Summary

1. This week, BTC declined by 1.77%, ETH rose by 5.57%, and major DeFi tokens posted average gains exceeding 10%.
2. Circle and Paxos jointly piloted new technology to enhance transparency and security in stablecoin payments.
3. Linea will conduct its TGE in September and launch a native ETH yield feature in October.
4. Aave Labs launched a new platform, Horizon, allowing institutions to borrow stablecoins using tokenized assets as collateral.
5. Institutional participation in Ethereum ETFs surged, with Goldman Sachs leading Wall Street with holdings exceeding $720 million.
6. Technology firms now hold over 20,000 BTC, reflecting a continued trend of corporate adoption.

Market Overview

Market Commentary

• BTC – This week, BTC fell 1.77%. After hitting a high of $124,497, BTC entered a sustained pullback, forming a clear downward channel. The current price hovers around $111,500, consolidating at low levels for several days. Overall, BTC remains in a weak consolidation phase. If it can hold the $111,000–$112,000 range, a short-term upward recovery toward the $114,000 resistance level may be possible.
• ETH – ETH gained 5.57% this week. After reaching a high of $4,956, ETH pulled back and currently trades around $4,518. The price shows high-level consolidation with downward pressure but has found solid support near $4,063, accompanied by a rebound on increased volume, indicating active defense by bulls. Overall, ETH remains in a moderately strong range-bound phase, with ongoing contention between buyers and sellers. Investors should monitor volume trends and whether the $4,500 key support holds.
• Altcoins – Major altcoins posted modest gains this week, with top DeFi tokens averaging over 10% growth. In the past seven days, among the top 100 market-cap cryptocurrencies, JTO rose 17.28%, RAY up 13.54%, and AAVE up 8.93%, drawing significant market attention.
• Macro Data – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered a key speech at the Jackson Hole Global Central Banking Conference, signaling a dovish stance, emphasizing employment risks, and suggesting potential rate cuts. The probability of a 25-basis-point Fed rate cut in September has significantly increased. Following his remarks, U.S. equities and gold surged, with Chinese concept stocks rising broadly.
• Stablecoins – The total stablecoin market capitalization currently stands at $291.9 billion, with USDC and USDE attracting strong market attention.
• Gas Fees – Ethereum network gas fees decreased this week. As of August 28, the average daily gas fee was 0.299 Gwei.

Trending Sectors

Most major altcoin sectors posted modest gains this week. According to Coingecko data, NFT project airdrop tokens, crypto-collateralized stablecoins, and liquid staking sectors all showed notable upward trends over the past seven days, with respective gains of 26.5%, 6.8%, and 5.7%.

NFT Project Airdrop Tokens

NFT project airdrop tokens are issued by NFT projects to incentivize community participation, promote the project, or reward early users. Unlike the NFTs themselves, these tokens are usually tradable, stakeable, or usable in governance on-chain, making them an integral part of the project ecosystem. — Over the past seven days, this sector rose 26.5%, with Loaded Lions up 60.8% and WANDER up 2.9%.

Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoins

Crypto-collateralized stablecoins are pegged to cryptocurrencies such as BTC or ETH and are minted through smart contracts or custody mechanisms. Their value is typically anchored to fiat currencies (e.g., USD) or other stable assets, aiming to maintain price stability while preserving decentralization. — This sector rose 6.8% over the past seven days, with JUST Stablecoin gaining 80%.

Liquid Staking

Liquid staking allows users to stake crypto assets (e.g., ETH, SOL) to participate in network validation and earn staking rewards while receiving derivative tokens that can be freely traded or transferred. This mechanism breaks the lock-up constraints of traditional staking and enhances capital liquidity. — This sector gained 5.7% over the past seven days, with Veno Finance up 103.5%.

Focus of the Week

Circle and Paxos Pilot New Technology to Enhance Stablecoin Payment Transparency and Security

Stablecoin issuers Circle Internet Group Inc. and Paxos Trust Co. are testing a new technology to ensure the security and verifiability of digital asset payments. They are collaborating with Bluprynt, a fintech startup founded by Georgetown Law professor Chris Brummer, leveraging blockchain and cryptography to provide issuer verification during stablecoin issuance. The technology enables each token to be traced back to a verified issuer, preventing forgery and impersonation at the source. Brummer stated that Bluprynt’s solution “provides provenance proof upfront, reduces operational complexity, and offers the transparency regulators and investors need,” helping to mitigate potential risks and financial losses.

