Why this Wall Street veteran is betting on Avalanche

Markets•July 9, 2026, 11:03AM EDT
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Why this Wall Street veteran is betting on Avalanche
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Quick Take

  • Avalanche Treasury Company CEO Bart Smith explains his beliefs on the functions of treasury companies and his bull thesis for Avalanche.

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Episode 16 of Layer One, hosted by The Block's Kelvin Sparks, was recorded with Avalanche Treasury Company (AVAT) CEO Bart Smith.

Listen below, and subscribe to Layer One on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please send feedback and revision requests to [email protected].

In Episode 16 of Layer One, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks was joined by Avalanche Treasury Company (AVAT) CEO Bart Smith. Bart explained the thesis behind treasury companies as a way to get regulated, permanent-capital exposure to AVAX and the Avalanche ecosystem. He also covers his Wall Street/ETF background, why real-world-asset tokenization needs "productive" assets to matter, and why he thinks crypto's investment thesis is stronger than ever.

OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
01:22 - What Is AVAT?
03:59 - Wall Street Roots & Crypto's Rise
06:19 - The Bitcoin ETF Bet
08:58 - Hiring a COO
11:13 - Why Own AVAT?
15:56 - Scaling Avalanche & RWAs
22:54 - DeFi, TradFi & AI Fears
33:03 - Policy Risks & RWA Forecast
40:08 - Closing Thoughts

GUEST LINKS
Bart Smith - https://twitter.com/gbartsmith
AVAT - https://twitter.com/avat_co

HOST LINKS
John Wu - ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/John1wu
Kelvin Sparks - https://x.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠⁠
The Block - https://x.com/TheBlockCo
Ava Labs - https://x.com/avalabs
Avalanche - https://x.com/avax

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