The crypto market is entering a new phase of structural momentum. Over the past week (May 4–May 10), Bitcoin reclaimed the $80,000 mark, briefly hitting its highest level since January 2026. Meanwhile, driven by continuous spot ETF inflows and improved macro liquidity, Ethereum and major altcoins have shown a clear catch-up trend. Overall market sentiment has shifted from a previously defensive, wait-and-see stance to more active long positioning.
According to data from the HTX platform, the TON ecosystem and the privacy sector delivered particularly strong performances over the past week. Notably, TON rose by 104%, while ZEC climbed by 80%. From a market structure perspective, this week’s performance is no longer driven merely by sentiment, but rather by capital positioning around future core narratives.
TON Ecosystem Heats Up as the Web2 Traffic Gateway Narrative Is Repriced
The sector attracting the most market attention this week was undoubtedly the TON ecosystem. As Telegram continues to push forward with on-chain payments, Mini Apps, and Web3 ecosystem integration, TON is gradually evolving from a “social public chain” into a true super-traffic gateway. Compared to traditional public chains that rely on external user acquisition, TON’s greatest advantage lies in the massive Telegram user base behind it. This has led the market to begin repricing the long-term value of the TON ecosystem.
● TON (TONCOIN): Rose 104% this week, becoming one of the standout assets of this market cycle. TON is a Layer 1 blockchain deeply integrated with Telegram and built on a PoS consensus mechanism. The market generally believes that TON’s core competitiveness lies in its innate ability to connect Web2 and Web3.
● BLUM (Blum): Rose 38% this week, an application within the TON ecosystem that has seen a continuous increase in community attention.Blum is a hybrid exchange that provides universal token access through gamification within a Telegram Mini App. As TON’s ecosystem gains popularity, application-layer projects such as Blum are increasingly attracting capital.
HTX has simultaneously launched the “Spot Trading Carnival” event, featuring popular assets such as TON, ONDO, and SOL. From now until May 18 at 10:00 (UTC), users who participate in spot and grid trading can share a 30,000 USDT prize pool. New users who sign up can also receive a 5 USDT Spot Grid Trial Bonus. This event further boosts trading activity in the TON ecosystem.
Privacy Sector Surges, ZEC Reclaims Market Spotlight
The privacy sector became another core theme this week. With the arrival of the AI era, issues surrounding data privacy, on-chain anonymity, and information security are once again coming into focus in the market, drawing renewed capital to this foundational area of demand. Notably, the recent growth in privacy assets correlates closely with AI development. As AI’s data processing capabilities expand, users’ needs for data ownership, privacy, and anonymous interactions are rapidly increasing. In a future of deep AI-blockchain integration, privacy technology could become a key infrastructure component.
● ZEC (Zcash): Rose 80% this week, becoming the leading asset in the privacy sector. As one of the most representative privacy tokens in the industry, ZEC has long been regarded as an important project for the practical application of anonymity technology. ZEC’s rally is backed by a market re-evaluation of the value of anonymity technology.
● FHE (Mind Network): Rose 68%. Mind Network is developing HTTPZ, a next-generation zero-trust internet protocol. Using fully homomorphic encryption, it enables quantum resistance, fully encrypted data transmission, and AI computation.
● DASH: Up 61%. Asan open-source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency offering instant and anonymous transactions as well as alternative currency functionality. The privacy sector is exhibiting clear correlated performance.
HTX has also launched the “Hot Token Spot Trading Carnival“, featuring XMR, DASH, ZEC, FHE, and other popular privacy assets. From now until May 16 at 10:00 (UTC), users trading designated spot assets can share a 50,000 USDT prize pool, further boosting market attention and trading activity in the privacy sector.
DeFi Continues to Recover as the Institutionalized Finance Narrative Picks Up Steam Again
Furthermore, the DeFi sector maintained high activity this week. Overall, the DeFi sector is gradually recovering from its previous sluggish phase. “Real Yield”, “On-chain Cash Flow”, and “Institutional Participation” have become important keywords for this round of capital reallocation.
● LAYER (Solayer): Rose 54%. Solayer is the first blockchain accelerated by hardware, offloading parts of the blockchain components to programmable chips. It aims to achieve transaction processing speeds of over one million per second (1MM+ TPS) and 100 Gbps+ network bandwidth, enabling near-zero latency use cases.
● ONDO (Ondo Finance): Increased 35%. As a representative project of RWA (Real World Assets), ONDO has recently continued to attract capital attention. The market generally believes that as traditional financial institutions accelerate their exploration of on-chain asset issuance and stable-yield products, RWA will become a crucial bridge connecting traditional finance and the crypto market.
AI Sector Momentum Continues, PAYAI Emerges as the Top Performer
The AI sector has transitioned from early “concept speculation” to a stage emphasizing practical application and innovation competition. Areas such as AI agents, on-chain AI collaboration, computing power networks, and AI payments are becoming key focal points for the market.
● PAYAI (PayAI Network): Became the strongest-performing asset on the platform this week with a 248% weekly increase. PayAI is an open-source, decentralized AI agent marketplace—where agents are employed 24/7 and work for one another. It is built on ElizaOS, libp2p, IPFS, and Solana.
● SAHARA (Sahara AI): Achieved a weekly gain of 23%. Sahara AI is the first AI-native, full-stack blockchain platform, where anyone can create, contribute to, and monetize AI development, making the future of AI more accessible, equitable, and open to all. As a major project in the AI infrastructure sector, SAHARA’s popularity has remained strong recently.
Structural Market Trends Deepen, Entering the “Mainline Rotation” Phase
Overall, the most significant characteristic of the market this week is that capital has begun to concentrate around “core narratives”. The TON ecosystem represents Web3 traffic gateway logic, the privacy sector addresses data security needs in the AI era, DeFi aligns with the institutional finance trend, and AI continues to serve as the long-term growth mainline. The simultaneous activity across multiple directions signifies that the market is transitioning from the previous emotional recovery phase into a deeper structural market phase.
As a leading global digital asset trading platform, HTX is committed to discovering high-quality assets with long-term potential worldwide. Through continuous new listings and ecosystem building, HTX provides users with more diversified investment options. In today’s fast-paced, narrative-driven crypto market, HTX will continue to enhance its ability to identify premium assets, helping users capitalize on the next wave of growth opportunities.
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The post first appeared on HTX Square.
