Deep Dive
1. Smart Program Expansion (30 May 2025)
Overview: A draft proposal allowed Smart Program members to lock an additional 200,000 AVA in on-chain wallets via smart contracts, offering up to 7.5% annual rewards.
This update introduced a new staking mechanism to boost token utility and retention. The locked AVA contributes to reducing circulating supply while rewarding long-term holders. A community poll to name the feature ran until 1 June 2025.
What this means: This is neutral for AVA because it incentivizes holding but hasn’t reversed declining booking metrics (travel bookings using AVA fell 16% that week). Monitor locked supply trends for liquidity impact.
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2. Bybit Web3 Integration (13 August 2025)
Overview: AVA launched on Bybit Web3 as the native token of Holoworld AI, a platform for building multimodal AI agents.
The integration expanded AVA’s accessibility, linking it to AI agent creation tools. This aligns with Holoworld’s vision of merging AI and Web3, where AVA rewards content creators in its ecosystem.
What this means: This is bullish for AVA because it taps into the AI agent narrative, which saw competitor tokens like ANI surge. However, AVA’s $50M market cap remains modest compared to AI sector leaders.
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3. Growth Leadership Hire (22 July 2025)
Overview: AVA Foundation appointed Chester Szeen, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, as Lead Growth Contributor to refine user acquisition and retention.
Szeen’s background in Web3 incubators like Seedify suggests a focus on scaling AVA’s Smart Program, tokenomics, and NFT integrations. His hiring followed a 1.45% weekly rise in Smart Program members.
What this means: This is neutral for AVA because while leadership strengthens strategic execution, token metrics like bookings and givebacks remained volatile during this period.
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Conclusion
AVA’s recent updates emphasize ecosystem growth over core protocol upgrades, with mixed impacts on token utility. While AI integrations and staking incentives offer upside, declining travel-related usage signals adoption challenges. How might AVA’s pivot to AI agents offset its legacy travel-sector dependencies?