This pilot marks a key step toward greater compliance and security in the stablecoin issuance and payment ecosystem. As stablecoins play an increasingly important role in global payments, DeFi, and cross-border settlements, issuer verification technology can enhance investor and regulator confidence while reducing fraud and counterfeiting risks. The initiative reflects the industry’s trend of balancing technological innovation with regulatory compliance and lays a foundation for broader stablecoin adoption.

Linea to Conduct TGE in September, Launch Native ETH Yield in October

Linea announced that it will initiate its Token Generation Event (TGE) in September 2025, with an initial valuation of approximately $2 billion, accompanied by a series of liquidity incentive programs aimed at boosting ecosystem TVL above $1.8 billion. Simultaneously, Linea will launch a 10-week “Linea Ignition” incentive plan and roll out native ETH yield functionality in October.

Currently, Linea is the top-ranked zkRollup by TVL, completing 283 million transactions and supporting 7 million wallet addresses. Its architecture is closely integrated with Ethereum, featuring ETH staking vaults, low-cost transactions, and a 20% fee burn mechanism. Token distribution allocates 85% for community and developer incentives, emphasizing a decentralized ecosystem orientation.

The TGE not only sets a $2 billion initial valuation but, combined with liquidity and yield incentives, anchors rapid capital expansion for the ecosystem. Its TVL target and native ETH yield feature aim to strengthen user capital stickiness, enhancing Linea’s competitive edge in the zkRollup sector. Given the intense L2 competition on Ethereum, Linea’s large-scale token and incentive release could drive short-term developer engagement and capital migration, adding a new variable to the L2 market landscape.

Aave Labs Launches Horizon, Enabling Institutions to Borrow Stablecoins Against Tokenized Assets

Aave Labs has launched Horizon, a platform designed to provide institutional investors with the ability to borrow stablecoins using tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as collateral. Initially, qualified institutions can leverage tokenized assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds or crypto-backed funds to borrow USDC, RLUSD, and GHO. The first supported assets include Superstate short-term U.S. Treasury funds, Circle Yield Fund, and Centrifuge’s tokenized Janus Henderson products.

Horizon marks Aave’s accelerated entry into the institutional RWA lending market. By integrating traditional financial assets like treasuries into DeFi collateral frameworks, Aave broadens stablecoin issuance and usage scenarios while providing institutions with short-term liquidity and yield management tools. This not only increases demand for stablecoins and liquidity for RWAs but also promotes deeper DeFi-TradFi integration. With expanded collateral coverage under a compliant framework, Horizon could become a key bridge for institutional DeFi adoption and a new growth curve for Aave.

Key Market Data Highlights

Institutional Investors Pour into Ethereum ETFs, Goldman Sachs Leads Wall Street with $720M Exposure

According to the latest 13F filings, Goldman Sachs currently holds $721 million in Ethereum spot ETF exposure, ranking first among global institutions and highlighting its strong focus and clear positioning in ETH assets. Following closely are market maker Jane Street with $190 million and multi-strategy hedge fund Millennium with $186 million. These figures indicate that Wall Street’s top-tier institutions have moved beyond exploratory strategies and are now actively allocating assets to Ethereum.

This reporting season also saw large banks, hedge funds, asset managers, quantitative trading firms, and pension funds emerging as Ethereum ETF participants. Unlike Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum ETFs emphasize technology and ecosystem value, attracting institutions with long-term growth perspectives. If regulatory conditions remain accommodative and Ethereum achieves a deflationary structure or improved on-chain yield mechanisms, ETH could increasingly be recognized as a “super cash-flow tech asset” and take on a more prominent role in institutional portfolios.

Whale Wallets Continue Accumulating in August; Major BTC and ETH Flows Remain Net Positive

According to Santiment data, since August, Bitcoin has seen 13 new addresses holding over 1,000 BTC, while Ethereum added 48 new addresses holding more than 10,000 ETH. Despite market price fluctuations, large holders (whales) continue to steadily increase their positions. Bitcoin has rebounded above 111,000 USDT, while Ethereum stands above 4,600 USDT, mirroring growth in whale wallets and suggesting active accumulation by major funds.

