Founders Fund-backed Avail acquires Arcana, offering XAR token holders 4:1 swap into AVAIL
Quick Take Avail has acquired Arcana, a chain abstraction protocol, with all XAR tokens to be swapped for AVAIL at a 4:1 ratio. Arcana’s tools will be integrated into Avail’s stack, with most of its team joining Avail.
Avail, a modular blockchain infrastructure project backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and other notable investors, has acquired Arcana, a chain abstraction protocol, in a deal aimed at boosting multichain scalability.
The acquisition is Avail’s first and will see Arcana’s chain abstraction and developer tools folded into the Avail tech stack.
As part of the deal, the Avail Foundation has acquired 100% of Arcana’s XAR token supply, which existing holders can swap for AVAIL at a 4:1 ratio. Unlocks will be phased over six and twelve months, while Arcana team tokens will vest over three years.
The AVAIL token is down over 7% in the past 24 hours, currently trading at about $0.012, while the XAR token is up about 3.6% at around $0.0031, according to The Block’s price pages.
Arcana was initially building a “storage layer of Ethereum” and a privacy stack before pivoting to chain abstraction in mid-2023 to tackle liquidity fragmentation. “Our chain abstraction software development kit and Arcana wallet were built to remove complexity for developers and users alike," said Arcana co-founder and CEO Mayur Relekar. "Joining Avail allows us to scale that mission to its fullest potential."
Chain abstraction is a design approach that simplifies user experience across multiple blockchains by hiding cross-chain complexity like gas management, bridging, and swaps. The aim is to let users interact with different networks as if they were one, similar to how people use the internet without worrying about underlying servers or protocols.
Arcana's "expertise in chain abstraction and in-app experiences perfectly complements our vision of the future where liquidity moves instantly, applications scale across ecosystems, and the user experience feels as seamless as the internet of today," said Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Avail.
Arcana has raised about $5.5 million in funding to date from investors including Digital Currency Group, Republic, Sandeep Nailwal, and Balaji Srinivasan, Relekar said. Avail, which spun out of Polygon in 2023, has raised $75 million in total funding to date from investors including Founders Fund, Dragonfly, Cyber Fund, Hashkey Capital, and Foresight Ventures.
Avail's other co-founder, Prabal Banerjee, told The Block that acquisition talks began in April 2025 and the deal has now fully closed. Financial terms beyond the token swap structure were not disclosed.
Most of Arcana’s leadership and staff will transition into Avail, bringing the combined team size to over 55, with further hiring planned, Arjun said. Arcana’s ecosystem partners — including Avalanche, BNB Chain, Polygon, Scroll, Linea, and Renzo — will fold into the Avail ecosystem. Avail’s own ecosystem spans Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, and Hyperliquid.
With the acquisition, Avail aims to unify balances, intent-based execution, and in-app user experiences across chains. The bet is that unified multichain infrastructure will form the rails for the next wave of crypto adoption.
"Institutions to trust a unified layer for tokenized assets, stablecoins, and real-world assets. Build global financial primitives with interoperability, compliance, and privacy as required," the project said.
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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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