In the past week, the cryptocurrency market has been undergoing a silent yet strong transformation. As Bitcoin's price fluctuates and adjusts, funds have quietly accelerated their flow into the altcoin sector—ranging from mainstream narratives to niche tracks, multiple segments have seen unexpected gains. Data shows that while star projects lead the charge, structural catch-up is spreading, pushing the entire market into a "blooming everywhere" trend.
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Google Trends data shows that the search popularity for "Altcoin" has reached a five-year high, and the search volume for "Ethereum" has hit a two-year peak. The altcoin season in the virtual currency market is "ready to go": who will become the next hot spot to ignite the market?
Meanwhile, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies globally has risen to $4 trillion, with the altcoin sector performing significantly better than Bitcoin (the data below is as of August 14, Eastern Time, at the close of U.S. stocks): Popular altcoins
Ethereum has risen 79% in the past 90 days, while Bitcoin has only increased by 14% during the same period.
The Altcoin Season Index has risen from 29 a month ago to 40.
In the first half of the year, the U.S. has received 31 applications for altcoin spot ETFs, covering mainstream public chains and ecosystem tokens such as SUI, SOL, XRP, LTC, DOGE, ADA, DOT, HBAR, AVAX, etc.
The participation of ETFs and corporate treasuries is changing the supply-demand structure:
The Ethereum spot ETF alone recorded a net inflow of $2.3 billion in three days, equivalent to 500,000 ETH.
Corporate treasuries are diversifying their allocations, with Ethereum, Solana, and Chainlink being held in large amounts and staked for returns.
DeFi's total locked value (TVL) has returned to $96.9 billion, approaching the historical high of 2021.
This pattern of resonance between funds and narratives lays a solid foundation for the comprehensive rotation of altcoins.
Meme sector: Emotion-driven explosive power
In this structural rotation, PENGU, SPX, and AERO have performed particularly well, representing three main lines of the current altcoin market: Meme narratives, technical pattern trading, and platform entry dividends.
PENGU: Transformation from Meme to financial product
PENGU is essentially a meme coin centered around a penguin image, but it has gained higher legitimacy through financial innovations. Meme sector: Emotion-driven explosive power
In March, Canary Capital submitted an ETF application that includes PENGU spot, planning to allocate over 80% of funds to the token itself, with the remaining portion holding Pudgy Penguins NFTs. This is the first time NFT IP has been packaged with a crypto token into an ETF product, greatly enhancing PENGU's visibility among institutional investors.
Online and offline exposure has simultaneously boosted its popularity. In early August, the trading volume of PENGU on the South Korean exchange Upbit briefly surpassed that of Dogecoin, Coinbase changed its official social media avatar to Pudgy Penguins NFT, and Robinhood also listed this coin.
On the technical side, PENGU broke through a descending trend channel while increasing in volume, providing an entry signal for short-term funds. This combination of "cultural IP × ETF expectations × technical breakthroughs" gives PENGU a high elasticity for price increases.
SPX6900: Capital flow guided by technical aspects
Compared to PENGU, which is more emotionally driven, SPX's rise has a more rational support from strategic trading. It uses "parodying the S&P 500 index" as its IP, and its name carries financial connotations.
On the daily chart, it has formed a classic "cup and handle" pattern—with a neckline at $1.74; once it breaks upward, it will form a technical target of $2.28–$2.88. This pattern is highly attractive to technical traders.
Meanwhile, the SPX community is highly active, with very efficient fund rotation—holders agilely reallocate funds into new presale projects like Pepe Dollar after taking profits, creating high-frequency fund transmission and interception.
The explosion of SPX is not only the result of technical patterns but also a reflection of the synergy of Meme × trading momentum × community activity.
AERO: Value amplifier of platform entry
AERO's upward momentum is highly practical. As the core decentralized exchange (DEX) token on the Base chain, it welcomed significant good news in early August—being integrated into the Coinbase App, allowing one-click buying and selling without redirection. This feature enables millions of trading users to directly access liquidity pools on the chain. Within a week, AERO's trading volume surpassed a six-month high, and its price rose over 43%. Meanwhile, trading activity on the Base chain surged, with Aerodrome becoming a "fund turnaround point."
This shows that "platform entry" can effectively translate into on-chain buying and selling behavior, which is a key node for driving price diffusion and explosion.
Highlights of structural catch-up in other sectors
Other sectors have also seen structural trends, with funds gradually penetrating more segments:
L2 / Scaling sector
Representative projects like MNT (+49.06%) and ARB (+30.52%) have benefited from the resurgence of activity in the Ethereum ecosystem and increased on-chain trading volume, reactivating the valuation logic of layer two networks. As users' demand for low fees and high throughput continues to strengthen, L2 is not only a performance optimization solution but also the launch pad for various new protocols.
DeFi protocol sector
Uniswap (+76.37%) continues to hold a core position in decentralized liquidity, with cross-chain aggregation and increased fee income being the main reasons.
FORM (+35%) has reduced the complexity of operations for retail investors through "portfolio strategy management," while PENDLE (+34.89%)'s "yield splitting" products bridge fixed income and derivatives, meeting the diverse needs of institutions and advanced traders.
Infrastructure sector
LINK (+40.46%), KAIA (+31.93%), and XDC (+20.19%) represent the three demands of "oracles," "cross-chain infrastructure," and "enterprise chains," continuously generating rigid use cases.
Payment chain sector
BCH (+48.27%), XLM (+44.49%), and TRX (+31.18%) have seen a revival in the context of cross-border payments and stablecoin transfers.
Summary
The current rotation trend makes the entire market resemble a multi-level chess game: the main sectors continue to attract attention, but other squares on the board are also quietly lighting up. Whether it is long-term stable infrastructure or short-term explosive concept coins, they all provide different risk preference options for funds.
In the future, the differentiation of the market may become more pronounced—some assets will continue to rise due to the overlap of narratives, funds, and fundamentals, while others will quickly recede in the absence of sustained driving forces. For investors, the real challenge is not finding coins that are rising, but judging how long they can continue to rise and when to exit.