Watr Launches an Avalanche L1 to Power the Future of Onchain Commodities

Avalanche

Watr, the blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for the $20 trillion global commodities industry, has announced its migration to an Avalanche L1. This move brings one of the world’s most critical sectors—spanning metals, minerals, food, and fuel—onchain, leveraging Avalanche’s infrastructure to unlock composability and capital efficiency at scale.

While massive in scale, the commodities industry has yet to fully benefit from blockchain infrastructure that can enhance liquidity, broaden access, and drive innovation. Watr is building a next-generation, onchain foundation that combines decentralized identity, asset traceability, and programmable smart contracts to reshape how commodities are financed, traded, and governed.

“Despite being a $20 trillion industry, real-world assets like commodities have barely scratched the surface of onchain adoption,” said John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs. “Avalanche is built for this exact moment—with sovereign chains, low latency, and institutional-grade performance. We're proud to support Watr’s mission to enhance commodity markets by opening them to onchain structures and liquidity.”

Created by a team of industry veterans from Shell, BP, and J.P. Morgan—including Maryam Ayati, the first to lead global origination and investment at Shell Trading and named one of the most influential women in energy by the World Energy Council—Watr is reimagining the infrastructure underpinning global commodity trade.

Why Avalanche

Avalanche’s modular architecture empowers Watr to launch purpose-built blockchains tailored to individual commodities, counterparties, and compliance requirements—without sacrificing speed or interoperability. Trusted by major institutions like JPMorgan, Citi, and FEMA, Avalanche provides the institutional-grade performance required to scale real-world asset applications.

“Established Web3 concepts such as DeFi, Decentralized Identity, and smart contracts can address fundamental constraints in commodity financing, compliance, and trade,” said Maryam Ayati, Founder and President of Watr Foundation. “Building with Avalanche allows us to leapfrog the development cycle and leverage its ecosystem’s size and security to decisively take on this opportunity.”

The Watr Stack

Watr is building a comprehensive infrastructure stack designed to bring commodity markets onchain. Core components include:

WatrMrks – Immutable asset tags that facilitate end-to-end traceability, recording origin, certification, and custody throughout the commodity lifecycle.
WatrIDs – Decentralized identity standards for individuals, businesses, and institutions. Aligned with W3C and KERI, WatrIDs function as portable, verifiable credentials across the Watr and broader Web3 ecosystem.
NeoReserves – Liquidity pools designed to support programmable financing contracts for real-world commodities.
VentureStream – A launchpad and innovation hub for startups building commodity-tech solutions, fostering a vibrant developer ecosystem, and connecting entrepreneurs with legacy market participants.

Together, these components form the building blocks of a programmable commodities economy: WatrMrks help to ensure transparency and compliance, WatrIDs establish trust and reputation, NeoReserves unlock capital, and VentureStream drives growth and adoption.

To learn more about Watr’s blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for the commodities industry visit here.

About Watr

Watr is the only blockchain ecosystem purpose-built for the $20T global commodities industry. From extraction to consumption, Watr combines traceability (WatrMrks), decentralized identity (WatrIDs), asset tokenization, and smart contract-based finance to bring flexibility, compliance, and new liquidity to global trade. Founded by pioneers from both Web3 and commodities, Watr is redefining how the lifelines of the global economy flow.

Learn more at watr.org

About Avalanche Blockchain Network

Avalanche is a high-performance blockchain platform designed for builders who need to scale. Engineered with a revolutionary three-part Layer 1 (L1) architecture, Avalanche is anchored by its Avalanche Consensus Mechanism, ensuring near-instant finality for transactions. The platform also features an open-source Layer 0 (L0) framework, enabling the seamless creation of interoperable Layer 1 blockchains with high throughput on both public and private networks.

Supported by a global community of developers and validators, Avalanche offers a fast, low-cost environment for building the next generation of decentralized applications (dApps). With its unique blend of speed, flexibility, and scalability, Avalanche is the preferred choice for innovators pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology.