Crypto markets navigated a mixed macro backdrop over the past week, with escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East offset by softer-than-expected U.S. June CPI data that reinforced expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts. As Bitcoin remained range-bound and major cryptocurrencies struggled to establish directional momentum, capital increasingly rotated into higher-beta altcoins, fueling strong performances across several trending sectors.
According to HTX, the DeFi and AI sectors extended last week’s leadership and delivered another round of outsized gains. BANK surged by 447% to a new all-time high, while US followed last week’s near-doubling with another 115% weekly advance, highlighting the accelerating rotation across multiple narratives. Backed by a diversified pipeline of popular listings, HTX once again enabled users to capture opportunities across several of the market’s strongest-performing sectors.
DeFi Leads the Rally as BANK Hits Record High
DeFi emerged as the week’s dominant theme, with capital continuing to favor protocol-driven projects backed by real-world utility and institutional adoption.
BANK (Lorenzo Protocol): +447%, making it HTX’s top-performing asset of the week while reaching a new all-time high on July 19. Lorenzo Protocol is an institutional-grade on-chain asset management platform that tokenizes yield-generating investment strategies through On-Chain Traded Funds (OTFs). By unlocking native Bitcoin liquidity without requiring users to relinquish self-custody, the protocol offers Bitcoin holders access to on-chain yield opportunities. BANK saw a sharp surge in trading volume this week, attracting concentrated capital inflows amid the altcoin rotation.
DEXE (DeXe): +23%, reaching a record high on July 13. DeXe is an innovative decentralized asset management protocol for creating and governing DAOs in a meritocratic way. The token DEXE broke through long-term resistance after being listed on new exchanges, alongside record on-chain whale activity and an aggressive wave of short liquidations in derivatives markets that further amplified upside momentum.
LINK (Chainlink): +6.5% amid a series of ecosystem developments. Mantle announced the migration of its $2.5 billion Super Portal cross-chain infrastructure to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), while Aave integrated both CCIP and Chainlink Price Feeds into its newly launched Stable Vaults. Meanwhile, the number of non-empty Ethereum wallets holding LINK climbed to 900,000 for the first time, signaling the continued accumulation of long-term capital.
AI Momentum Continues as US Extends Two-Week Rally
AI remained one of the market’s strongest structural themes as the growing adoption of AI agents and autonomous on-chain applications sustained investor interest.
US (Talus Network): +115%, reaching a fresh all-time high on July 17. Following a 97% gain the previous week, the token continued its upward trajectory, making it one of the strongest-performing AI assets in the market. Built on the Sui blockchain, Talus Network provides decentralized infrastructure for AI agents through its Nexus framework, enabling autonomous execution, settlement, and decision-making on-chain. The US token powers AI workflow payments, staking, and protocol governance.
FUN (FUNToken): +20%. The FUNToken project continued evolving from a blockchain gaming platform into an integrated gaming-and-AI ecosystem. Its 2026-2027 roadmap, featuring a unified gaming platform and a personal AI agent economy, along with an ongoing token buyback-and-burn mechanism funded by platform revenue, has reinforced market attention.
Market Leadership Broadens Across Trending Narratives
Beyond DeFi and AI, strength expanded into several additional sectors, underscoring the increasingly broad-based nature of the current altcoin rally.
PUMP (Pump.fun | Solana Ecosystem): +34%. As the native token of Solana’s leading memecoin launchpad, PUMP faced a major unlock of approximately 82.5 billion tokens on July 12. While investors had anticipated significant selling pressure, the protocol’s ongoing revenue-funded buyback-and-burn program—which has already removed roughly 40% of the circulating supply—helped absorb the unlock smoothly. With the overhang cleared, capital quickly rotated back in, driving a sharp price rebound.
KAITO (InfoFi): +30%. Kaito operates an AI-powered InfoFi network that transforms fragmented Web3 information into actionable market intelligence by indexing large volumes of Web3 data. Following its strategic pivot into Kaito Studio and the attention economy earlier this year, the project has steadily regained market traction. Driven by capital inflows into the AI sector and on-chain whale accumulation, KAITO moved closer to new highs this week.
BTW (Bitway | BTCFi): +17%. Bitway is a Bitcoin-compatible PoS Layer 1 blockchain positioned as an “Internet Capital Gateway” for Bitcoin holders. It enables native BTC financing, lending, and enterprise applications, allowing Bitcoin liquidity to participate in on-chain finance without cross-chain bridges. The project’s seed round was backed by TRON DAO, YZi Labs, HTX Ventures, and other leading investors. Driven by the expanding BTCFi narrative, BTW gained steady momentum throughout the week.
Multi-Sector Rotation Continues as HTX Captures Emerging Alpha
Despite a mixed macro backdrop, the altcoin market showed clear sector rotation and momentum handoffs last week. DeFi assets led the rally, backed by institutional adoption and real-yield narratives. Meanwhile, AI stayed hot, and the SOL ecosystem, InfoFi, and BTCFi all posted strong gains, offering a steady stream of structural opportunities.
As a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, HTX continues to expand its asset lineup by identifying and listing high-potential assets across the industry’s fastest-growing sectors. Supported by a disciplined asset selection mechanism and ongoing operational capacity building, the platform helps users efficiently capture structural opportunities across the crypto market.
The post first appeared on HTX Square.
