Avalanche Helicon upgrade goes live on mainnet

Avalanche's Helicon network upgrade is live on mainnet, activated via AvalancheGo v1.15.0 at 11:00 AM ET on September 22, 2026. The network says block verification is now dramatically faster — block times up to 100x faster than previous all-time-high speeds — as one part of the six-part upgrade.

Helicon bundles six Avalanche Community Proposals (ACPs) into one release: Continuous Execution (CE) for a faster C-Chain, auto-renewing staking, 48-hour minimum staking periods in place of 14-day lockups, a 90% validator uptime requirement, a dynamic minimum gas price, and a recalibrated reward curve (ACP-285, phased in over 90 days) designed to reduce AVAX issuance by an estimated 0.5–1 percentage point.

• With Helicon live, validators can now vote to raise or lower the minimum gas fee dynamically.
• Avalanche's John Nahas said the staking changes remove a "huge barrier" for regulated institutions.
• Helicon follows the earlier testnet rollout and builds on the Octane and Granite upgrades.