In honor of #internationaldogday2021 I thought I would take a few moments and reflect upon what has become my favorite dog: Husky Avax.
In May of 2021, dog-coin craze was in full swing throughout the world of cryptocurrency. The success of Dogecoin had led to coins on the Ethereum network such as Shiba Inu and Hokkaidu Inu to skyrocket in price. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds of other Shiba and dog-themed themed coins were launched during this time, most of them dubious in their intentions at best, outright scams at worst. The price of Bitcoin was soaring, but gas prices and transactions fees were at record highs, and many new and veteran traders were becoming quickly disillusioned at the state of cryptocurrency.
Many such traders looking to escape the high gas prices on Ethereum began to branch out to other networks, and one such network that saw an uptick in traffic was Avalanche. Avalanche was still relatively new, the mainnet having only launched in September of 2020, but was quickly gaining popularity for its low fees, fast transaction speeds, and flexibility in the creation of DeFi products. Accessibility into the network for new traders wasn’t as easy as Ethereum, however, with American traders having to wade through Binance’s know-your-customer process or use Kucoin, as Avalanche wasn’t available on Coinbase. Bridging funds located other networks over to Avalanche was also limited at best, dissuading many from even attempting.
This inaccessibility led to the Avalanche network avoiding the glut of scam projects launching hourly on other networks, adding to its appeal. Of course, this was not to last, and for better or worse, the meme coins came knocking. A major catalyst that contributed to such activity was the launch of Husky Avax on May 12th.
Husky Avax was stealth-launched with locked liquidity, a hard-capped supply, and no team allocation. Shortly thereafter, the original creator left the project and a new dev team took over. Their intention with Husky Avax was to create merchandise and apparel to be sold paired with NFT’s collateralized on the Avalanche blockchain, as well the creation of a marketplace for musical NFT’s. To many interested buyers of cryptocurrency, this set it apart from other similar dog and meme coins, and a strong and devoted community quickly sprung up around Husky Avax.
One early adopter, who would later become known as ‘Whalebro’ amongst the community, purchased nearly fourteen-trillion Husky Avax, immediately becoming the largest holder of the coin, controlling 14% of the total supply. As the community quickly grew around the coin, there was outreach to him about potentially burning some of his stack. Token burns are beneficial to the overall price as they lower supply, and many new buyers would see his controlling portion and be wary of purchasing Husky Avax for fear he would dump his coins and dilute the market. A burn would lower his stack, increase confidence, and increase value. ‘Whalebro’ responded by burning eight-trillion Husky Avax tokens on May 13th; 8% of the total supply and over half of his stack.
The community was impressed, and rallied around what he did. Others began burning some of their tokens and memes were made that quickly spread across community channels. When all was said and done with the community burns, over 11.6% of the entire supply was eliminated from circulation forever.
Many in the Husky Avax community credit these burns with kicking off serious interest in the coin, and the price continued to climb, reaching levels of nearly one AVAX per one-billion Husky Avax just days after launch. The dev team remained hard at work, developing and launching the first line of merchandise, an Avalanche Husky branded hoodie, sold paired with its own unique NFT on the Avalanche X-chain.
Husky Avax, like all other coins, suffered in the market-wide crash at the end of May. Many meme coins faded into non-existence, abandoned by their creators and community. Billions of dollars in value were lost across all networks, and many new traders brought in to cryptocurrencies by the dog-coin craze were left disappointed.
Despite this, the Husky Avax community remained strong, and continued supporting the dev team as they decided what to do next. During this time, many positive things happened for Husky Avax. Farms and liquidity pools were launched on Olive and TraderJoe. A BSC bridge was completed by the Husky Avax team, allowing those on the BSC network to purchase Husky Avax with their BNB. The next line of merchandise was decided upon by the community, and led to the sale of a red baseball cap with the Avalanche logo emblazoned across the front.
At the end of July, things began to pick up again. Avalanche launched a new bridge between the Ethereum and Avalanche networks, one that was significantly faster than the previous version. The price of AVAX rose steadily, starting the month of August at just over $10 and rising to over $50 within three weeks. With the increasing price and the announcement of Avalanche Rush, all eyes were glued to the Avalanche network. The announcement of the implementation of dynamic fees, the launch of Avalanche’s first liquidity market, BenQI, and the incredible growth experienced by other DeFi projects such as Penguin Finance, Yield Yak, and TraderJoe led to many imagining a bright future for the entire Avalanche DeFi ecosystem.
Husky Avax, positioned singularly as a unique NFT project on Avalanche, benefited immensely from such attention. Combined with listings on CoinGecko and Nomics, the coin saw a flurry of activity during the weekend of August 27th, reaching a market cap of $25 million. This number has since come down and is experiencing a healthy correction, though continues to hold steady despite AVAX being down 25% since August 24th.
This week, Husky Avax completed its sale of the Avax Collector Cap, selling 108 in total, each paired with its own NFT. Additionally, ten winners were announced to receive an airdrop of Husky Avax on the BSC network from funds that were donated by the community. Many community members also made sizeable donations to the marketing fund, and decisions are currently being made on how to best utilize those funds.
Today, Husky Avax announced a partnership with Coin98 to promote a $2500 giveaway to holders of Husky Avax on the Avalanche network. Additionally, Snowball DeFi has announced two pairs for Husky Avax for those looking to earn rewards on their HUSKY/AVAX or HUSKY/PNG PGL tokens.
Looking towards the future of Husky Avax, the dev team is continuing to refine the process of selling merchandise and apparel paired with NFT’s and continues to make strides in their development of an e-Shop. Collaboration continues with various musical artists towards the creation of a marketplace that will allow the buying and trading of musical NFT’s. Many have bridged over to Avalanche in the past week, and the Husky Avax community continues to welcome those looking for a project that is little bit different from standard DeFi applications, and isn’t just another Shiba Inu clone.
It’s a good time to be a broski.
