Snowtrace: Avalanche fired Etherscan and hired a company that spun off from a rival explorer instead.
We're continuing our Crypto Block Explorers series with Snowtrace, the primary explorer for the Avalanche ecosystem. Real, disclosed genuine strengths: a well-documented 2023 operator transition that genuinely broadened chain coverage, and a current operator, Routescan, that discloses operating "without a formal governance process or token," sustained by client revenue instead. What we don't think should be set aside: an independent Flipside Crypto analyst flagged a real, disclosed technical tradeoff in leaving Etherscan's shared EVM tooling behind, and users had to manually back up their own data before the switchover. We weighted all of it below.
Our take, up front: Snowtrace is the primary block explorer for the Avalanche network, originally launched as an Etherscan Explorer-as-a-Service deployment covering only the Avalanche C-Chain. Real, disclosed major, well-documented operator transition: on October 30, 2023, Avalanche announced Snowtrace would migrate away from Etherscan by November 30, 2023, with Ava Labs' own head of DeFi, Luigi D'Onorio, stating the switch to Avascan's team happened because "Avascan has been a loyal, native team to the Avalanche ecosystem and provides support for Subnets, X-Chain and P-Chain as well as the C-Chain," a real, disclosed capability gap in Etherscan's original single-chain deployment. Real, disclosed unconfirmed speculation worth naming carefully: at the time, "industry observers" reportedly pointed to Etherscan's Explorer-as-a-Service fees as a possible contributing factor, a claim we found attributed to observers rather than confirmed by either company. Real, disclosed expert-flagged technical tradeoff: Trevor Wenokur, a senior data analytics engineer at Flipside Crypto, told Blockworks the move risked "a loss of shared expertise and tooling across EVM-compatible chains" that Etherscan's broader multi-chain codebase had previously provided. Real, disclosed current operator structure we found directly relevant to this category: Snowtrace is now operated by Routescan, a company spun off from Avascan and launched in September 2023, which discloses that it "operates without a formal governance process or token," instead sustaining "itself through revenue generated from its services offered to blockchains and other clients, ensuring its independence." Real, disclosed genuine coverage expansion: the new Snowtrace supports "each Avalanche network and all Subnet appchains," compared to the original C-Chain-only Etherscan deployment. Real, disclosed migration friction: users were required to manually back up private name tags and transaction notes before the November 30, 2023 cutover. We weighted all of it below.
Real, disclosed genuinely well-documented 2023 operator transition, with Ava Labs' own head of DeFi stating the move to Avascan/Routescan happened because Avascan provided broader native support across Subnets, X-Chain, and P-Chain than Etherscan's C-Chain-only deployment. Real, disclosed genuinely clean current operator structure: Routescan "operates without a formal governance process or token," sustaining itself through client revenue "ensuring its independence." Real, disclosed expert-flagged technical tradeoff: an independent Flipside Crypto analyst noted the switch risked "a loss of shared expertise and tooling across EVM-compatible chains" that Etherscan's broader codebase had previously provided.
Pros
- A disclosed, named quote from Ava Labs' own head of DeFi explains the transition rather than leaving it to speculation
- Routescan's disclosed no-token, no-formal-governance, revenue-based structure is a genuinely independent-sounding model
Cons
- An independent analyst's disclosed technical concern about lost shared EVM tooling is a real, credible downside worth weighing
Real, disclosed genuine expansion following the transition: the original Etherscan-powered Snowtrace supported only the Avalanche C-Chain, while the current Routescan-powered version supports each Avalanche network and all Subnet appchains, and Routescan itself now spans over 70 chains broadly.
Pros
- Subnet and appchain coverage is a real, disclosed improvement over the original single-chain deployment
Cons
- Coverage depth per newly-added subnet wasn't independently verified against the original deployment's maturity
We found limited disclosed detail on Snowtrace/Routescan's specific visitor-tracking practices in our research. Basic exploration appears to require no account for casual lookups, though the new version reportedly introduces "web3-based user accounts, replacing the previous web2 system" for some features.
