The crypto market is surging, with Ethereum leading the current accelerated trend.
In the past 48 hours, ETH has strongly broke through the psychological barrier of $4,000, reaching a high of $4,200, and is currently trading at $4,194, creating a new high in 45 months (since December 2021). Starting from the low point of $1,385 on April 9th, ETH has cumulatively risen over 300%, with a single-month increase of 65% in July alone—significantly outperforming most altcoins and becoming the core target of capital inflow.
In comparison, Bitcoin is relatively weak, currently oscillating between $112,000 and $119,000, and is now trading at $117,200. Solana has rebounded from its low of $155.8 on August 3rd to around $180, with a strong performance in the past two days. The altcoin sector is fully activated, with project positive news driving market sentiment, and signals of an "altcoin season" are gradually strengthening.
In terms of liquidation data, the total liquidation amount in the past 24 hours was $362 million; long liquidations were $78.14 million, and short liquidations were $286 million. ETH alone contributed $203 million in liquidation scale; the largest single liquidation occurred on OKX ETH-USDT-SWAP, amounting to $10.6284 million.
In terms of capital flow, Bitcoin spot ETF has turned to net inflow after four consecutive days of net outflow; Ethereum spot ETF has also ended its two-day net outflow trend and recorded net inflow for four consecutive days, indicating that capital is accelerating its return to the crypto market.
Macro Catalyst: Trump's Executive Order and Negative Factors Clearing
On August 7th, a Trump executive order allowed 401(k) retirement plans to officially embrace alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies, private equity, and real estate for the first time. With a fund pool of $9 trillion, even if only 2% is allocated to crypto assets, it could theoretically bring in $17 billion—enough to leverage the entire spot ETF market. Although the policy may take months or even years to fully implement, its symbolic significance is enough to ignite market imagination.
On the same day, the reciprocal tariff executive order officially took effect, imposing 15% to 41% tariffs on imported goods from 67 trading partners. The long-hanging risk has finally dropped, and negative factors are gradually being digested.
Federal Reserve Policy Shift: Rate Cut Expectations Warming Up
San Francisco Fed President Daly directly stated that considering the weakening job market and limited inflation pressure from tariffs, the window for rate cuts is approaching. The Fed may cut rates by 25 basis points in September or December; if the labor market further deteriorates, the number of rate cuts could be more.
On Thursday, Trump nominated Milan to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as the White House Economic Advisory Council Chairman. Analysts generally believe that as the designer of tariff policies, Milan's appointment may make the Fed's policy more dovish and put pressure on Powell to cut rates.
Investment banks' analyses are converging: Tariffs have pushed the trade-weighted average tax rate close to 20%, and this cost impact will erode corporate profits, weaken household purchasing power, and may force the Fed to act early in the fall. Institutions like Fidelity International and Berenberg Bank even warn that if the policy response is slow, the "lagging effect" of 2021-2022 may repeat.
Capital Trends: Institutions Accelerating Layout
Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), stated that Trump's gold tariffs will "catalyze a new wave of institutional Bitcoin adoption". This is not just a confidence statement but a further emphasis on the "digital gold" narrative.
Michael Martin, head of the Codebase incubator at Ava Labs, predicts that venture capital firms will invest up to $25 billion in crypto startups in 2025, driven by a "perfect storm" of multiple positive factors including Circle's listing, market recovery, Stripe's acquisition of Privy, Wall Street's increased blockchain focus, and clearer regulatory rules.
The capital flow this year already hints at the prelude to this storm. Martin points out that $13.2 billion has flowed into crypto project financing so far this year, 40% higher than last year's total and on track to exceed PitchBook's predicted $18 billion. However, he also warns that if listed companies like Circle and Coinbase fail to meet expectations or the macro environment worsens due to tariff policies, the pace of capital deployment may slow down.
On-Chain Data: Multiple Sectors Rising
On-chain indicators are also telling a story of recovery. According to DappRadar, the total value locked in DeFi protocols reached a historical high of $270 billion in July, a 30% quarter-on-quarter increase. Tokenized stocks became a growth highlight, with active wallets surging from around 1,600 to over 90,000, and market value growing by 220%.
During the same period, NFT trading volume increased by 96% to $530 million, with about 3.85 million daily active wallets interacting with NFT DApps, slightly higher than DeFi. Despite the market recovery in July, NFT trading scale remains lower than the 2021 peak.
