Retro9000 is the Avalanche Foundation's retroactive rewards program for projects building on Avalanche. It rewards real onchain activity - projects earn points based on genuine user engagement, and those points determine their share of the advisory reward pool.

To date, the Retro9000 C-Chain program has awarded over $100,000 in rewards to builders and project referrals on Avalanche, with Round 4 building on that momentum with the most significant update to the program since it launched.

"This is about making Retro9000 work for the whole ecosystem. We wanted community participation to have real weight in how rewards are distributed, and we wanted smaller projects to have a fair shot alongside the established ones. Tying rankings to verified user engagement achieves both - it rewards builders who are genuinely growing their communities, not just those with the biggest burn numbers." - Daniel Ortiz, Senior Program Manager, Avalanche Foundation

What is New in Round 4?

Retro9000 is not a static program - each round generates data, surfaces insights, and reveals what is working and what needs to change. Round 4 is the direct result of that process.

This new round introduces two major changes:

1. User Verification Now Impacts Your Project Score

For the first time, the type of user matters - not just the number. Round 4 introduces a three-tier user system:

• Unregistered - users who interact with a project onchain but have not yet connected to the Retro9000 platform

• Connected - users who have connected their wallet to the Retro9000 platform and have sent at least one transaction on Avalanche within the past 30 days

• Verified - users who have connected their wallet and linked their X (Twitter) account

Verified users carry the most weight in a project's score. Connected users carry more weight than unregistered users. This means a project's score is directly influenced by the quality of its user base - not just the volume of activity. Projects with a higher proportion of verified users will score stronger than those with largely unregistered users, even with similar levels of AVAX burned.

This means projects are now incentivized to bring their communities onto the platform and encourage them to verify. To qualify, X accounts are reviewed against a set of criteria including account age to prevent gaming the system. 

If you use a project on Avalanche, verifying your account is the most direct way to strengthen their score. Early participants help shape how the program evolves. The sooner you connect and verify, the more your activity contributes from day one.

2. New Reward Distribution

Previous rounds concentrated rewards at the top of the leaderboard, tied directly to AVAX burned. Rewards are distributed according to the power-weighted share of individual project’s scores that gives smaller projects a meaningfully larger share relative to what they have burned. Top 20 projects on the leaderboard at round end are considered for disbursements.

How to Participate

For projects: Make sure your project is live on the Retro9000 platform. Encourage your community to connect their wallets and verify their X accounts. The more verified users your project has, the stronger your score.

For users: Visit the Retro9000 platform, connect your wallet, and link your X account. Then use the projects you already love on Avalanche. Your verified activity directly strengthens the score of the projects and builders you believe in.

Key Details

• Reward pool: up to 10,000 AVAX or the total AVAX burned during the round

• Top 20 projects eligible for reward

• Multipliers: 5x for new projects, 5x for Build Games projects

• X account linking goes live for Round 4

• Round begins: June 1st, 2026

Next Steps

Round 3 is still live until May 31st. If you are an active user or project in Round 3, keep building - every interaction counts until the round closes.

The Foundation aims to continue iterating on the mechanics, the incentives, and the ways the community can participate in shaping outcomes. If you are building on Avalanche or an active user, your feedback matters. Shape what comes next.

The ecosystem grows when builders are rewarded for building and communities are rewarded for participating. That is what Retro9000 aims to deliver - and Round 4 is the next step in that journey.

Round 4 opens June 1st. Full round details and eligibility criteria are available on the platform.

retro9000.avax.network

Participation in Retro9000 does not guarantee funding. All evaluations and funding decisions are made at the sole discretion of the Avalanche Foundation. Eligible projects receive scores based on verifiable onchain activity and other criteria described in the official Round Rules. Scores, user-verification tiers, and leaderboard placement are inputs into the Foundation’s evaluation process and do not guarantee funding or determine awards on an automatic basis.