Avalanche

Layer 1 network whose Primary Network runs the C-Chain, P-Chain and X-Chain, with AVAX as native token.

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Facts checked Sep 26, 2026

Avalanche key facts

Category	Layer 1 blockchain
Platforms	Mainnet, RPC
Token	AVAX
Open source	Yes (avalanchego)
Fees	C-Chain EIP-1559 style, base and priority fee both burned; X-Chain send 0.001 AVAX

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AVAX token

Price: $8.31 -4.5% 24h
Market cap: $3.7B
Fully diluted value: $3.9B
30-day change: -20.9%

AVAX price, last 30 days

Market data: CoinGecko, updated Nov 10, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.

About

What is Avalanche?

Avalanche is a Layer 1 network whose Primary Network runs three chains: the EVM-compatible C-Chain for smart contracts (chain ID 43114), the P-Chain for validators and Avalanche L1s, and the X-Chain for asset exchange. AVAX pays fees and staking, with supply capped at 720 million.

How Avalanche works

Avalanche validators agree through Snowman consensus, which works by repeated random sampling: each validator polls a subset of others, with the chance of being sampled proportional to stake, and shifts toward the majority answer until correct validators converge.

The docs state that once any honest validator accepts a transaction, all honest validators reach the same decision. There is no slashing. Rewards instead require a validator to be online and responsive for more than 90% of its validation period under the Helicon rules, or 80% for validations that started before Helicon.

Rewards are newly minted AVAX paid when a validation period ends. The minting rate runs between a minimum consumption rate and a 12% maximum, scaling with staking duration, so a one-year validation earns more per token than a 48-hour one. The Helicon upgrade's ACP-285 lowers the minimum rate from 10% to 7.5%, phased in over the 90 days after activation. Genesis minted 360 million AVAX, the cap is 720 million, and fees burned on every chain offset the minting.

Each Primary Network chain runs its own virtual machine. The C-Chain runs Coreth, an EVM implementation that supports Geth's API, at https://api.avax.network/ext/bc/C/rpc. The P-Chain runs the Platform VM for staking and creating Avalanche L1s, and the X-Chain runs the Avalanche VM for creating and trading Avalanche Native Tokens. The Fuji testnet mirrors this setup with its own endpoints, such as https://api.avax-test.network/ext/bc/C/rpc for the C-Chain.

How to start with Avalanche

For apps and DeFi you need an EVM wallet set to the C-Chain, chain ID 43114, and AVAX for gas; the Fuji testnet uses chain ID 43113 and has a faucet.
To stake without a node, you delegate at least 25 AVAX to a validator for a minimum of 2 weeks and receive part of its reward according to its delegation fee rate.
Running your own validator takes 2,000 AVAX; the minimum validation period is 48 hours under Helicon, down from 2 weeks before it.
Staking runs on the P-Chain, and moving AVAX between chains uses import and export transactions.

Avalanche fees and limits

Since the Fortuna upgrade on April 8, 2025, the minimum base fee is 1 wei with no upper bound.
The Helicon upgrade changes C-Chain charging; the docs list it as active on Fuji since July 28, 2026 and scheduled for mainnet on September 22, 2026 at 15:00 UTC.

C-Chain fees follow the EIP-1559 model with a gas fee cap and a tip cap, but unlike Ethereum both the base fee and the priority fee are burned. The X-Chain uses fixed fees: 0.001 AVAX to send, mint, import or export, and 0.01 AVAX to create an asset. P-Chain fees are dynamic, based on bandwidth, reads, writes and compute. Gas charged becomes the larger of gas used and half the gas limit, so a limit set more than twice actual usage costs real AVAX. A sender also has to cover the worst-case cost at inclusion time: the gas limit times the worst-case gas price, plus any value sent.

Risks to know before using Avalanche

Your delegation reward depends on the validator you pick: it must stay online and responsive for more than 90% of its period, and its delegation fee rate sets your share.
Because the formula pays out a fraction of the remaining unminted supply, rewards per token shrink as supply grows toward 720 million.
After Helicon, wallets and scripts that set generous gas limits pay for half the limit even when a transaction uses less, so check gas settings in older tooling.

Layer 1 blockchainMainnetRPC