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Crypto Industry News
Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas said at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026 that the crypto market is underperforming on price but generating more practical opportunity than at any point he can recall. Speaking to The Block’s Kelvin Sparks, Nahas said he has never been more bullish on the space despite the broader market downturn.
“Token prices are down, market is down,” Nahas said, “but I’ll tell you from where I sit, I have never seen more opportunities. I’ve never been more bullish on the people entering the space, the use cases, the opportunities to build new innovative things using these rails.” He described the current state of the industry as a “teenage pubescent phase,” one where the technology is maturing but the market has not yet settled into a clear direction.
Avalanche Bets on Real-World Rails
Nahas said Avalanche (AVAX) has not chased the short-term narrative cycles that have characterized prior crypto bull runs, which he described as speculation-driven rotations that typically play out over six-month windows. The project has instead concentrated on deployments with tangible use cases, including enterprise payments, government adoption, digital identity programs, and blockchain-based ticketing for the FIFA World Cup.
“What we’ve been focusing on has not been the traditional crypto cycles,” Nahas said. “At the end of the day, what blockchain does is transfer value.” He said the broader market is now moving toward the area where Avalanche has been focused.
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Custom Blockchains as a Competitive Edge
Nahas said Avalanche’s capacity to deploy custom layer-1 blockchains built to the compliance and operational requirements of specific jurisdictions, assets, or businesses gives it an advantage over public, permissionless competitors. He said rival platforms require companies to adapt their operations to a fixed architecture, while Avalanche’s model is designed to work the other way around.
“Everyone else is ‘fit your business or your asset or use case on our technology,’” Nahas said. “For us, it’s ‘our technology can conform to make your business better.’”
Nahas also confirmed a leadership change at Ava Labs. President John Wu is stepping into a senior adviser role after seven years in the position, meanwhile former Chief Operating Officer Charley Cooper takes on the president title while retaining his COO responsibilities. At the time of the symposium, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading above $78,000, up more than 8% over 24 hours, and Ethereum (ETH) was above $2,400, up 6%.
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