Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is not a single chain but three working in concert: the X-Chain issues and moves assets, the P-Chain tracks validators and subnets, and the C-Chain runs smart contracts with full Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility. Ava Labs built it on a consensus family where each node repeatedly polls a small random sample of peers, converging quickly instead of putting every decision to a network-wide vote. Confirmation takes seconds, and that follows from the consensus design rather than from a separate optimisation.

What sets it apart is the subnet model: anyone can launch a separate chain with its own admission rules, fees and validator set on shared infrastructure, which suits games and enterprise pilots wanting isolation from unrelated traffic. Subnet validators must also serve the primary network, so the two security sets are not independent.

AVAX pays transaction fees, secures the network through validator and delegator stakes, and funds subnet creation. Delegation lets a holder take part without running a node; supply is capped at 720 million coins.

Network fees on Avalanche are burned rather than paid out to validators, so activity on the platform reduces the coin's supply directly.