Ava Labs President John Wu on What Avalanche CME Futures Unlock

For years, institutional crypto adoption largely meant one thing: Bitcoin. Now, according to Ava Labs President John Wu, that may finally be starting to change.

As the CLARITY Act advanced in the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote, more tokens beyond Bitcoin could potentially benefit from codified rules of the road in the crypto space. But even before it becomes law, tokens like Avalanche are already benefitting from regulatory clarity. Earlier this month, AVAX futures launched on the CME.

“ETFs and the futures strip on Avalanche is indication that the traditional investor or the institutional investor or even the institutional retail person is now looking at Avalanche and wanting access in a different UI-UX than they would on chain,” Wu told Coinage in a new interview.

Wu also noted that there are now three ETFs tied to Avalanche exposure already in the market, framing the futures launch as part of a broader institutional onboarding process. For Avalanche, the moment represents something bigger than simply adding another trading product.

“I think the whole space has changed tremendously,” Wu said. “The space that blockchain has gone from, call it crypto asset speculation to enterprise technology.”

That distinction has become central to Avalanche’s pitch as competition intensifies among layer-1 blockchains racing to capture the next wave of institutional adoption. While projects like Canton have increasingly targeted enterprise customers, Wu argued Avalanche approached the market from the opposite direction — building crypto-native infrastructure first before layering institutional tooling on top.

“We came from a technology angle, building a crypto native ecosystem so that there is this great experimentation and innovation of permissionless manner,” Wu said. “And then we created all this architecture of the L1s, your self-sovereign chain.”

That architecture, Wu argues, is now becoming increasingly attractive to enterprises looking to experiment with stablecoins, tokenized assets, loyalty systems, and gaming infrastructure — especially as Washington moves closer toward clearer crypto legislation.

“The inbound requests to talk to us really started exploding,” Wu said, describing the response from enterprises as stablecoin legislation and broader crypto regulation advanced in Washington.

The regulatory backdrop has become a major theme for institutional crypto adoption in 2026. While Bitcoin has long benefited from clearer commodity treatment and ETF approval, many altcoin projects have spent years trapped in regulatory limbo. Wu believes that dynamic is beginning to shift.

“Hopefully the CLARITY Act will give you better token classification,” he said. “The SEC has already given some token classification.” Earlier guidance this year from the SEC noted it does not consider AVAX a security.

But unlike Bitcoin, Wu says the onus is on blockchains like Avalanche to now make sure the market understands the long-term value tied more directly to utility and enterprise adoption.

“The rest of them are really usage, adoption, creating things that people want,” Wu said. That adoption is beginning to show up across industries far outside traditional finance.

Wu pointed to FIFA’s upcoming World Cup integrations on Avalanche as one example, with the organization using Avalanche infrastructure for loyalty systems and ticketing access.

“We’re super excited that FIFA and the World Cup that’s coming this summer is doing their loyalty and the right to buy tickets and ticket platform on an Avalanche blockchain,” Wu said.

Sports teams are also beginning to experiment with stablecoin-powered commerce flows tied to fan engagement.

“Whether it was like the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Detroit Pistons trying to create a loyalty thing on their platform through Avalanche, they were willing to say, 'Hey, maybe we can use stablecoins to help pay for swag in the stadium or buy food in the stadium for their fans,” Wu said.

At the same time, Avalanche is also pushing deeper into tokenized real-world assets internationally.

Wu pointed to Japanese consortium Progmat, backed by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and other institutions, which announced in February that it would be bringing roughly $2 billion worth of tokenized fixed income and real estate assets onto Avalanche infrastructure.

Instead of purely measuring success through speculative trading activity or retail wallets, the next cycle likely increasingly revolves around enterprises quietly integrating blockchain infrastructure underneath products consumers may never even realize are crypto-powered.

“It’s the infrastructure, but it’s almost abstracted away from the user,” Wu said. “Whether it’s institutional or retail and it’s just in the background.”

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