Summary

1. This week BTC and ETH fell 7.58% and 9.81% respectively, as cryptocurrencies entered an adjustment period after a big rally.
2. US retail sales in July increased 0.5% month-over-month, marking the second consecutive month of significant growth.
3. Wormhole plans to acquire Stargate at a high price, requesting suspension of the “LayerZero acquiring STG” vote.
4. MANTRA proposes to abolish ERC20 OM, aiming to adjust token inflation rate to 8%.
5. Bitlayer’s active addresses grew 118% in the past 7 days, with TVL ranking first in the BTC L2 sector.
6. CeFi outstanding loans reached $17.78 billion, a 14.66% increase quarter-over-quarter.

Market Overview

Market Commentary

• BTC Market — BTC fell 7.58% this week. At the beginning of the week, BTC price was above $120,000, but has now dropped to $114,000. This decline was mainly influenced by macroeconomic concerns, especially higher-than-expected inflation data weakening market expectations for Fed rate cuts. Technical analysis shows BTC broke below the rising wedge pattern, indicating weakened short-term momentum. If support at $112,000 fails, it may further test $110,000.
• ETH Market — ETH fell 9.81% this week. After successfully breaking the $4,000 psychological barrier, it briefly touched a high of $4,537. Although it subsequently fell back to around $4,200 due to ETF fund outflows and institutional profit-taking, the overall uptrend remains intact. With ETH stabilizing around $4,000, there’s still opportunity for further gains towards all-time highs.
• Altcoins — Mainstream altcoins showed an overall downward trend this week. In the past 7 days, the median decline for the top 100 cryptocurrency tokens by market cap was 10.81%. However, AB and MNT rose over 10%, becoming the market’s focus.
• Macroeconomics — US retail sales in July increased 0.5% month-over-month, the second consecutive month of significant growth, up 3.9% year-over-year. June data was revised sharply upward to 0.9%. Inflation-adjusted real retail sales grew 1.2% year-over-year, marking the tenth consecutive month of positive growth, indicating strong consumer spending resilience.
• Stablecoins — The total stablecoin market cap is currently $287.8 billion, with continuous capital inflows.
• Gas Fees — Ethereum network Gas fees showed a downward trend this week, with the average Gas fee on August 21 at 0.226 Gwei.

Trending Sectors

This week mainstream cryptocurrencies continued to rise, market sentiment remained optimistic, and most major altcoin sectors increased. According to Coingecko data, oracle, chain abstraction, and RWA protocol sectors all showed significant increases this week, rising 7.0%, 4.0%, and 3.2% respectively over the past 7 days.

Oracle

Oracles securely and reliably bring off-chain data into blockchain smart contracts, connecting real-world information with decentralized applications. They provide a trusted data foundation for DeFi, prediction markets and other digital economy scenarios, enhancing contract execution automation and transparency. — This sector rose 39.3% over the past 7 days, with Api3 up 84.0% and Chainlink up 8.3%.

Chain Abstraction

Chain abstraction unifies underlying interfaces of different blockchains, allowing developers to build decentralized applications without concern for chain differences, enabling efficient interoperability in multi-chain environments. Its core value lies in lowering development barriers, enhancing application scalability, and providing a technical foundation for cross-chain asset and data flow. — This sector rose 38.3% over the past 7 days, with Cycle Network and Rujira up 74.1% and 57.4% respectively.

RWA Protocols

RWA protocols function to digitally transform real-world assets. They legally confirm, custody, and value assets off-chain, then map asset income rights as tokens on the blockchain. This allows these tokenized assets to integrate into the DeFi ecosystem for lending, trading, or composing more complex financial products. — This sector rose 3.2% over the past 7 days, with Swarm Markets and Maple up 70.8% and 71.4% respectively.

Focus of the Week

Wormhole Plans High-Priced Acquisition of Stargate, Requests Suspension of “LayerZero Acquiring STG” Vote

According to an announcement from the Wormhole Foundation, LayerZero proposed to acquire Stargate (STG) for about $110 million in ZRO, but Wormhole believes this offer undervalues Stargate’s protocol assets and growth. Stargate’s July bridge volume reached $4 billion, a 10-fold year-over-year increase, with TVL at $345 million and projected annual revenue of $2 million. Wormhole plans to submit a higher offer and requests a 5-working-day suspension of the current Snapshot vote to refine the bidding process and protect STG holders’ interests.

Stargate’s strong growth highlights its core competitiveness and market potential in the cross-chain bridging sector. While LayerZero’s acquisition offer is attractive, Wormhole’s opposition and higher bid plan reflect Stargate’s strategic value as a quality asset, potentially sparking fierce competition for key infrastructure in the DeFi space. This event not only underscores the importance of cross-chain protocols in the blockchain ecosystem but also indicates that market valuation expectations for high-quality DeFi projects are rapidly increasing.

MANTRA Proposes to Abolish ERC20 OM, Aims to Adjust Token Inflation Rate to 8%

MANTRA Chain is proposing to abolish the ERC20 version of the OM token, planning to fully migrate it to MANTRA Chain as the sole native base. This proposal aims to drive ecosystem development by consolidating liquidity, adjusting token inflation rate to 8%, setting a supply cap of 2.5 billion OM, and enhancing network security. Since MANTRA Chain’s mainnet launch, about 250 million OM have been migrated. If the proposal passes, ERC20 OM tokens will officially cease on January 15, 2026, with unmigrated ERC20 OM tokens considered abandoned.

MANTRA Chain’s proposal to abolish the ERC20 version of OM tokens and fully migrate them to their own chain marks an important transformation in the project’s decentralized ecosystem building. This move, by integrating liquidity, setting a 2.5 billion OM supply cap, and adjusting inflation rate to 8%, aims to optimize the token economic model and enhance network security, demonstrating MANTRA Chain’s strategic consideration for long-term sustainable development.

Jito Governance Forum Releases JIP-25 and JIP-XX Proposals

The Jito governance forum has announced JIP-25 and JIP-XX proposals. JIP-25 proposes expanding the number of validators from 200 to 400, removing super-optimization of voting credits, with ranking based on commission, MEV commission, validator age, and voting credits in descending order. JIP-XX allows JitoSOL stakers to express delegation preferences to multiple eligible validators, with JitoSOL in DeFi applications allocated to compliant DeFi validators, and remaining stakes distributed according to the JIP-25 scheme. Both proposals are expected to enhance JitoSOL liquidity and DeFi application scale.

The new governance proposals put forward by the Jito community aim to drive the ecosystem towards a healthier, more decentralized direction by optimizing validator selection and capital allocation mechanisms. On one hand, it plans to attract more validators and reform ranking rules to break the internal competition based on a single metric, encouraging diversified development. On the other hand, it allows stakers to autonomously express delegation preferences for the first time, which will improve capital efficiency and strengthen user sovereignty. These changes are expected to significantly enhance JitoSOL’s liquidity foundation and pave the way for its widespread application in the DeFi sector.

Key Market Data Highlights

Bitlayer Active Addresses Grow 118% in Past 7 Days, TVL Ranking Rises to Top of BTC L2 Sector

According to DeFiLlama data, the TVL of Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure project Bitlayer has exceeded $430 million, successfully jumping to the top position among Bitcoin layer 2 ecosystem projects. Meanwhile, according to Nansen data, Bitlayer’s on-chain active addresses surged by 118% over the past 7 days, reaching 27,700, the highest growth rate among mainstream public chains.

The key factor driving rapid growth in activity is that Bitlayer’s recently issued YBTC series assets have officially launched and been deployed across multiple chain ecosystems including BSC, Sui, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Plume. As YBTC minting and staking activities increase across multiple protocols, it further stimulates on-chain interaction demands and capital inflows.

CeFi Outstanding Loans Reach $17.78 Billion, Growing 14.66% Quarter-over-Quarter

According to unfolded data, as of June 30, centralized finance (CeFi) outstanding loans have risen to $17.78 billion. This figure increased by $2.27 billion from the previous quarter, a 14.66% quarter-over-quarter growth; compared to the bear market low of $7.18 billion in Q4 2023, it has achieved a significant 147.5% increase. Looking at the lender landscape, Tether, Nexo, and Galaxy rank in the top three, occupying the core share of the CeFi lending market.

