What he says: Nahas told Sam Ewen on CoinDesk’s Gen C that Avalanche is a business tool, not a crypto product. He said companies want tailored blockchain infrastructure that fits compliance, geography and operational needs.
Nahas compared Avalanche’s model to WordPress and argued that companies should be able to “spin up” a blockchain as they create websites.
He said Avalanche’s strategy has shifted from broad crypto narratives to “built for business” and embedded funding.
The goal, according to Nahas, is to help companies either create new revenues through digitization or reduce costs through more efficient digital rails.
Why it matters: The discussion shows how a major crypto network is trying to distance itself from speculative token mania and pitch itself as enterprise infrastructure.
Nahas said much of crypto has been “technology for technology’s sake,” with too few products solving concrete customer problems.
He argued that companies don’t want to force their operations into a common, general-purpose chain if they need privacy, specific fee structures or regulatory scrutiny.
This stance reflects a broader industry push to hide the underlying blockchain and sell results instead: faster payments, tokenized assets and new customer experiences.
Closer Look: Nahas said Avalanche’s previous “subnet” model, now renamed Avalanche L1s, is designed to let companies run sovereign blockchains with their own validators and rules.
He said Avalanche has more than 70 live L1s and is aiming for about 200 by the end of the year.
He pointed to use cases including tokenized stocks, FIFA digital products, deed registrations in Bergen County, New Jersey, and tokenized asset programs in Japan.
Nahas said Avalanche’s combined L1 activity processes about 40 million daily transactions, although those transactions are spread across many chains rather than concentrated on one flagship network.
Reading between the lines: Nahas was blunt that crypto’s critics aren’t entirely wrong. He said too much of the industry has relied on speculation, weak business models and short-term headlines.
He said that “the token was the product” for many projects, which in his opinion is not a viable business model.
Nahas argued that the sector still hasn’t produced enough true “killer apps” that only blockchain can enable, although he suggested that stablecoins may emerge as one of them.
He also said that corporate partners are already in crypto, but often don’t like what they see when projects focus more on announcements than execution.
What’s next: Nahas said clearer rules could unlock more institutional activity, even as crypto’s more libertarian wing opposes regulation.
He said many companies want to build with blockchain now, but won’t move until they know where the legal boundary is.
On AI, he said blockchain-based payment rails could become important for agent systems and micropayments, pointing to Avalanche partner Kite AI as an example.
His broader argument: the winning crypto platforms will be those that function less as ideology and more as reliable business infrastructure.
