AVAX traded at $7.85 at 5 p.m. ET on November 8, down from $10.85 at 6 p.m. ET on October 11, a decline of 27.6% over four weeks. Over the same measurement period, Bitcoin fell 11.3% and Ether dropped 16%, leaving the Avalanche token trailing both major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and Ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market value, are widely used reference points for gauging an individual token's relative performance, which makes the four-week gap a measure of AVAX's strength against the market's leading assets.

The slide marked a sharp reversal from the performance reported on October 11, when AVAX had gained 49.7% over the preceding 28 days, outpacing Bitcoin's 9% increase and Ether's 2.3% advance across the same window.

AVAX Also Trails Bitcoin and Ether Over Seven Days

The weakness extended beyond the monthly comparison. During the final seven days of the measurement period, AVAX declined 9.4%, while Bitcoin lost 4.9% and Ether recorded a 6.2% decrease. The same ordering held in both windows, with Bitcoin falling least and AVAX falling most. These comparisons measure dollar-denominated price returns and exclude staking rewards, so any yield earned through staking is not reflected in the figures.

Broader market weakness was also evident in a snapshot taken by The Defiant at approximately 4:55 p.m. ET on November 8. All 40 eligible non-stablecoin assets included in its selected watchlist had declined over their respective matched 24-hour periods. The watchlist represents a selected group of assets rather than the entire cryptocurrency market.

Avalanche's Helicon Upgrade Reshapes Staking Commitments

Alongside the token's price decline, Avalanche is continuing to phase in changes to its staking reward structure following the Helicon upgrade, which was activated on September 22. The upgrade reduced the minimum validator commitment period from two weeks to 48 hours while keeping the minimum stake requirement at 2,000 AVAX.

According to Avalanche, shorter commitments come with reduced rewards that are being phased in over 90 days, and the phase-in remained in progress during the period covered here. The reward rate for a full-year commitment remains unchanged. Once a staking commitment begins, its applicable rate is fixed for the entire commitment period, meaning the timing of a commitment determines its locked-in rate while the rollout continues.

Aave Labs Advances USAT Stablecoin Proposal on Avalanche

Institutional lending infrastructure also featured in Avalanche's ecosystem developments during the 28-day price measurement period. On October 19, Aave Labs submitted a proposal to add the USAT dollar stablecoin to Aave's V4 Core Instance on Avalanche. If the listing clears governance, USAT would become available within that instance's lending markets. The proposal concerns a stablecoin listing and is separate from the dedicated tokenized-asset hub that Aave Labs' deployment plan reserved for a later phase.

The published proposal calls for incorporating the final configuration from risk providers before an Aave DAO vote. Onchain enforcement would follow the governance process outlined in the proposal, making the risk providers' final configuration and the subsequent DAO vote the next steps to watch.

Source: The Defiant | Written by Ethan Collins | Originally published by Hokanews.