Last week, the crypto market ended months of stagnation, with August 19 marking a turning point. On that day, U.S. President Trump convened a meeting at the White House with representatives from crypto businesses, regulatory agencies, and traditional finance, publicly urging Congress to advance digital asset legislation; the U.S. Treasury announced that it would at least double the single-operation liquidity support repurchase operation cap on long-term government bonds, raising it from $2 billion to $4 billion. Policy expectations and liquidity expectations improved simultaneously, with the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasuries dropping by about 9 basis points that day, and risk assets strengthened accordingly, with Bitcoin rising over 8% within 12 hours.

Over the week, Bitcoin increased by about 22%, breaking through the long-maintained range of $60,000 to $70,000; from August 19 to 22, the total market capitalization of crypto assets excluding Bitcoin increased by about $215 billion, returning above $1 trillion. According to data from Huobi HTX platform, from August 17 to 23, multiple asset tracks on the platform strengthened simultaneously, with the Meme and DeFi sectors notably concentrated.

Meme: TRUMP, TUT, PEPE All Rise

The Meme sector's elasticity was once again demonstrated in this market round. These assets are typically used by traders as tools for expressing risk appetite, often outperforming mainstream assets during periods of quick market sentiment recovery.

• TRUMP: This week, it rose by 89%. TRUMP is a Meme asset related to the U.S. President, attracting significant attention during a week of concentrated policy news.
• TUT (Tutorial): This week, it rose by 75%. TUT was issued on the BNB Chain's Meme platform Four.meme, originating from a teaching demonstration on token issuance.
• PEPE: This week, it rose by 56%. PEPE is one of the Meme assets with a long market existence and good liquidity, usually reacting first when the sector's market starts.
• PUMP: This week, it rose by 88%. Pump.fun is the Meme issuance platform of the Solana ecosystem, and its rise is synchronized with the recovery of the Meme sector.

It is important to note that the price of Meme assets lacks predictable patterns, with retracement speeds comparable to rising speeds, and participants should be fully aware of the associated risks.

DeFi: Yield Incentive Activities Drive PENDLE, AAVE, MORPHO

The strengthening of the DeFi sector last week had specific business backgrounds. On August 17, Pendle raised the cap of its PT Looping incentive program to $15 million and added two asset pools, with PT-USD3 deployed on Morpho and PT-USDG deployed simultaneously on Aave and Morpho, with the incentive window continuing until August 27. This plan connects the yield strategies of the three protocols directly, attracting funding attention to the assets during the same period.

• PENDLE: This week, it rose by 48%. Pendle's core mechanism is to separate the principal and yield of interest-bearing assets for trade, and PT Looping provides leveraged fixed-income strategies based on this.
• AAVE: This week, it rose by 22%. Aave is currently the largest decentralized lending protocol, providing lending layer support for the above strategies.
• MORPHO: This week, it rose by 20%. Morpho is known for its modular lending market design, allowing separate risk parameters to be configured for fixed-term principal tokens.

ZEC, XRP Strengthen, Privacy Assets Receive Independent Drive

• ZEC: This week, it rose by 66%. Zcash's performance last week was independently driven beyond the overall market movement. On August 18, Grayscale submitted Amendment No. 4 of S-3 Registration Statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, promoting the conversion of its Zcash trust into a spot ETF, intended for listing on NYSE Arca. The document also disclosed that the parent company Digital Currency Group's subsidiary is in non-binding discussions to acquire about 200,000 ZEC. After the announcement, ZEC rose consecutively, with prices breaking $800 on August 22, reaching a new high since 2018.

The situation for privacy assets in 2026 has changed compared to the past. After the compliance framework has gradually clarified, the application scenarios for privacy technology shifted from regulatory avoidance to data protection itself, with institutional attitudes toward this direction changing accordingly.

• XRP: This week, it rose by 49%. As a mainstream asset with a high market cap, XRP ranked among the front-runners in last week’s widespread market rally, reflecting a reallocation of funds back into leading assets following improved policy expectations.

Conclusion

Last week's surge covered multiple categories from mainstream assets to Meme, significantly different from the previous months' partial rotation pattern. The simultaneous improvement in regulatory and liquidity expectations on the same day marked the direct starting point of this market round, with funds subsequently spreading from top assets to other sectors, followed by DeFi, privacy, and Meme.

However, there are still disputes about the sustainability of this rebound in the market. Although Bitcoin has broken through this year’s fluctuation range, it is still far from the peak at the beginning of 2026. Whether institutional funds can return stably and whether policy advancements can be realized will require a longer time to verify. After the overall increase during the launch phase of the market, differentiation between assets typically reappears. Huobi HTX will continue to monitor market dynamics and the developments of various sectors, timely following up on asset information to provide users with a stable trading environment and service support.