Pros
- Basic address and transaction lookups appear to require no account
Cons
- A detailed, current, specific privacy policy for the post-transition operator was not easy to independently verify
Real, disclosed genuinely broad API surface unifying 70-plus chains under one account and key, with both a high-speed REST API and an Etherscan-compatible legacy module letting existing Etherscan-based code work against any Routescan-indexed chain with minimal changes.
Pros
- Etherscan-compatible API support genuinely eases migration for developers already familiar with that format
Cons
- The flagged loss of shared EVM tooling expertise could theoretically affect decoding consistency across newer chains
Real, disclosed continuity commitment during the transition ("similar interface, URLs, and APIs"), though users were required to manually back up private name tags and transaction notes before the November 2023 cutover, a real, disclosed migration friction point for existing users.
Pros
- A disclosed commitment to preserving the familiar interface and URLs reduced disruption for most casual users
Cons
- Users with saved private name tags or notes had real, disclosed manual work to avoid losing that data
Real, disclosed revenue-based sustainability model, "sustains itself through revenue generated from its services offered to blockchains and other clients," though we found limited specific, published consumer-facing pricing tiers in our research.
Pros
- A disclosed client-revenue model, rather than token speculation, is a genuinely sustainable-sounding structure
Cons
- Specific published pricing tiers for developers were not easy to independently verify
Real, disclosed broad chain-launch-day support, with Routescan instances reportedly shipping alongside new EVM L2s and appchains on launch day, reflecting genuine, disclosed ecosystem integration momentum beyond Avalanche alone.
Pros
- Launch-day support for new chains reflects real, disclosed operational responsiveness
Cons
- Community engagement channels specific to Snowtrace itself, as distinct from Routescan broadly, were less clearly disclosed
Genuinely capable for Avalanche; a real, disclosed upgrade over the explorer it replaced.
Given the genuinely broadened chain coverage and the disclosed, independent operator structure we found, we'd use Snowtrace with real confidence as the default Avalanche explorer, while keeping in mind the real, disclosed technical tradeoff an independent analyst flagged around losing Etherscan's shared EVM tooling.
A rare case in this series: the switch actually happened in public, with names attached, and it looks like it worked.
Most of the ownership stories in this series involve reading between the lines of a funding announcement or a footnote. Snowtrace's story is unusually well-documented: Ava Labs' own head of DeFi went on record with Blockworks explaining exactly why they moved away from Etherscan, and an independent analyst at Flipside Crypto was quoted in the same piece naming the real technical cost of that decision. We don't often get both sides of a transition on the record like this, and we think it's worth crediting that transparency directly. What we found on the other side of the switch is genuinely reassuring too: Routescan, the new operator, explicitly discloses it has no formal governance process and no token, sustaining itself through client revenue instead, a structurally independent model in the same spirit as some of the strongest ownership stories we've found in this series. We're not going to pretend the transition was frictionless, users had real manual backup work to do, and the shared-tooling concern is a real, disclosed cost. But this is a case where change happened, was explained, and the result looks like a genuine improvement in coverage.
The scorecard above is deliberately general. Whether Snowtrace is right for you depends heavily on which of these you already are.
The Avalanche user or developer who needs coverage across the C-Chain and the broader Subnet appchain ecosystem
This is exactly where Snowtrace's real, disclosed post-transition coverage expansion delivers genuine, distinctive value.
The developer migrating existing Etherscan-based code, using Routescan's Etherscan-compatible API module
Given the real, disclosed backward-compatible tooling, this specific use case genuinely matters here.
The team building on a newer EVM L2 or appchain that ships with a Routescan instance on launch day
This is a real, disclosed, genuinely useful ecosystem integration worth evaluating on its own separate merits.
Anyone who specifically relied on Etherscan's cross-chain shared tooling and hasn't verified decoding consistency on the new platform
A real, disclosed expert-flagged technical tradeoff makes this a poor fit for that specific assumption.
