Avalanche (AVAX) is on the rise early on Wednesday with markets cheering the launch of leading stablecoin USDC on its ecosystem, a move which can support the development and adoption of more dApps on the potential Ethereum killer. At the time of writing, AVAX/USD is trading around $92.14.

USDC Launches on Avalanche, Gives Its Network a Huge Push in DeFi

Circle’s launch of its stablecoin USDC on the Avalanche blockchain is a significant moment as it can give the network a boost in the highly engaging DeFi market. It can entice more developers to create new dApps or migrate their existing ones into an ecosystem that offers faster transaction processing capabilities, lower gas fees and a more energy efficient mechanism overall.

According to CEO and Co-founder at Circle, “Support for USDC on Avalanche comes at an exciting and pivotal moment for the growing, multibillion dollar DeFi market. With USDC as the leading dollar digital currency for the decentralized economy, this integration will be instrumental for developers and communities looking to participate in one of the fastest, organically growing ecosystems in crypto.”

This comes about one month after the blockchain launched USDT in its ecosystem as well. The launch of USDC – the second most popularly used stablecoin, has already yielded some early positive results, with Avalanche’s DeFi TVL increasing by more than 2% to touch $10.84 billion, as per data on Defi Llama.

Mastercard Selects Ava Labs For Start Path Crypto Program

Another positive development that can give the AVAX token quite a push is its possible mainstream adoption. Ava Labs, the creators of the Avalanche blockchain, are among five startups selected by payments giant Mastercard for its “Start Path Crypto” initiative, which will lend support to late stage startups in the crypto space to scale their business.

At a recent interview with CoinDesk regarding this development, President at Ava Labs, John Wu, notes, “Mastercard is setting an example for leaders across all industries on how to embrace, rather than combat innovation. We look forward to working with projects and partners in the Start Path program to accelerate the positive impacts blockchain technology will have for individuals and institutions across the world.”

AVAX/USD Technical Analysis

On the H4 chart of AVAX/USD, most moving averages as well as popular technical indicators MACD and momentum are suggesting a strong bullish bias. However, the 100 EMA and 200 EMA reveal that sellers are looming in the market too.

Avalanche’s price holds above the pivot point at $87.28 and it looks like buyers may be gearing up to test the immediate resistance at $97.57 soon. A break past this opens the door to the key $100 level, but we need the sentiment to turn more bullish in the crypto market to see this happen.