News linked to both this project and an event.
the Avalanche Foundation has announced the launch of its Research Grant Program (Call For Research Proposals), open to academic researchers worldwide with individual grants of up to $50,000. The program focuses on research related to Avalanche network economics, with emphasis on two core areas: first, crypto asset pricing and valuation, concentrating on how native assets of PoS public chains accrue value, including token issuance mechanisms, monetary policy, network adoption rates, and their relationship with long-term value; second, validator economics and network security, with key topics including optimal staking ratios, validator reward models, validator set health, and non-inflationary reward mechanisms.
the Avalanche Foundation posted on platform X, stating its support for DeFi United. This is a coordinated action aimed at restoring rsETH collateral support following the incident on April 18. DeFi is undergoing public stress tests with transparent ledgers and real accountability, whereas traditional financial systems often require months or years to complete such repairs. The Avalanche Foundation expressed its support for Aave and the broader DeFi ecosystem.
According to NADA NEWS, JPYC, the issuer and operator of the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC, announced that it has raised an additional $17.62 million in the second closing of its Series B funding round. Combined with the first closing, the total funds raised are expected to reach approximately $28.93 million. Participating investors include NCB Venture Capital, Metaplanet, Kitao Bank, and Yokohama Capital, among others. The newly raised capital will be primarily used for system and application development, hiring talent for business expansion, stablecoin issuance and redemption, trading, payments, management-related operations, and new strategic investments. JPYC stated that, as of April 15, its cumulative issuance has exceeded approximately $13.21 million. The stablecoin is currently supported on Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon, and the company is considering adding support for Kaia and Arc.
According to The Block, Korean payment service provider NHN KCP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ava Labs to jointly build a Layer 1 network for payment use cases on Ava Cloud. The initiative will focus on three key areas: sub-second payment confirmation, on-chain transaction data encryption, and customizable merchant payment infrastructure. The two parties will also explore business opportunities including tokenized deposit models, multi-stablecoin settlement architectures, and cross-border payments. Justin Kim, Head of Asia at Ava Labs, stated that the mainnet launch timeline for this L1 will depend significantly on the progress of South Korea’s cryptocurrency regulatory framework.