What he says: Nahas told Sam Ewen on CoinDesk’s Gen C that Avalanche is a trading tool, not a crypto product. He said businesses want tailored blockchain infrastructure that meets compliance, geographic and operational needs.
Nahas compared Avalanche’s model to WordPress, saying companies should be able to “spin” a blockchain the same way they build websites.
He said Avalanche’s strategy has shifted from big crypto narratives to “built for enterprise” and integrated finance.
The goal, according to Nahas, is to help companies either generate new revenue through digitalization or reduce costs through more efficient digital rails.
Why it matters: The discussion shows how a major crypto network is trying to distance itself from speculative token mania and present itself as enterprise infrastructure.
Nahas said much of crypto was “technology for technology’s sake,” with too few products solving real-world customer problems.
He argued that companies don’t want to impose their operations on a general-purpose shared chain if they need privacy, specific pricing structures or regulatory controls.
This stance reflects a broader industry push to hide the underlying blockchain and sell results: faster payments, tokenized assets, and new customer experiences.
Take a closer look: Nahas said Avalanche’s old “subnet” model, now renamed Avalanche L1, is designed to allow companies to run sovereign blockchains with their own validators and rules.
He said Avalanche has more than 70 live L1s and is aiming for around 200 by the end of the year.
He highlighted use cases such as tokenized stocks, FIFA digital products, registered deeds in Bergen County, New Jersey, and tokenized asset programs in Japan.
Nahas said Avalanche’s combined L1 business processes about 40 million transactions daily, although those transactions are spread across many chains rather than concentrated on one flagship network.
Reading between the lines: Nahas was blunt in saying that crypto critics are not entirely wrong. He says too much of the industry has relied on speculation, weak business models and short-term headlines.
He said “the token was the product” of many projects, which he believes is not a sustainable business model.
Nahas argued that the industry still hasn’t produced enough of the true “killer apps” that only blockchain can enable, although he suggested that stablecoins could emerge as one of them.
He also said that partner companies are already in crypto, but often don’t like what they see when projects focus more on announcements than execution.
What’s next: Nahas said clearer rules could unlock more institutional activity, even if crypto’s more libertarian wing resists regulation.
He said many companies now want to build with blockchain, but won’t move until they know the legal limit.
On AI, he said blockchain-based payment rails could become important for agent systems and micropayments, citing Avalanche partner Kite AI as an example.
His broader argument: The winning crypto platforms will be those that act less like an ideology and more like reliable business infrastructure.
