Avail has acquired fellow infrastructure player Arcana. The move integrates Arcana’s chain abstraction SDK directly into the Avail stack, morphing a potential competitor into a core component of its multichain vision.
Summary
- Avail has acquired chain abstraction protocol Arcana, integrating its SDK and team into the Avail stack.
- The acquisition accelerates the Avail Nexus mainnet launch, slated for Q4 2025.
- Arcana’s XAR token holders can swap into AVAIL at a 4:1 ratio, consolidating multichain activity under a single token.
In an announcement dated August 27, modular infrastructure firm Avail disclosed its acquisition of chain abstraction protocol Arcana.
The deal, terms of which were not fully disclosed, will see Avail absorb Arcana’s core technology, including its wallet, auth, and multi-party computation frameworks, and integrate its team. This strategic move is a direct power-up for Avail’s flagship Nexus unification layer, accelerating its mainnet roadmap slated for Q4 2025.
By combining Avail’s modular infrastructure with Arcana’s chain abstraction tools, the platform promises a more unified, frictionless experience across EVM, ZK, Optimistic, and sovereign chains.
Forging the Nexus economy and multichain vision
For Avail, the Arcana acquisition is the key that unlocks its overarching vision: the Nexus Economy. This concept positions its AVAIL token as the central economic engine for a seamlessly connected multichain world.
The integration of Arcana’s proven technology, which already supports over 2.5 million wallets and has facilitated more than 5 million transactions, provides the critical user-facing components needed to make this a reality. It moves the project beyond theoretical scalability into the realm of practical user adoption.
The immediate technical beneficiary is Avail Nexus, the unification layer designed to sit atop the fragmented blockchain landscape. By embedding Arcana’s chain abstraction SDK, wallet, and auth frameworks, Nexus is transformed from a connectivity protocol into a full-stack user experience platform.
This empowers developers building on major ecosystems, from Ethereum and Polygon to Arbitrum and Base, to create applications that operate natively across chains without requiring users to manually switch networks, manage gas fees on different chains, or interact with cumbersome bridges.
Who benefits?
Avail’s new architecture promises distinct advantages for different market segments. According to the press release, developers gain a “build once, deploy everywhere” framework, potentially slashing development time and complexity. End users are offered a frictionless experience, interacting with any asset on any chain through a single, simplified interface.
Crucially for institutional adoption, the fusion of Avail’s zero-knowledge proof backends with Arcana’s multi-party computation technology creates a robust security framework for managing high-value digital assets, tokenized securities, and real-world assets, addressing critical needs for compliance and privacy.
The deal also triggers a significant tokenomic consolidation. The Avail Foundation has acquired the entire supply of Arcana’s XAR token, offering holders a swap into AVAIL at a 4:1 ratio. This move strategically retires a competing token and funnels all economic activity toward the AVAIL token, which is now poised to serve as the sole medium for securing the network, aligning liquidity incentives, and facilitating cross-chain execution.
Arcana brought to the table a respectable $5.5 million in funding from investors like Digital Currency Group and Republic. Avail, a heavyweight spun out from Polygon, enters the merger backed by a substantial $75 million war chest from investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Dragonfly Capital.
