Zug, Switzerland, April 3rd, 2025, Chainwire
Watr, the blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for the $20T global commodities industry, today announced its partnership with Avalanche and migration to an Avalanche Layer 1 (L1).
This strategic move is focused on bringing the world’s commodity trade and financing —spanning metals, minerals, food, and fuel— into an onchain environment built for liquidity, scale and adoption.
Despite its massive size, the global commodities industry remains constrained by legacy structures, limiting liquidity, access and profitability. By combining decentralized identity, traceability, and composable smart contracts, Watr is aiming to open this pioneering industry to the benefits and innovations of Web3.
Watr was created by former Shell, BP, and J.P. Morgan leaders, including Maryam Ayati, 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 spearheaded Watr’s mission to digitize the infrastructure of commodity finance and trade.
“Despite being a $20 trillion industry, real-world assets like commodities have barely scratched the surface of onchain adoption,” said John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs. “Avalanche is built for this exact moment—with sovereign chains, low latency, and institutional-grade performance. We're proud to support Watr’s mission to enhance commodity markets by opening them to onchain structures and liquidity.”
Why Avalanche
The partnership combines Watr’s edge in commodities with Avalanche’s leading blockchain and thriving developer ecosystem, which has already been trusted by institutions including JP Morgan, Citibank, and FEMA for critical real-world blockchain implementations.
Together, they will offer commodities players market infrastructure that is interoperable, compliant, and capital-efficient, from mines and farms to global finance, built on a scalable blockchain that can meet the demands of enterprise partners today. Avalanche’s customizable Layer 1 architecture enables Watr to launch tailored blockchains for different commodities and counterparties, while ensuring compliance and performance at institutional scale.
“Established Web3 concepts such as DeFi, Decentralized Identity, and smart contracts can address fundamental constraints in commodity financing, compliance, and trade,” said Maryam Ayati, Founder and President of Watr Foundation. “Building with Avalanche allows us to leapfrog the development cycle and leverage its ecosystem’s size and security to decisively take on this opportunity.”
The Watr Stack
- WatrMrks enable end-to-end traceability of assets by recording origin, certifications, and custody throughout the commodity lifecycle. Each shipment, batch, or asset carries an immutable history visible to authorized parties. WatrMrks have been successfully tested and integrated in closed-loop environments with leading mining and automotive companies, and will soon be deployed on Watr L1 and the broader Avalanche ecosystem.
- WatrIDs introduce decentralized identities for professionals, businesses, and institutions within the commodities economy. Aligned with W3C and KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) standards, WatrIDs act as trusted, portable credentials — unlocking access to applications across the Watr ecosystem and beyond.
- NeoReserves, created by Watr ecosystem developer Neo, will operate liquidity pools for new commodity financing contracts.
- VentureStream, a launchpad and investment hub for commodity-tech startups, drives an active developer ecosystem while helping match them with established market participants.
These components are designed to work together: WatrMrks maintain provenance and compliance, WatrIDs enable trust, and NeoReserves unlock verified capital and new contracting structures. Together, they form the building blocks of a programmable commodities ecosystem while VentureStream drives open innovation and enhances adoption for entrepreneurs.
About Watr
Watr is the only blockchain ecosystem purpose-built for the $20T global commodities industry. From extraction to consumption, Watr combines traceability (WatrMrks), decentralized identity (WatrIDs), 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.
All enquiries to Press@watr.org
About the Avalanche Blockchain Network
Avalanche is an ultra-fast, low-latency blockchain platform designed for builders who need high performance at scale. The network’s architecture allows for the creation of sovereign, efficient and fully interoperable public and private layer 1 (L1) blockchains which leverage the Avalanche Consensus Mechanism to achieve high throughput and near-instant transaction finality. The ease and speed of launching an L1, and the breadth of architectural customization choices, make Avalanche the perfect environment for a composable multi-chain future.
Supported by a global community of developers and validators, Avalanche offers a fast, low-cost environment for building decentralized applications (dApps). With its combination of speed, flexibility, and scalability, Avalanche is the platform of choice for innovators pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology.
Contact
Daniella Assafpress@watr.org
Company details
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Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin