Ava Labs

Galaxy DigitalGalaxy DigitalGalaxy Digital (Galaxy Digital Inc., Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange: GLXY) is a New York-based digital asset financial services and data center infrastructure company founded by Mike Novogratz, which says it was founded in 2018. It provides institutional clients with digital asset trading, lending, investment banking, asset management, staking, and custody technology services, and is building data centers in Texas for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.Open the full entry Research’s 2022 report dates Ava Labs’ founding to 2018 and identifies CornellCornell UniversityCornell University is a private research university in Ithaca, New York, and a member of the Ivy League. It is New York State's federal land-grant university, a distinction unique within the Ivy League. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White founded the university in 1865, and it opened in 1868. In addition to its Ithaca campus, Cornell operates Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech in New York City and a medical college in Qatar. It enrolled 26,793 students in fall 2024. Its president is Michael I. Kotlikoff.Open the full entry professor Emin Gün Sirer and doctoral students Ted Yin and Kevin Sekniqi as its co-founders. The founding team worked on distributed-systems consensus protocols.⁠[2]

On May 16, 2019, Ava Labs emerged from stealth and introduced a private testnet. It disclosed $6 million raised that February from investors including Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, Polychain, Initialized, MetaStableMetaStable CapitalMetaStable Capital is a cryptocurrency investment fund co-founded in 2014 by Naval Ravikant, Lucas Ryan and Josh Seims. Historically based in San Francisco, it pursued long-term holdings and investments in blockchain networks and infrastructure. Dragonfly announced its acquisition of the fund in August 2022.Open the full entry, Balaji SrinivasanBalaji SrinivasanBalaji Srinivasan is an entrepreneur, investor and the author of The Network State, the founder of Network School, and a former chief technology officer of Coinbase and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded Counsyl and 21, along with its successor product Earn.com, was involved in projects such as Coin Center, and has backed companies such as fomo as an angel investor.Open the full entry and Abstract Ventures’ Ramtin Naimi. Code was initially shared with launch partners for testing rather than fully open-sourced at that launch.⁠[3]

In August 2022, Crypto Leaks alleged that Roche Freedman brought suits against Solana and Dfinity on Ava Labs’ behalf. The Block reported the allegations and responses. On August 29, Sirer denied that Ava Labs directed Kyle Roche’s case selection or received competitors’ information, saying the firm had defended it in a few contract disputes. These were contested allegations and responses, not established findings of wrongdoing.⁠[4]

A September 13 update to Sirer’s statement said Roche would cease acting as outside counsel to Ava Labs or the Avalanche FoundationAvalanche FoundationThe Avalanche Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the ecosystem of the Avalanche public blockchain, promoting the network’s development and adoption through grants, seed investments, liquidity incentives, and AVAX token transactions; it is a separate entity from the development company Ava Labs.Open the full entry and his Ava Labs equity interest would end. Roche agreed to donate tokens to the foundation, and Roche Freedman also announced a donation. The update did not disclose amounts.⁠[5]

On November 1, 2024, AvaCloud announced its acquisition of EtraPay and a privacy suite. The announcement said EtraPay contributed Encrypted ERC (eERC) technology using zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption for confidential yet auditable transactions. The suite was available to AvaCloud customers on testnet at announcement, with mainnet deployment still planned.⁠[6]

In an August 18, 2026 announcement signed by John Wu, former COO Charley Cooper was named president, responsible for day-to-day operations and global expansion. Wu became senior advisor on long-term strategy, and Lydia Chiu moved from interim to permanent CFO. Wu recalled the company’s beginnings as ten Cornellians in a modest Brooklyn office and said it had grown to more than 200 people.⁠[7]

As checked in November 2026, the official directory lists Emin Gün Sirer as CEO, John Nahas as chief business officer, Stephen Buttolph as chief protocol architect, Lee Schneider as general counsel, Wee Ming Choon as chief legal officer, and Nick Mussallem as AvaCloud CEO.⁠[8]

On November 9, 2026, Ava Labs announced that Avalanche would provide core ledger technology to the clearing firm for an upcoming NYSENew York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a securities exchange on Wall Street in New York City. It traces its origins to the Buttonwood Agreement signed by 24 stockbrokers in 1792, has used its present name since 1863 and has been owned by Intercontinental Exchange since 2013.Open the full entry-affiliated digital alternative trading system (ATS). The platform is intended to support round-the-clock tokenized-securities trading, clearing and settlement, subject to applicable regulatory approvals. NYSE head of digital issuance Dennis Lee said it would support equities issued across different blockchains while using Avalanche for the trade-recording and settlement ledger.⁠[1]

Ava Labs’ portfolio includes Avalanche, AvaCloud and Core. AvaCloud provides managed dedicated networks with configurable validation, compliance and performance requirements, alongside Encrypted ERC privacy, Wallet-as-a-Service, real-time Data API, Gas Relayer and block-explorer capabilities. Core is a multichain digital-asset wallet integrating swaps, borrowing and native staking. The Avalanche Policy Coalition provides blockchain-policy education, analysis and public resources.⁠[9]