New Retro9000 Round Targets Real Usage on Avalanche

The Retro9000 campaign is entering its most ambitious phase yet with a "C-Chain Round" designed to prioritize smart contract activity and long-term user retention.

Have you been shipping consistently? Are you tired of watching rewards and attention flow toward projects with fancy marketing but no users? Well, you don’t need to worry about that anymore, because the newest round of Retro9000 is changing the narrative.

The Avalanche Foundation is placing a $40M bet on what actually matters: execution. This new “C-Chain Round” measures hard on-chain transaction data, not Twitter engagement. Let’s explore how the latest round of Retro900 transforms the game compared to previous rounds.

Back to the Future

The original Retro9000 campaign launched in late 2024 as part of the massive Avalanche9000 upgrade that introduced new technical standards, tooling, and support for launching purpose-built L1s. The first Retro9000 rounds rewarded developers who built L1s and critical infrastructure during the upgrade window, using retroactive grants guided by community voting.

Two cohorts have been completed so far, distributing more than $1M in grants to teams across infrastructure, gaming, and ecosystem support.

The first cohort awarded projects such as L1Beat, Suzaku, Tesseract, and Hatchyverse. The second cohort was aimed at teams demonstrating progress on mainnet, including Artery Chain for AI-native gaming and CodeNekt for vehicle identity management.

The first rounds generated momentum around the L1 and infrastructure layer, solidifying Avalanche as a comfortable place to deploy custom blockchains. They also set the stage for Retro9000 to expand into broader sectors where on-chain demand plays a central role.

C-Chain Round: The Scoreboard for Tomorrow

The new Retro9000 C-Chain Round centers on real users performing real transactions. Central to this round is the fact that every C-Chain transaction burns $AVAX. This is important because, in addition to decreasing the maximum supply of $AVAX, it also creates a transparent, on-chain metric for adoption. The burn rate informs Retro9000’s grant allocation: the more a product is used, the higher it ranks on the leaderboard.

This round departs from the community voting model used in the initial phase. Instead of collecting votes, projects are ranked by measurable activity tied to smart contracts interacting with the C-Chain. The top 40-ranked projects at the end of each round become eligible for retroactive grant consideration from the program’s $40 million pool.

This design encourages teams to focus on shipping, improving user experience, and retaining activity. It also aligns incentives across builders, users, and the Avalanche Foundation by directing funding toward products that demonstrate real traction rather than just hype.

Multipliers for New Entrants

To avoid favoring only the current, high-traffic projects, the C-Chain Round introduces multipliers for newer projects. Teams launching on Avalanche for the first time can stay competitive by receiving a leaderboard score boost. Additional multipliers may appear throughout the round to highlight emerging categories such as gaming, SocialFi, payments, or infrastructure.

This structure opens the door for early-stage builders while maintaining a merit-based system tied to usage.

Referral Rewards for the Community

Retro9000 also includes a referral program that rewards community members for bringing new teams into Avalanche. To claim a referral link, go to the Retro9000 portal, connect your wallet, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click “Get My Referral Code.”

You can earn up to $3,000 in AVAX per project and per round if the referred team receives funding. This mechanism turns ecosystem participants into active contributors and extends the program’s reach beyond Avalanche’s existing network.

The referral model matters because strong ecosystems grow through relationships as much as technology. Builders often join new environments through personal connections and peer recommendations rather than formal marketing funnels.

Why the Timing Matters

The broader market remains uncertain, venture capital has tightened, and many teams are scaling back operations. Retro9000 moves in the opposite direction by rewarding builders who ship during quieter periods. For developers, this is an opportunity to secure capital through execution rather than token sales. For community members, it’s a chance to support builders directly through usage and referrals.

The result is an incentive flywheel well-suited for any market conditions. Builders gain funding through traction, and Avalanche gains and bolsters applications that people actually use.

Final Thoughts

Retro9000’s expansion into C-Chain activity is an essential shift in how Avalanche supports its builders. The program now rewards practical applications that drive on-chain usage. It gives developers a reason to build during a challenging period in crypto and invites the community to play a role in that growth. As activity increases and more products reach users, Avalanche’s foundation for the future continues to strengthen.

Ready to get started? You can support the Avalanche ecosystem and start earning referral rewards by joining the Retro9000 program here.

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