The continued expansion of CeFi lending scale reflects a clear resurgence in market demand for leverage and liquidity. On one hand, improved macro market sentiment and stabilized crypto asset prices have provided fertile ground for lending demand; on the other hand, increased compliance and transparency in stablecoin, collateral management, and liquidation mechanisms by leading institutions have also enhanced user trust in CeFi lending platforms.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Spot ETFs See Large Net Outflows Recently, Market Under Pressure

According to SoSoValue data, on August 19 Eastern Time, mainstream cryptocurrency spot ETFs experienced significant capital outflows. Ethereum spot ETFs saw a single-day net outflow of $430 million, the second-highest in history; Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a net outflow of $523 million, marking the third consecutive day of capital withdrawal.

For Ethereum, Fidelity’s ETF FETH saw a single-day net outflow of $156 million, followed closely by Grayscale’s ETF ETHE with a net outflow of $122 million. Nevertheless, Ethereum spot ETFs still have a historical cumulative net inflow of $12.042 billion, with current total assets under management (AUM) at $25.93 billion, accounting for 5.34% of ETH’s total market cap.

For Bitcoin, Fidelity’s ETF FBTC saw a net outflow of $247 million on that day, while Grayscale’s ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $116 million. Currently, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $146.184 billion, with a historical cumulative net inflow of $54.329 billion, accounting for 6.47% of BTC’s total market cap.

The recent large net outflows from Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs highlight the rise in market risk aversion sentiment. Especially for Ethereum, recording the second-highest single-day outflow in history shows investors’ cautious attitude amid short-term price fluctuations and macroeconomic uncertainties. Bitcoin’s consecutive three days of capital withdrawal indicate that top-tier funds are taking profits or adjusting positions at this stage. However, looking at long-term data, the cumulative net inflows for both major crypto asset ETFs remain substantial, exceeding $54.3 billion (BTC) and $12 billion (ETH) respectively, indicating that institutional capital remains deeply involved. The short-term capital outflow is more likely to reflect a sentiment correction after running at high levels, rather than a reversal of long-term trends.

Funding Weekly Recap

According to RootData, from August 15 to August 21, 2025, a total of 13 crypto and related projects announced completed funding or acquisitions, covering multiple sectors including DeFi, AI, CeFi, reflecting the market’s continued investment and focus on financial services and user ecosystem expansion. Here’s a brief introduction to the top three projects by funding scale this week:

Galaxy Digital

Announced on August 15 the completion of $1.4 billion in project funding to support the development of its Helios data center campus in West Texas.

Galaxy Digital is a technology-driven financial services and investment management company providing a full suite of financial solutions across the digital asset ecosystem for institutional and direct clients. The company operates five synergistic business lines: Trading, Asset Management, Principal Investments, Investment Banking, and Mining.

IVIX

Announced on August 18 the completion of a $60 million Series B funding round, led by OGVP.

IVIX is a blockchain-based Web3 project focused on detecting financial crime in the digital age and bridging the tax gap through transparent data tracking and decentralized compliance solutions.

Almanak

Announced on August 16 the completion of $8.45 million in funding, with participation from Delphi Labs, HashKey Capital, BanklessVC, NEAR Foundation, and others.

Almanak is a Web3 simulation infrastructure that uses agent-based models to optimize DeFi and gaming projects. Almanak’s goal is to maximize the profitability of crypto protocols while ensuring economic security.

Next Week to Watch

Token Unlocks

According to Tokenomist, several major token unlocks are expected in the coming week (August 22–28, 2025). The top 3 are:

• HUMA: $11.91 million worth being unlocked, 21.8% of circulating supply.
• SOON: $11.10 million worth being unlocked, 17.5% of circulating supply.
• VENOM: $9.63 million worth being unlocked, 2.80% of circulating supply.
  
  
  References:

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/
• Farside Investors, https://farside.co.uk/btc/
• Coinglass, https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData
• jin10, https://rili.jin10.com/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/
• etherscan, https://etherscan.io/gastracker
• Coingecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories
• X, https://x.com/WormholeFdn/status/1958198131558080626
• X, https://x.com/MANTRA_Chain/status/1958136539265020006
• X, https://x.com/buffalu__/status/1958339386963321141
• X, https://x.com/MarcShawnBrown/status/1955507198814990404/photo/1
• DeFiLlama, https://defillama.com/chain/bitlayer
• X, https://x.com/cryptounfolded/status/1958334709575880866
• SoSoValue, https://sosovalue.com/zh/assets/etf/us-btc-spot
• Rootdata, https://www.rootdata.com/Fundraising
• Tokenomist, https://tokenomist.ai/

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Disclaimer
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