From a behavioral perspective, these large wallets typically have longer investment horizons and strategic intentions. An increase in their number often indicates positive market sentiment and optimism about mid- to long-term price trends. Continuous accumulation during high-level consolidation phases may reflect strong expectations for further upward movement. Notably, Ethereum’s growth outpaces Bitcoin, suggesting that ETH is receiving preferential attention from whales due to factors such as on-chain staking, ETF exposure growth, and positive ecosystem expectations.

Tech Institutions Hold Over 20,000 BTC; Corporate Entry Trend Accelerates

Data from River shows that multiple global tech companies now collectively hold over 20,000 BTC, reflecting growing institutional interest in crypto asset allocation. Notable holdings include Tesla and SpaceX with a combined 19,794 BTC, Figma with 845 BTC, Latin American e-commerce firm Mercado Libre with 570 BTC, and video platform Rumble with 211 BTC. The total market value of these holdings exceeds $2.2 billion, indicating Bitcoin is increasingly recognized as a strategic asset by mainstream enterprises.

This trend shows that Bitcoin is no longer just an investment for retail or crypto-native institutions; more tech companies view it as an inflation-resistant, censorship-resistant, globally transferable store of value. Although current holdings remain concentrated among a few leading companies, as market infrastructure matures and regulatory clarity improves, more publicly listed firms, startups, and large internet companies are expected to enter the space. Institutional Bitcoin allocation is becoming an increasingly significant medium- to long-term trend.

Funding Weekly Recap

According to RootData, between August 22–28, 2025, 16 crypto and related projects announced completed funding or acquisitions, spanning Bitcoin programmable layers, decentralized AI verification, and other sectors. Overall funding activity remains high, showing continued capital deployment into base protocols, AI applications, and asset tokenization. The top three projects by funding scale this week are:

DeFi Development Corp

Announced a $125 million equity raise on August 25 to implement its Solana-centric treasury accumulation strategy. The company focuses on expanding SOL treasury assets via a combination of spot purchases and discounted lockups, aiming to maximize Solana per-share holdings (SPS). All raised funds will be used to increase SOL assets, reinforcing its path as a high-leverage Solana treasury entity.

Hemi

Announced a $15 million raise on August 26 to advance its Bitcoin programmable layer development and ecosystem construction. Hemi is building a smart contract execution layer compatible with the Bitcoin mainnet, aiming to expand BTC on-chain programmability without compromising security. Funds will be used for protocol development, developer tools, and ecosystem incentive programs, pushing Bitcoin infrastructure toward a multifunctional application layer.

Swarm Network

Announced a $13 million raise on August 27 to accelerate core product development and ecosystem expansion for its decentralized AI verification protocol. Swarm Network builds infrastructure for on-chain verifiable information, integrating AI agents, human intelligence, and zero-knowledge proofs to convert raw off-chain data into on-chain verified information in real time. Funds will primarily support upgrades and scaling of its flagship product, Rollup News.

Next Week to Watch

Token Unlocks

According to Tokenomist, several significant token unlocks are scheduled in the next seven days (August 29 – September 3, 2025). Top three upcoming unlocks:

• SUI: Approximately $152 million worth of tokens to unlock, representing 1.3% of circulating supply.
• SVL: Approximately $39 million worth of tokens to unlock, representing 19% of circulating supply.
• JUP: Approximately $26 million worth of tokens to unlock, representing 1.8% of circulating supply.
  
  
  References:

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/BTC_USDT
• Gate, https://www.gate.com/trade/ETH_USDT
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/
• jin10, https://rili.jin10.com/
• Coinmarketcap, https://coinmarketcap.com/view/stablecoin/
• etherscan, https://etherscan.io/gastracker
• Coingecko, https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories
• bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-27/circle-paxos-trial-know-your-issuer-tech-to-weed-out-copycats?srnd=phx-crypto
• X, https://x.com/sk_sahil24/status/1960674218053664941
• Coindesk, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/08/25/aave-labs-debuts-horizon-to-let-institutions-borrow-stablecoins-against-tokenized-assets
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1960885288583999981
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1960764504305770731
• X, https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1960779607818240059
• Rootdata, https://www.rootdata.com/Fundraising
• Tokenomist, https://tokenomist.ai/

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