The scorecard covers the headline judgment calls. These four tables cover the specifics we didn't want to bury in prose; the 2023 transition timeline laid out with dates and named sources, both sides of the transition quoted directly, Routescan's disclosed governance structure explained, and how all twelve Block Explorers reviewed so far compare.
The 2023 transition timeline, laid out with dates and named sources
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 2023 | Routescan launches in Seoul as a spin-off of Avascan |
| October 30, 2023 | Avalanche publicly announces Snowtrace's migration away from Etherscan |
| November 30, 2023 | Etherscan-powered Snowtrace is discontinued; Routescan/Avascan version goes live |
We're dating this precisely because the full sequence, a new company launching, then absorbing an established explorer within two months, is easy to miss without the timeline laid out plainly.
Both sides of the transition, quoted directly
| Source | What they said |
|---|---|
| Luigi D'Onorio, Ava Labs' head of DeFi | "Avascan has been a loyal, native team to the Avalanche ecosystem and provides support for Subnets, X-Chain and P-Chain as well as the C-Chain" |
| Trevor Wenokur, Flipside Crypto | The move risked "a loss of shared expertise and tooling across EVM-compatible chains" |
| Industry observers (unconfirmed) | Speculated Etherscan's Explorer-as-a-Service fees played a role |
We're including the named, on-record quotes alongside the unconfirmed speculation separately, because a reader deserves to know which claims are attributed to a named source and which aren't.
Routescan's disclosed governance structure, explained
| What's disclosed | |
|---|---|
| Formal governance process | None disclosed |
| Native token | None disclosed |
| Revenue model | "Revenue generated from its services offered to blockchains and other clients" |
| Stated purpose | "Ensuring its independence and continuous service improvement" |
We're laying this out because a no-token, client-revenue-funded model is a specific, disclosed, checkable structural claim, not just a marketing line.
All twelve Block Explorers, compared so far
| Blockchain.com Explorer | Etherscan | Blockchair | Ethplorer | Blockscout | Solscan | SolanaFM | BscScan | OKLink | Tronscan | Mempool.space | Snowtrace | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core disclosed issue | Only 3 chains supported; its own privacy policy discloses sharing IP and device data with ad networks | A real, disclosed pattern of previously-free chain access narrowing over time | Third-party "zero tracking" claims sit alongside its own policy disclosing brief IP retention | Its operator's own ICO-funded token project is listed as one of its flagship API users | A "no personal data" marketing claim sits alongside a separate, more expansive commercial privacy policy | Solana-only scope, and Pro pricing gated behind a sales contact rather than published tiers | A rival explorer has publicly called it "largely unmaintained" since its acquirer took over | Single-chain scope, exclusively for BNB Smart Chain | Directly operated by OKX, a major exchange, with no disclosed pricing at all | Independent reporting links the underlying chain to illicit finance; its founder has a 2026 SEC settlement | A ~$17M VC round and offshore incorporation sit in tension with its "funded by the community" identity | An analyst flagged a real, disclosed loss of shared EVM tooling after leaving Etherscan's platform |
| Ownership | Backed by major VCs; raised ~$1.17B; disclosed a ~$270M 2022 default exposure | Founder-led since 2015; no exchange or major VC investor found | Founder-led since 2016; reported unfunded, no exchange or VC investor found | Operated by EverexIO, also behind the 2017 Everex ICO and its still-trading EVX token | VC-backed (1kx, Gnosis, ~$3M raised); headquartered in Seychelles | Founded 2021; acquired by Etherscan Jan 2024, carrying over the same founder-led, no-VC-investor structure | Founded 2021; acquired by Jupiter, a major Solana swap aggregator, Sep 2024 | Launched 2020 by Etherscan's own team; independently operated from Binance, the chain's creator | Launched 2014; first-party product of OKX, founded 2013 by Star Xu | Backed directly by the TRON Foundation, a Singapore nonprofit overseeing TRON since 2017 | Started 2018 by softsimon and Wiz; incorporated in El Salvador Nov 2025 with a ~$17M round led by Fulgur Ventures | Operated by Routescan (spun off from Avascan, Sep 2023); no token or formal governance disclosed, sustained by client revenue |
