Airdrop Army

AVAX, the native token of Avalanche, just popped off again. A fresh mainnet upgrade and a fat $40 million dev incentive got the markets buzzing. Over the last 24 hours, AVAX saw a 3.45% boost, smashing resistance and hitting a high of $29.10. Folks on the street are feeling the vibes because of these recent moves.

But, you gotta wonder, is this just hype, or does it hold? The token broke through its 200-day EMA barrier like it was nothing. By the time this gets out, AVAX sits at $28.91, up 10% over the week. That’s a solid 12.5% increase in the last 30 days, so there’s definitely action.

Avalanche’s $40M Dev Push? Yeah, That Happened

So, what’s behind this bullish shakeup? The Avalanche Foundation dropped $40 million in grants, pushing builders to get busy on the chain. They’re calling it “Retro9000” because, why not? Avalanche wants to make sure everyone’s ready for their biggest network upgrade ever—Avalanche9000. This move basically says, “We want to make our blockchain leaner, meaner, and way more fun for devs.”

Since they started talking Avalanche9000, network activity has surged, and the market structure keeps looking stronger. The Avalanche team thinks scalability is about to hit new heights with better cost-efficiency too. And you know what happens when devs and users find value—demand for AVAX heats up.

Technicals Back the Rally, AVAX Finds Some Muscle

Now, the tech heads are watching AVAX closely because it’s been trading in this golden zone between $27 and $28.65. That’s where the 200-day EMA’s sitting, giving AVAX some thick support on the downside. With buyers loading up at these levels, the market’s primed for more upside, especially if things keep heating up.

If AVAX can push through, the next target looks like the May 22 range high of $41.78. That’s a possible 42% climb from where we’re sitting now. But of course, everyone’s watching the data closely—onchain signals are looking bullish.

TVL Up, AVAX Users Play Ball

Let’s not forget about Avalanche’s TVL (total value locked). DeFi’s little secret sauce for measuring how many people are parking cash into the ecosystem. From August 5 to now, Avalanche’s TVL surged from $717.4M to a whopping $1B. So, yeah, that’s a 43.5% increase—just about in sync with AVAX’s price.

What does that tell us? More users are on the chain, and that means demand is skyrocketing. High demand? You know what that means—price gains usually follow.