AVAT shares plunge 38% on Nasdaq debut after $675M SPAC…

Avalanche Treasury Co. (AVAT) closed its first trading day on Nasdaq down 38.1% at $1.85, a bruising debut for the AVAX-focused digital asset treasury firm that went public Thursday following the completion of its $675 million merger with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. The stock clawed back 2.7% in after-hours trading, but the damage was done.

Why it matters

The company's pitch is institutional: CEO Bart Smith, a two-decade veteran of Susquehanna and AllianceBernstein, framed AVAT not as a price bet but as a corporate treasury vehicle designed to compound Avalanche's ecosystem value over time. The firm aims to accumulate more than $1 billion in AVAX, with capital also earmarked for protocol investments, enterprise partnerships, and validator infrastructure. Its backer list reads like a who's-who of crypto-native and TradFi crossover capital — Dragonfly, Pantera, VanEck, Galaxy Digital, ParaFi, FalconX, and Kraken — and its advisory board includes Ava Labs founder Emin Gün Sirer and Aave founder Stani Kulechov.

Market impact

The rough debut lands against an already-weak AVAX backdrop: the token rose 1.27% over the past 24 hours to $6.66 but remains down 33.7% over the past month. The SPAC structure, which included $460 million in projected treasury funding and an initial $200 million discounted AVAX purchase through the Avalanche Foundation, was announced in October 2025. Avalanche Treasury joins AVAX One Technology — backed by Anthony Scaramucci — as a publicly listed AVAX treasury vehicle, signalling growing institutional appetite for the model even as the market's first-day verdict was harsh.