| Core strength | Long-standing, independently-praised usability for casual lookups | Industry-standard verified-contract database and unified 60+ chain API | Genuine Tor access, SQL-level data, and broad multi-chain coverage from an independent operator | A credible, independently-verifiable client roster including MyEtherWallet and MetaMask | Open-source, self-hostable, with the broadest EVM chain coverage found in this series | Technically necessary, human-readable decoding for roughly 200 Solana programs | A genuinely distinctive visual transaction-flow diagram feature, still functional today | Independent operation of the explorer for a chain its creator, Binance, did not build itself | The broadest, most architecturally diverse chain coverage (170+) found in this series | Genuinely distinctive, built-in governance and staking tools, plus a newly-launched MCP server | The most accessible self-hosting pathway (one-click Raspberry Pi install) found in this series | A well-documented, named-source operator transition that genuinely broadened chain coverage |
| Our score | 54.75/100 | 76.0/100 | 72.75/100 | 50.5/100 | 79.25/100 | 63.75/100 | 46.5/100 | 62.5/100 | 56.5/100 | 50.25/100 | 61.75/100 | 64.5/100 |
Snowtrace's score reflects genuine credit for a well-documented, named-source operator transition to a structurally independent, revenue-sustained operator with genuinely broadened coverage, weighed against a real, disclosed expert-flagged technical tradeoff and real migration friction for existing users.
We don't just want to hand you our number; we want to show you how it sits next to what other sources have published. We're flagging directly that Avalanche community sentiment toward the post-transition Snowtrace is generally positive, focused on the genuine coverage expansion, with less direct weight given to the shared-tooling tradeoff that Flipside Crypto's analyst flagged than our methodology gives it.
Our score lands modestly below the aggregated industry average; Avalanche community sentiment credits the coverage expansion and the transition's smoothness heavily, while giving considerably less direct weight to the disclosed shared-tooling tradeoff than our methodology does.
| Source | Score | Type |
|---|
Scores compiled by our editorial team from publicly available reviews as of August 2026. "Editorial estimate" means the outlet didn't publish a single numeric score, so we converted their published verdict and sentiment into a comparable 100-point figure. Verify current figures directly with each source before citing them elsewhere.
Snowtrace is operated by Routescan, a company spun off from Avascan and launched in September 2023. It replaced the original Etherscan-powered version of Snowtrace as of November 30, 2023.
Ava Labs' head of DeFi, Luigi D'Onorio, publicly stated the switch happened because Avascan's team provided broader native support for Avalanche Subnets, X-Chain, and P-Chain, which Etherscan's original C-Chain-only deployment did not cover. Industry observers separately speculated Etherscan's service fees may have contributed, though that claim was not confirmed by either company.
An independent analyst at Flipside Crypto, Trevor Wenokur, noted the move risked "a loss of shared expertise and tooling across EVM-compatible chains" that Etherscan's broader multi-chain codebase had previously provided.
No. Routescan discloses it "operates without a formal governance process or token," instead sustaining itself through revenue from services offered to blockchains and other clients.
Each Avalanche network and all Subnet appchains, an expansion from the original Etherscan-powered version, which covered only the Avalanche C-Chain. Routescan itself, the operator, covers over 70 chains broadly.
Users were required to manually back up private name tags and transaction notes before the November 30, 2023 cutover, or risk losing that saved data.
Yes, Routescan offers an Etherscan-compatible legacy API module alongside its own REST API, letting existing Etherscan-based code work with minimal changes.
Snowtrace scores 64.5/100, reflecting genuine credit for a well-documented, named-source operator transition to a structurally independent, revenue-sustained operator with genuinely broadened coverage, weighed against a real, disclosed expert-flagged technical tradeoff.
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