Last week, Bitcoin extended its rebound, briefly breaking past $87,000, a new high since January, driven by spot ETF inflows and concentrated short liquidations, before consolidating around the $84,000 level. During this period of sideways consolidation, capital began rotating into mid- and small-cap assets, pushing the Altcoin Season Index to its highest level in more than three months. According to HTX platform data, from September 21 to 27, various sectors including AI, L1, DeFi, and memecoins saw robust gains, with PHA leading the weekly gainers due to an 83% surge.
AI: PHA and GRASS Lead Gains as AI Infrastructure Attracts Attention
The two top-performing assets provide foundational support for AI applications from the computing power and data perspectives, respectively.
● PHA (+83%): Phala Network is a confidential computing network tailored for AI, utilizing Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to run AI inference tasks. Data and models remain invisible to node operators during computation, making it ideal for privacy-sensitive AI use cases.
● GRASS (+71%): Grass is a decentralized data network on Solana. Users contribute by sharing idle bandwidth to participate in public webpage data scraping, which is then utilized for AI model training. The platform currently boasts over 3 million active node runners.
L1: SEI Rises on ETF Filing Progress as SUI Follows Suit
On September 21, the day Bitcoin broke past $85,000, capital clearly flowed into large-cap public blockchain assets, with both SEI and SUI recording substantial surges.
● SEI (+51%): Sei is a high-performance EVM-compatible public blockchain optimized for trading scenarios. On September 21, Canary Capital submitted a second S-1 amendment for a staked SEI ETF to the SEC. The fund will hold spot SEI, of which approximately 90% will participate in staking, with BitGo acting as the sole custodian, slated for listing on Cboe BZX. SEI surged over 30% in a single day following the announcement.
● SUI (+46%): Sui is a high-performance public blockchain based on the Move language, featuring programmable transaction blocks that execute multi-step operations in a single transaction. CME launched SUI futures this May, and its native Bitcoin collateral protocol Hashi is currently in testnet. On September 21, SUI briefly claimed the top spot for single-day gains among top-30 assets by market capitalization.
DeFi: ONDO and UNI Score Traditional Finance Milestones
● ONDO (+24%): On September 24, Ondo Finance launched Intelligent Portfolios, issuing three on-chain tokens built on BlackRock model strategies. Each token corresponds to a diversified portfolio of tokenized stocks and ETFs, allowing eligible users to mint or redeem in a single transaction. Trading volume for ONDO expanded significantly following the announcement, propelling the broader tokenized asset sector upward.
● UNI (+39%): On September 22, CME Group announced plans to launch UNI futures on October 19, featuring standard contracts of 10,000 UNI and micro contracts of 1,000 UNI, pending regulatory review. If successfully launched, UNI will become the first mainstream decentralized exchange token to enter CME futures, opening an additional regulated participation channel for institutional investors.
● BTW (+62%): Bitway Ledger is a Bitcoin-compatible public blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. It features a native Bitcoin bridge operated by validators, alongside native BTC lending settled via Discreet Log Contracts (DLCs). BTW hit an all-time high on September 21.
● WIN (+17%): WINkLink is TRON’s first comprehensive oracle network, providing price feeds, verifiable random functions, and other data services for on-chain DeFi applications.
BSC Memecoins: MUBARAK and MARSCOIN Rise in Tandem
Between September 22 and 23, multiple BSC memecoins surged simultaneously, displaying strong intra-sector correlation.
● MUBARAK (+70%): Born on BNB Chain’s memecoin launchpad Four.meme, MUBARAK gained prominence after a retweet by CZ, establishing itself as a highly recognizable asset within the BSC memecoin sector.
● MARSCOIN (+36%): MarsCoin is a memecoin backed by tokenized stocks in its liquidity pool. Holders receive on-chain stock token dividends proportional to their holdings. It represents the emerging “crypto-stock memecoin” trend on BSC.
Memecoin prices are heavily dependent on community sentiment, exhibiting volatility far exceeding that of mainstream assets. Following this rally, the sector experienced a sharp correction, with MUBARAK retracing over 40% from its intraday highs. Participants are advised to thoroughly assess the associated risks.
Institutional Channels Broaden, Market Drivers Diversifying
Last week’s gainer list showcased two starkly contrasting upward drivers. SEI and UNI each made progress through the ETF and CME futures routes, respectively, while ONDO brought BlackRock’s model investment strategies on-chain. The relevant assets saw price rallies within one to two days of the announcements. The BSC memecoin sector, by contrast, was driven primarily by market sentiment, with faster-moving rallies and more pronounced pullbacks. For traders, these two types of market drivers coexisted in the same week, making it important to stay up to date with the latest developments while understanding the distinct volatility characteristics of different assets.
HTX will continue to track the latest developments across different sectors and keep users informed of relevant asset trends, while prioritizing security and compliance to provide a stable and reliable trading environment.
The post first appeared on HTX Square.
