Avalanche (AVAX), the smart contracts platform and Ethereum rival, has teamed up with social media company Op3n to fund, build and host exclusive content.

What happened: Avalanche and Op3n have launched a $100 million creator fund to support building more art, entertainment and culture-focused projects on the Avalanche network that will be available exclusively on Op3n’s platform. 

• Synthpop star Grimes will be the first to receive funding from the Culture Catalyst Initiative for her “intergalactic childrens’ metaverse book.” It will be paid out in AVAX, Avalanche’s native token.
• Grimes is no stranger to web3 apps: she sold over $6 million in NFTs last year when she released a collection on Nifty Gateway, a NFT marketplace.
• “I hadn’t dropped any NFTs since the first drop because of the environmental concerns,” she said via video call at the Avalanche Summit in Barcelona. “But I feel totally comfortable launching on Avalanche.”

Avalanche is the most energy-efficient blockchain, using only 0.0028 percent of the energy used by the Ethereum blockchain and processing tens of thousands more transactions per second.

Why it matters: Op3n just closed a $10 million seed funding round. The platform is similar to TikTok in that it facilitates user interaction with web3 apps, but it has a feature that allows creators to sell NFTs to fans directly through the app. That purchase then enables fans to access exclusive content.

• “I’ve been in this music, movie, entertainment, media space for 20 years,” said Jaeson Ma, Op3n’s founder said. “So it’s leveraging those relationships, and now introducing Hollywood and the music industry to NFTs.”
• Ava Labs president John Wu sees this partnership and initiative as a path for Avalanche to become a household name like Bitcoin or Ethereum, calling it “a watershed moment for entertainment and pop culture applications on Avalanche.”