of BTC to sell

German government rushed sale to maximize liquidity

The wallet’s selling patterns point to hasty transactions that weren’t optimized for the smallest market impact and best profitability, according to Miguel Morel, founder of Arkham Intelligence.

“The last thing I would have expected is that they would just go to five different exchanges and start market selling,” Morel told Cointelegraph during an interview at EthCC 2024, adding:

“The fact that they’re going to so many different exchanges just reads like they’re just trying to get as much liquidity from each order book as possible[…]”

The reports surrounding the German government’s Bitcoin liquidations may have contributed more to Bitcoin’s downtrend than the volume of sold Bitcoin.

BTC/USDT, 1-month chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin’s price recovered above the $60,000 psychological mark on July 14, a day after the German government-labeled wallet ran out of BTC, putting an end to investor uncertainty about further selling pressure.

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Circle co-founder and Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville has launched a project that aims to develop a financial institution that leverages artificial intelligence natively. 

On May 20, Catena Labs, the company building an “AI-native financial institution,” announced that it secured $18 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Crypto, a16z’s crypto and Web3 venture capital arm. 

Led by Neville, the company aims to realize its vision of a fully regulated financial institution for the AI economy. The company said it will be built for AI agents and human collaborators and will be operated by AI workers with human oversight and AI-specific risk management and compliance approaches. 

Cointelegraph contacted Catena Labs to get more information about the project, but did not get an immediate response. 

Source: Catena Labs

Traditional financial systems are “resistant” to AI

In the announcement, Catena Labs argued that conventional financial systems resist AI technology. The company said these systems are unprepared for AI and are hindering the growth of the agent economy. 

Neville said in a press release that AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions, but added that financial systems are unprepared.

The company said AI agents are becoming “powerful economic participants,” and the world’s financial infrastructure can’t keep up. Catana described the infrastructure as “slow, expensive, full of global friction, inflexible and ill-suited to the new opportunities and risks of AI.”

The company said this prompted them to create an AI-native financial institution to attempt to address the challenges in the current traditional financial systems. 

“That’s why we’re building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently,” Neville said. 

In addition to the announcement, the team also shared an Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), an open-source set of patterns, components and emerging protocols for verifiable agent identity. The company said they use ACK as an early building block. 

Related: Coinbase data leak could put users in physical danger: TechCrunch founder

AI agents to use “AI-native” money like stablecoins

In the announcement, Catena Labs said AI agents can use traditional systems and financial rails. However, the company said the agents gain superpowers when paired with stablecoins, which the company described as “AI-native money.”

The company mentioned that regulated stablecoins like USDC (USDC) enable near-instant, low-cost, global transactions, which are essential for AI agents.

“Using AI-native money, agents can unlock new business models and greater prosperity for humans and businesses,” Catena Labs wrote. 

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