Stablecoins continue to play a foundational role in market liquidity. Total circulation reached a historical high of $265 billion, with a 30-day growth rate of 5%. Although not as explosive as the beginning of the year, this rebound in the context of continuous low-speed growth signals that capital is beginning to re-establish itself on-chain, waiting for the next peak.
Tracking Recent Events of Three Major Mainstream Assets
According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's disclosed data, in the past month since July 10th, over 1.035 million ETH (worth approximately $4.167 billion) has been accumulated by multiple unknown whales/institutions through exchanges or institutional business platforms. Most of these ETH should belong to institutions or US stock companies doing ETH reserves, with an average accumulation price of around $3,546.
Sharplink Gaming's address has been tracked. It currently holds a total of 532,914 ETH, valued at $2.07 billion. On August 7th, SharpLink announced that it has raised $200 million through share placement at $19.5 per share, with new funds to be used to expand its Ethereum treasury. Following its previous rhythm, a new round of large buy orders is on the way.
Solana's story is somewhat different. The Solana digital asset treasury company led by Joe McCann, which originally planned to go public through a SPAC merger with Gores Holdings X and raise up to $1.5 billion, was suddenly halted without a public reason. Previous reports indicated that McCann's hedge fund Asymmetric had lost nearly 80% this year, and this suspension has led the market to speculate: Has the capital environment changed, or has the team's strategy shifted?
Altcoin Tracking: Four Stories Worth Watching
Ripple (XRP): Six-Year Lawsuit Concludes
The tug-of-war between XRP and SEC has finally ended. Both parties jointly withdrew their appeals in the Second Circuit Court and each bore their own litigation costs. This means that the ruling by Judge Analisa Torres in 2023 has officially taken effect: secondary market trading does not constitute a securities act, but large-scale sales to institutions are illegal securities issuance. Ripple was fined $125 million and permanently prohibited from future violations.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the company will thoroughly end this legal dispute and focus on more important matters - building the "value internet". Meanwhile, Ripple's USD stablecoin RLUSD's supply exceeded $600 million in July, a 32% quarter-on-quarter increase, with trading volume reaching $3.3 billion, hitting a historical high.
Digital Wealth Partners Management, LLC (DWP Management) also announced that its series of private investment funds have raised approximately $200 million in funds since April. As a private fund manager accepting physical digital asset investments, all physical contributions to date have been completed in the form of XRP.
Ethena (ENA): Stabilizing Confidence through Buybacks
On July 21, Ethena Labs announced a $360 million PIPE transaction with stablecoin issuer StablecoinX, which plans to list on NASDAQ with the stock ticker "USDE" (sharing the same name as Ethena's stablecoin USDe). Simultaneously, the Ethena Foundation launched a $260 million ENA token buyback plan, expected to invest approximately $5 million daily over the next 6 weeks to establish an ENA reserve.
According to defillama data, Ethena's synthetic stablecoin USDe has reached a market value of $9.293 billion, with a 75.13% increase over the past month. USDe is currently the third-largest stablecoin by market value, behind USDT and USDC.
Chainlink (LINK): Locking Revenue on-chain
Chainlink announced the launch of Chainlink Reserve, a strategic on-chain reserve for LINK tokens, planning to convert user fees and on-chain service fees from enterprise integrations into LINK tokens to support the long-term sustainable growth of the Chainlink network, which also means a long-term and continuous buyback plan.
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov stated that market demand has brought hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the project, mostly from large enterprises. The reserve has already accumulated over $1 million worth of LINK tokens at the initial release and will continue to grow.
BounceBit (BB): A New CeDeFi Approach
BounceBit partnered with Wall Street asset management giant Franklin Templeton to launch a new product BB Prime and simultaneously initiate a token buyback plan. The product integrates Franklin Templeton's tokenized money fund, creating a CeDeFi structured product combining basis arbitrage and Treasury yield. This tokenized fund belongs to the BENJI product series and will serve as collateral and settlement tool in investment strategies. Through this approach, investors can not only obtain underlying Treasury rate returns but also stack additional revenue sources. The announced BB token buyback plan is supported by over $10 million in protocol revenue, aimed at strengthening the token's long-term value support.
Overall, this rebound is fueled by macro policy, on-chain data collaboration, and capital sentiment.
