Ethereum (ETH) rival Avalanche (AVAX) has raised $250,000,000 from a locked token sale led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly and ParaFi Capital.

According to a new announcement, Avalanche says that more than 40 companies participated in the sale, including SkyBridge, Hivemind and Morgan Creek Digital.

A locked token sale means the tokens sold have certain vesting or lock-up periods.

The proceeds will go toward supporting the blockchain’s upgrade called Avalanche9000.

“The influx of capital follows the launch of the Avalanche9000 testnet, a key milestone that paves the way for the upcoming mainnet network upgrade on Monday, December 16th, which will reduce Avalanche layer-1 (L1) deployment costs by 99.9%, as well as reducing transaction costs on the established C-Chain by 25x.”

The project expects the upgrade to increase network usage across several crypto sectors.

“Avalanche9000 is driving the next generation of scalable, purpose-built L1 blockchains. More than 500 L1 chains are already in development across sectors like tokenization of real-world assets, loyalty and rewards, gaming, payments and institutional programs.”

Jason Urban, Galaxy’s global head of trading, says the funding will boost blockchain technology innovation.

“Our support of Avalanche, and the growth and scalability of blockchain protocols, is essential to the future of this industry. At Galaxy, we are providing Avalanche with the strategic resources and services needed to foster institutional participation and long-term growth, ensuring they can lead the next wave of blockchain adoption with Avalanche9000.”

AVAX is trading for $52.51 at time of writing, up 9.4% in the last 24 hours.