Union Square Holiday Market to use Avalanche infra for payments this year
Avalanche Weekly Overview - December 17, 2025
Welcome to the Avalanche Weekly Overview, the AVAX community’s one-stop-shop for the latest on the network’s metrics, releases, insights, updates, ecosystem developments and more. All in one place.
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Avalanche By The Numbers
Avalanche Total Value Locked (TVL): $1.24B (-4.32%)
Avalanche C-Chain daily txns: 2.3M (+273.98%)
Max transactions per second: 240 (+84.6%)
Total Avalanche validators: 819 (-0.85%)
Total Avalanche L1s: 421 (+1.2%)
The percentages and metrics are based on a 7-day timeframe from Token Relations data, unless noted otherwise.
Inside The Network
🔺What we’re watching: Urbanspace is integrating Avalanche’s blockchain with its Union Square Holiday Market in New York City to let shoppers pay via a mobile platform using USDC’s stablecoin.
🔺Why it matters: The integration keeps the blockchain infrastructure entirely on the backend, invisible to consumers, and only requires people to sign up via email. Payments are made using USDC, Circle’s regulated, dollar-pegged stablecoin, via Avalanche, and shoppers tap to pay normally via the Urbanspace app using a QR code. Meanwhile, vendors gain near-instant access to funds while keeping transaction fees low.
This approach brings the efficiencies and advantages of stablecoins to everyday retail without forcing crypto adoption on end-users.
For Avalanche, the integration demonstrates the network’s capability to handle high volumes of low-value transactions while maintaining significantly lower fees than traditional payment providers.
We tried the integration out ourselves yesterday: After signing up with an email, you can make payments through the Urbanspace app by scanning a QR code, and we didn’t have to take any crypto wallets or blockchain-related steps. From a shopper’s perspective, the experience felt seamless, mirroring a standard mobile payment flow.
🔺The bigger picture: As one of New York City’s largest seasonal events, the Union Square Holiday Market is massive, featuring more than 185 vendors selling everything from handmade goods and art to artisanal foods and gifts. drawing an estimated 1-2 million visitors annually.
With stablecoins being able to be used for everyday purchases, Avalanche’s integration at Union Square reflects how blockchains are maturing from speculative tech to practical infrastructure.
Chart Of The Week
Active addresses on QChain’s Avalanche L1 hit 42.3K, a new high for the year, on Dec. 10 (Source: Token Relations Dashboard)
Scaling the Ecosystem
Avalanche last week launched the Avalanche Distributed Ledger Technology Foundation in the Abu Dhabi Global Market to support regional partnerships, programs, and ecosystem development initiatives
MyPrize launched its social casino onAvalanche, bringing payouts, play resolution and tracking onchain
Invnex is integrating with Avalanche to provide access to private market assets such as tokenized real estate, multi-strategy funds and high-yield credit
Spark is coming to Avalanche, bringing access to Sparks Savings USDC to Avalanche users, starting with the Euler and Benji lending protocols
AVAX Community Wins
The Grotto, a gaming-based Avalanche L1, launched a first-person shooter on its testnet
WheelX, an AI-powered token bridge and swap aggregator, has launched on to Avalanche
The Arena upgraded its SocialFi app to include creator fees, referral fees and concentrated liquidity pools
Avalanche Archives
Developments that made make headlines this week:
Toyota and Avalanche: Building the MON Mobility Protocol (Avax Team1)
Anthony Scaramucci on tokenizing Wall Street and why it’s ‘1998 for Crypto’ (Layer One)
Check out the Avalanche blog for more updates.
Join In The Fun
Want to dive deeper into Avalanche?
Find the latest Ava Labs job postings here
Participate in Season 3 of Avalanche’s Battle Pass, which rewards users for playing ecosystem games
Sign up for Avalanche’s L1 Builder Challenge for a shot at a $25K prize pool
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This information is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research.