Avalanche news today is centered on the network’s post-Helicon development cycle and a new regional builder event in Thailand, while AVAX continues to trade well above its level earlier in September. The token was priced at $10.75, up 4.94% over 24 hours, as of September 26, 2026, at 01:37 UTC.
Avalanche news today: Thailand hackathon brings developers together
The Avalanche ecosystem is hosting the Team1 Thailand: Codebase Hackathon — Chula Edition in Bangkok from September 25–26, 2026. The event is aimed at Avalanche designers, creators and developers, with submissions scheduled to close on September 26 at 11:00 p.m. local time.
The hackathon highlights Avalanche’s continuing effort to expand its developer base beyond established financial and blockchain centers. Events focused on local builders can help produce new applications and integrations for the network, although the event itself does not represent a confirmed commercial partnership or protocol upgrade.
Helicon upgrade completes mainnet activation
Avalanche’s Helicon upgrade completed mainnet activation on September 22, 2026, at 15:00 UTC, according to the project’s official technical documentation. Validators were required to run AvalancheGo v1.15.0 to support the release.
Helicon introduces significant changes to Avalanche’s staking economics. The upgrade reduces the minimum staking duration from two weeks to 48 hours, adds auto-renewed staking and raises the validator uptime requirement from 80% to 90%. It also changes the network’s staking-reward consumption rate, with the stated mean rate declining from 10% to 7.5%.
For the C-Chain, the upgrade includes continuous execution and a dynamic minimum gas price. The changes are intended to improve validator flexibility and network operation, but their longer-term effect will depend on validator participation, user activity and actual adoption of the new staking structure.
Exchange infrastructure also adjusted around the upgrade. Bybit announced temporary suspensions of Avalanche deposits and withdrawals during the upgrade window while its systems synchronized with the new release. Trading was expected to remain available during the maintenance period.
AVAX market position
AVAX has gained 29.19% over seven days, while its market capitalization stands at $4.76B, ranking the asset #36. Daily trading volume was $613.03M. Circulating supply is 443,070,913 AVAX, compared with a total supply of 469,739,713 AVAX.
Despite the recent weekly advance, AVAX remains 92.59% below its all-time high of $144.96. The current market response suggests renewed short-term demand, but the token’s longer-term performance remains tied to network usage, developer activity and the ability of Avalanche’s latest upgrades to attract sustained participation.