AAVE and AVAX made moves on the same day, but in completely opposite directions
On September 18, the AAVE founder previewed Aavenomics 3.0.
On September 22, the AVAX Helicon upgrade was activated.
The two pieces of news appear completely unrelated on the surface. But once you lay out their underlying logic—one is “contracting,” while the other is “expanding.”
Same sector, moves on the same day, completely opposite directions.
Understand this comparison, and you will understand the next battle being fought by leading protocols.
AAVE is “contracting”: embedding buybacks into the protocol and pushing the committee aside
First, the current mechanism: the Aave Finance Committee manually buys back $1 million worth of AAVE on the secondary market every week, or about $50 million annually. But the committee can halt, adjust, or change the direction at any time.
Put plainly, these are “buybacks based on mood.”
Version 3.0 changes that. Buybacks are no longer a “project” decided by committee vote, but a “default setting” written into the protocol architecture. Protocol revenue and GHO stablecoin revenue will automatically fund them; unless governance actively votes to halt them, they will continue running and buying.
Together with the Aave Will Win framework passed in April this year: 100% of the revenue from the Aave protocol, GHO, and all branded products goes to the DAO treasury, while Aave Labs receives only a development budget. Founder Kulechov said this revenue currently stands at approximately $134 million per year.
AAVE rose more than 13% in a single day on September 18, breaking above $140, and subsequently fluctuated around $136.
AAVE is telling the market: I have even eliminated the step of having “people make decisions.”
AVAX is “expanding”: the door is open, but the bar has been raised
The Helicon upgrade cut the validator lockup period directly from 336 hours (14 days) to 48 hours, while introducing automatic staking renewal—validators stake once, and the system automatically renews it for them, with no manual operation required.
But don’t celebrate too soon.
The online-rate requirement rose from 80% to 90%. Fail to meet it? You receive no rewards for that period. Your principal is not slashed, but you work for nothing.
Translated: you can come whenever you want and leave whenever you want. But while you are here, you must stay online and do your job properly.
Driven by expectations for the Helicon upgrade and news of institutional partnerships, AVAX rose from the $8 range to above $10 between September 18 and 20, with its single-day gain briefly exceeding 18%.
AVAX is telling validators: entry and exit are free, but you are responsible for your obligations.
One is simplifying the system, while the other is adding participation
The core of AAVE 3.0 is turning “human decision-making” into a “default institutional setting”—reducing reliance on the committee and making buybacks part of the protocol’s self-operating mechanism.
The core of AVAX’s Helicon is turning “high barriers and long lockups” into “low barriers and high requirements”—validators can enter and exit more flexibly, but must continuously prove that they are doing the work.
Neither path is right or wrong.
But there is one signal worth everyone’s attention:
Leading protocols are turning “governance efficiency” into a new dimension of competition.
AAVE is competing over who can create institutions that require less human management, and whose token economics are more automated.
AVAX is competing over who can use the lowest participation cost to secure the highest network reliability.
In the past, everyone compared TVL, trading volume, and the number of ecosystem projects.
Now they are starting to compare whose economic model runs more intelligently.
Between AAVE’s “contraction” and AVAX’s “expansion,” which path do you favor?
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