As 2025 draws to a close, sentiment across the crypto market continues to recover, with trading activity picking up alongside seasonal year-end momentum. A combination of macro tailwinds and renewed narrative catalysts has driven broad-based sector strength, as AI, privacy, and memecoin assets simultaneously rebound. Capital flows are increasingly gravitating toward high-growth narratives and thematically distinct opportunities.
AI Narrative Returns to Center Stage as PAYAI and SQD Lead the Rally
Artificial intelligence remains one of the defining long-term narratives of the 2025 crypto cycle, with accelerating real-world adoption driving a revaluation of application assets. One of the key catalysts behind this week’s AI-sector rebound was the official release of Version 2 of x402, an open-source payment protocol for AI agents developed by the Coinbase developer team. The upgraded x402 protocol introduces native multi-chain support, covering token payment on ecosystems such as Base and Solana. It also enables seamless integration with traditional payment rails including the Automated Clearing House (ACH) and bank card networks. This significantly enhances the commercial scalability of AI services.
Following the release, assets across the x402 ecosystem saw significant gains. This validates a broader mid-cycle thesis for 2025: AI business models are transitioning from conceptual experimentation toward scalable, revenue-oriented deployment. HTX’s early support for core AI-linked assets provided users with timely access to this narrative-driven market opportunity.
● PAYAI (PayAI Network): +103%, emerging as one of the strongest performers within the x402 AI ecosystem. Built on ElizaOS, libp2p, IPFS, and Solana, PayAI operates as an open-source, decentralized marketplace for AI agents. Growing market attention around model capability upgrades and ecosystem expansion plans have positioned PAYAI as a key proxy for speculative capital inflows into the AI sector.
● SQD (Subsquid): +114%, reflecting renewed interest in AI-focused compute infrastructure. The SQD Network functions as a decentralized data lake and query engine, offering developers high-performance, permissionless access to on-chain data. Rising expectations around compute demand drove a valuation recovery, with narrative momentum and trading volume reinforcing one another.
Privacy Protocols Regain Attention as ZBT and ZEC Advance in Tandem
On-chain privacy is increasingly viewed as a foundational infrastructure for the next market cycle. Against a backdrop of regulatory recalibration and industry restructuring, the privacy sector has seen renewed inflows, forming a “new-and-legacy resonance” dynamic across assets. HTX’s diversified asset coverage has allowed users to participate across multiple layers of this narrative.
● ZBT (Zerobase): +127%, ranking as the best performer overall. Zerobase is a decentralized cryptographic infrastructure network supporting products such as zkStaking, zkLogin, and ProofYield. It bridges institutional DeFi, user privacy protection, and real-world asset (RWA) strategies, combining privacy security with system verifiability and trust.
● ZEC (Zcash): +22%. Zcash is a decentralized, open-source project, developed on the Zerocash Protocol published in the IEEE Security & Privacy conference in 2014. It leverages zero-knowledge proof technology and multi-address mechanism to ensure transaction anonymity.
Memecoins Gain Momentum Across Multiple Ecosystems
As the year-end approaches, seasonal memecoin trading activity has begun to resurface. Assets characterized by lightweight narratives and strong liquidity once again demonstrated their volatility-driven appeal. On HTX, several memecoins recorded notable gains, supported by efficient execution and deep liquidity that enabled users to capture short-term opportunities.
● DONKEY: +21%, a BSC-based memecoin with robust community engagement. The project originates from a social media post by Binance founder CZ, in which he referred to himself as a donkey. In Chinese culture, the donkey is seen as a symbol of hard work and diligence, representing those who work tirelessly.
● MYRO (Myro): +29%, a Solana-based memecoin. Named after Myro, the dog of Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, the project pays tribute to both its namesake and the broader crypto community’s enduring affinity for dog-themed narratives.
● HIPPO (sudeng): +33%, a memecoin within the SUI ecosystem. Created by community supporters to celebrate Sudeng, widely regarded as “the world’s cutest hippo,” the project has adopted a community-driven governance approach and donates part of its proceeds to global wildlife initiatives.
Multi-Sector Recovery Including DeFi and Layer 1 Ecosystems
Beyond headline narratives, a broader rally across DeFi and Layer 1 assets suggests improving incremental capital inflows and the potential continuation of a year-end market trend.
● 0G (Zero Gravity): +38%, positioned at the intersection of DeFi and AI. As a decentralized operating system for AI applications and blockchain, Zero Gravity coordinates hardware resources such as storage and computation alongside software assets including data and models, enabling the scalable handling of complex AI workloads.
● SPK (Spark): +17%, supported by renewed capital inflows and improving protocol expectations. Spark operates as an on-chain capital allocator, currently deploying $3.86 billion across the DeFi, CeFi, and RWA sectors. Its automated, market-responsive allocation framework enhances capital efficiency while maintaining a conservative risk profile.
● XPL (Plasma): + 25%, a Layer 1 payment infrastructure project. Plasma is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed for high-throughput, low-cost global stablecoin payments. As ecosystem activity expands, traffic and usage expectations have continued to support price strength.
Seize Early-Stage Opportunities as HTX Captures Emerging Wealth Effects
As market conditions stabilize, sector differentiation remains pronounced. Selecting the right trading venue, featuring forward-looking asset reserves and deep liquidity, has become increasingly critical for users seeking opportunities in the new market cycle. Across this week’s top-performing assets, HTX had already enabled trading access at their early stages, allowing users to grasp more entry points.
Through disciplined listing strategies and a robust trading ecosystem, HTX continues to enhance users’ ability to capture opportunities efficiently amid complex market dynamics. Looking ahead, HTX will continue to evolve its platform strategy in line with market trends, user demand, and cycle-driven shifts, expanding high-quality asset coverage and deepening liquidity. More market insights and emerging opportunities are available on HTX.
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The post first appeared on HTX Square.
