Avalanche Policy Coalition unveils advisory council, calls for ‘global energy’ as crypto rules across the world take shape

The Avalanche Policy Coalition on Tuesday unveiled a new advisory council, led by Ava Labs General Counsel Lee Schneider and joined by key figures including UK House of Lords member Chris Holmes and senior leaders from across the Avalanche ecosystem.

The advisory council will focus on three core priorities in 2026, including how tokens are classified and how to define intermediaries, protecting access to the internet — all on a global scale. In addition to Schneider and Holmes, members include Bart Smith, CEO of Avalanche Treasury Co., Laine Litman, COO of Avalanche Treasury Co., and Jolie Kahn, CEO of Avax One Technology, according to a statement.

Avalanche (AVAX) is a decentralized platform launched by Ava Labs in 2020 and has four entities: Ava Labs, the Avalanche Foundation, and two treasury companies. Those four entities in the Avalanche ecosystem are what inspired the launch of the advisory council, Schneider said in an interview with The Block.

“So for us, that was a watershed moment, now that we have those four groups together,” Schneider said. “So the idea was that we’re all rowing in the same direction from a policy perspective for the Avalanche ecosystem and obviously for the broader blockchain and crypto as well.”

The timing is also important, he said. The launch of the council comes as lawmakers in the U.S. are working to pass legislation to regulate the crypto industry at large after passing a bill to regulate stablecoins over the summer. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have embarked on their own efforts to modernize their rules.

Elsewhere, jurisdictions are moving at different speeds. The European Union is now implementing its landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The UK is developing a new regime set to come into force in 2027. Japan, meanwhile, remains well ahead of many peers and continues to refine its rules, Schneider said.

Alignment around the world will be vital, Schneider said, adding that not all regulations have to be the same, but general shared principles would be helpful. 

“The top item for us is to make sure that there’s some global synergy in the regulations and laws,” he said. “If things are too different in major jurisdictions, then that means every time a blockchain or crypto company wants to do something in a new jurisdiction, or wants to launch something that has global applicability, you end up with this disjunction between how things work in different jurisdictions.”

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