- Avalanche Treasury Co. is merging with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. in a deal worth over $675 million.
- The company is expected to list on Nasdaq in early 2026.
Avalanche Treasury Co. has signed a definitive business combination deal with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp., a transaction worth more than $675 million. The transaction makes AVAT a publicly traded vehicle for institutional exposure to the AVAX token. Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. is a company listed on the Nasdaq exchange; its ticker symbol is MLAC.
The deal involves approximately $460 million in treasury assets. AVAT plans to be listed on Nasdaq in the first quarter of 2026. The listing is still open to regulatory and shareholder votes.
AVAT established a special relationship with the Avalanche Foundation. The company was given discounted AVAX tokens initially at a lower price than the market price. AVAT has another 18-month priority on Avalanche Foundation sales to U.S. digital asset treasury companies.
Its pricing system will give investors a 0.77x multiple of net asset value. This is a 23% discount compared to the direct acquisition of AVAX or the passive ETF equivalent of buying AVAX using the prevailing market prices.
Strategic Integration Beyond Passive Holdings
CEO Bart Smith emphasized the company’s dynamic approach to investing in blockchain. AVAT intends to be a strategic partner of the Avalanche network, as opposed to being a passive token holder.
The company aims to own over $1 billion worth of AVAX following its initial public offering. This scale would put AVAT at the base of the ecosystem as a partner. The initial capital raise will provide approximately $460 million in treasury assets, which were raised at closing or shortly thereafter.
AVAT identified the following three strategic pillars for capital deployment. The firm will invest in specific protocols and make targeted investments to spur adoption and increase transaction flow. The second pillar is to activate partnerships with enterprises that develop blockchain rails for real-world assets, stablecoins, and payments. The strategy is finalized with direct support from institutional Layer 1 launches, utilizing validator resources and liquidity.
According to Smith, AVAT will serve as a driver of growth for the entire ecosystem. The company will invest capital in helping builders and expediting potential technologies on Avalanche. This strategy has a way of matching the company with ecosystem success.
Leadership Team and Advisory Board
Top management has extensive experience in Wall Street and digital assets. Bart Smith had worked for more than 20 years in Susquehanna International Group and AllianceBernstein. He was the pioneer in building one of the first digital asset desks on Wall Street.
COO Laine Litman is a former President at HiddenRoad and held leadership positions at Virtu Financial. Budd White, who is the Chief Strategy Officer, used to serve as Chief Product Officer of Multisig Labs.
The founder of Ava Labs is Emin Gün Sirer, who will serve as a strategic advisor. Chief Business Officer John Nahas will join the public company board. This gives access to the main architects of the ecosystem.
Huge institutional investors and crypto-native companies were attracted to the transaction. Dragonfly, ParaFi Capital, VanEck, FalconX, Monarq, Galaxy Digital, Pantera Capital, CoinFund, IMC, Kraken, and Borderless also became participants in the raise. Emin Gün Sirer was also an investor.
