Avalanche partners with Alipay+ amid fears of meme coin scam on its network

Avalanche (AVAX) and Alipay+, one of the largest payment apps in China, are looking to onboard over 100 million customers to their Web3-enabled voucher program. While this and the upcoming Game Developer Conference (GDC) may help put Avalanche in bullish momentum, a potential meme coin scam on its network stands in the way.

Avalanche partners with Alipay+ to launch Web3-enabled voucher program 

Avalanche announced on its website on Wednesday that it is enabling Alipay+ D-store and Alipay+ partnered e-wallets to launch a Web-3 powered voucher rewards program. The program would allow customers access vouchers that give up to 50% discounts on milk teas sold by ten popular milk tea brands at 500+ shops in Southeast Asia, as stated on the AVAX network.

Milk tea buyers can play a minigame on the Alipay+ D-store within an Alipay+ partner e-wallet and receive a Web3-enabled voucher after completion. They can then claim the voucher and receive a discount when paying for milk tea using the wallet.

If successful, this collaboration would mark a major milestone for Avalanche and Alipay+ D-store. It would allow them to explore new ways of interacting with and retaining customers. At the same time, it would also attract more users and enterprises to its blockchain network, said Avalanche.

Also read: Avalanche Foundation’s meme coin investments are underwater, AVAX price sees 36% weekly gains

The announcement from Avalanche further stated that the proof-of-concept phase two will focus on food and beverage merchants while expanding the program to 100 million users across Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, etc.

The partnership follows Avalanche's participation in the Game Developer Conference (GDC), which is scheduled to be held later today in San Francisco. Avalanche's Gaming Director, Edward Chang, said the conference would help demonstrate that blockchain games have what it takes for mainstream adoption.

Features like Avalanche's subnet, which boosts scalability and customizability, "Teleporter" technology for easy in-game asset transfer across subnets, and the MapleStory game launch are key developments that may boost the AVAX gaming narrative.

Meme coin rug pull threatens AVAX rise

With all of these factors, the price of AVAX may be set for another leg up, but a suspected meme coin scam on its network may affect such a rise.

Following the increasing popularity of meme coin presales, the meme project Sender raised 93,000 AVAX worth about $5.3 million.

However, investors realized after it went live that only 20,000 worth of AVAX was left in the token's liquidity pool, with the remaining 73,000 transferred to three separate addresses. As a result, the crypto community expressed suspicions of a potential rug pull. Rug pulls occur when the developers of a crypto project disappear with funds raised, usually from a presale, leaving investors with nothing.

Read more: Meme coins experience a price correction as BOME, WIF, PEPE, and FLOKI fall

The original fundraising account for Sender, 4msener, disappeared from X (formerly Twitter), causing the meme coin's value to drop by more than 70% since on Tueday.

Following the news, the price of AVAX briefly fell by about 16% on Tuesday amid price corrections in several top cryptocurrencies.

AVAX/USDT 1-hour chart

AVAX is trading around $51.61 as of the time of writing.