Watr Partners Avalanche to Bring Commodities Trade Onchain

Watr, a blockchain infrastructure designed specifically for the global commodities industry, has announced its partnership with Avalanche and its migration to an Avalanche Layer 1 (L1). This strategic move aims to bring the world’s commodity trade and financing, which spans metals, minerals, food, and fuel, into an onchain environment that is built for liquidity, scale, and adoption. The global commodities industry, despite its massive size, is constrained by legacy structures that limit liquidity, access, and profitability. By leveraging decentralized identity, traceability, and composable smart contracts, Watr aims to bring the benefits and innovations of Web3 to this pioneering industry.

Watr was founded by former leaders from Shell, BP, and J.P. Morgan, including Maryam Ayati, who was the first to lead global origination and investment at Shell Trading. Recognized by the World Energy Council as one of the most influential women in energy, Ayati has been instrumental in Watr’s mission to digitize the infrastructure of commodity finance and trade. John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs, highlighted the potential of this partnership, stating that Avalanche is built for this exact moment with its sovereign chains, low latency, and institutional-grade performance. He expressed pride in supporting Watr’s mission to enhance commodity markets by opening them to onchain structures and liquidity.

The partnership between Watr and Avalanche combines Watr’s expertise in commodities with Avalanche’s leading blockchain technology and thriving developer ecosystem. This ecosystem has already been trusted by institutions including JP Morgan, Citibank, and FEMA for critical real-world blockchain implementations. Together, they aim to offer commodities players market infrastructure that is interoperable, compliant, and capital-efficient, from mines and farms to global finance. Avalanche’s customizable Layer 1 architecture enables Watr to launch tailored blockchains for different commodities and counterparties, ensuring compliance and performance at an institutional scale.

Maryam Ayati, Founder and President of Watr Foundation, emphasized that established Web3 concepts such as DeFi, Decentralized Identity, and smart contracts can address fundamental constraints in commodity financing, compliance, and trade. Building with Avalanche allows Watr to leapfrog the development cycle and leverage its ecosystem’s size and security to decisively take on this opportunity. The Watr Stack includes several key components designed to work together: WatrMrks for end-to-end traceability of assets, WatrIDs for decentralized identities, NeoReserves for liquidity pools, and VentureStream as a launchpad for commodity-tech startups. These components form the building blocks of a programmable commodities ecosystem, driving open innovation and enhancing adoption for entrepreneurs.

Watr is the only blockchain ecosystem purpose-built for the global commodities industry. From extraction to consumption, Watr combines traceability, decentralized identity, 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. The partnership with Avalanche is expected to bring significant advancements to the commodities industry, leveraging the strengths of both platforms to create a more efficient and transparent market infrastructure.