Original Author: Joe Zhou, Foresight News
The cryptocurrency market, dormant for almost a whole year, suddenly exploded last week.
Bitcoin surged violently from around $62,800 at the beginning of the week, hitting an intraday high of $79,500 on August 21, marking a maximum weekly gain of over 26% and setting the record for the largest single-week percentage gain since March 2023. Voices proclaiming "the bull is back" have been echoing throughout the market.
A signal doesn't ring only once, but the real test lies in—can we accurately identify its nature? A more worthwhile question is: in this rebound, which assets' gains are justified, and which are merely drifting with the tide? The next stage's code is hidden within the answer.
Which Market Patterns Does This 'Bull's Return' Validate Once Again?
Every extreme market movement is not a random noise, but a stress test of the market structure. This rebound has once again confirmed several clear patterns.
Pattern One: Short-to-medium-term directional shifts in the crypto market have become highly dependent on the swings of the US policy cycle.
Looking back over the past four years, several major turning points in the cryptocurrency market—whether it was the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF, the shift between the Fed's interest rate hike and cut cycles, or this recent US Treasury repurchase operation—have almost always resonated with the rhythm of US fiscal and regulatory policies. Market pricing power is gradually shifting from the crypto-native, on-chain leverage cycle to macro liquidity and regulatory expectations.
This time is no exception. Based on news attribution, the core drivers for the rebound can be summarized in two points:
First, the long-term bond repurchase policy triggered a reversal in macro liquidity expectations. On August 19, US Treasury Secretary Bessent announced that the single-operation repurchase size for long-term Treasuries (10 to 30-year) would be increased from $2 billion to at least $4 billion to address the previous situation of soaring long-end yields and heavy selling of long-term bonds. The market quickly interpreted this as: the US government is using accommodative operations to alleviate its own borrowing cost pressure → the US dollar weakens under pressure → funds flow towards alternative value storage assets like gold and Bitcoin. As Bitcoin possesses the attributes of a high-beta risk asset, its price increase stands out the most among similar assets.
Second, Trump's push for crypto legislation catalyzed a recovery in risk appetite. Almost simultaneously, Trump met with crypto industry executives from Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, etc., at the White House, publicly urging Congress to quickly pass the Clarity for Digital Assets Act (CLARITY Act) to clarify the jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. This move was seen by the market as a signal of reduced regulatory uncertainty, further boosting the recovery in risk appetite.
One point that deserves special mention: On August 18, the SEC also proposed a new draft rule for public crypto token sales, which the market viewed as a positive signal towards establishing clear rules for token issuance. The market called it the "legal version of ICO 2.0." This means that the previous wild ICO model is gradually "evolving," and the new ICO will be a fresh regulatory framework with caps, information disclosure requirements, and exit mechanisms.
Pattern Two: Bitcoin spot ETFs have become the market's bellwether and continue to lead the entire crypto market.
Bitcoin spot ETFs moving ahead of the market and leading the direction of the trend has become one of the most significant structural characteristics of the crypto market in the past two years. This pattern has been repeatedly verified across multiple market cycles.
Take this rebound as an example—the comprehensive market explosion began on August 19, but Bitcoin spot ETFs had already shown a "determined" trend of sustained net buying days earlier, precisely timing the ignition point of this market movement.
From a data perspective, last week (the week ending August 21), US Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs combined recorded a net inflow of $2.6 billion, the highest weekly record since October 2025. Among them, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of approximately $1.9 billion. Their weekly trading volume surged from $6.9 billion the previous week to $22.1 billion, an increase of 219%. Total net assets rose from $76.6 billion to $96.1 billion.
Ethereum spot ETFs also performed strongly, with a net inflow of $697.2 million last week, the highest since the week of October 3, 2025. Their weekly trading volume increased from $1.9 billion to $6.9 billion, a staggering growth of 259.4%.
Both types of ETFs recorded their largest single-week net inflows since 2026. In contrast, the combined net outflow of both types of ETFs was $392 million the previous week.
The synchronized surge in volume for both ETFs not only verifies the large-scale return of institutional capital but also further solidifies the market status of spot ETFs as the "leading indicator" for this bull cycle.
Pattern Three: A violent surge in Bitcoin almost inevitably triggers a comprehensive rise across the entire crypto sector—from major altcoins to smaller altcoins, and then to trending Meme coins, forming a clear chain of fund rotation.
This cycle once again validates this ironclad rule: Bitcoin breaks out first, then funds spill over progressively, with Ethereum, quality altcoins, and trending Meme coins taking turns, and the magnitude of gains exhibiting a ladder-like amplification.
Data is the most powerful proof—Ethereum gained nearly 30% for the week, ENA skyrocketed nearly 100%, the new BNB Chain ecosystem Meme coin "Bull Is Back" gained 30.3% on August 21 alone, with its market cap once touching $70 million. From large-cap blue chips to small-cap, high-beta varieties, none missed this rebound feast.
Bitcoin is the detonator, but what truly boils market sentiment are always those assets with more astonishing multiples—the altcoins and Meme coins. The gradient distribution of gains precisely outlines the complete roadmap of this fund flow back.
Crypto Bull Returns, Which Rebounded the Fiercest?
In this rebound, Bitcoin ignited first, but the real explosive elasticity concentrated in the relay of major altcoins and smaller altcoins.
Ethereum started last week from around $1,900, hitting a high of $2,546, with a weekly gain as high as 29.8%, significantly outperforming Bitcoin's 22.9%. The ETH/BTC exchange rate recovered to around 0.031, and its market capitalization returned above $280 billion.
Behind Ethereum's stronger elasticity, besides the common drivers of macro liquidity and short-squeeze dynamics, three unique factors are resonating:
First, massive inflows into spot Ethereum ETFs. Last week, Ethereum spot ETFs saw a net inflow of approximately $697 million, their strongest week since October 2025.
Second, a continuous tightening of exchange supply. Data shows that Ethereum held on exchanges decreased from about 7.7 million coins in early June to about 6.54 million coins by mid-August, a drop of about 15%. Meanwhile, over 42 million ETH has been staked, with the tradable circulating supply continuously shrinking, significantly amplifying the price effect of buy-side pressure.
Third, regulatory tailwinds. The SEC's proposal of a new draft rule for public crypto token sales on August 18 was seen by the market as a positive signal towards establishing clear rules for token issuance, further boosting market risk appetite for the Ethereum ecosystem.
Bitcoin up 22%, Ethereum up nearly 30%—that's already astonishing enough. But in the world of altcoins, there are even crazier performers.
According to statistics from multiple data platforms, among the top 50 altcoins by market cap last week (as of August 23), the five tokens with the highest gains were: ENA, PUMP, Stacks, Trump, Zcash.
One: ENA (Ethena). Weekly Gain: 100.75%, The All-Market Champion
ENA topped last week's cryptocurrency gainers list with a 100.75% weekly gain. This once again confirms the market's common perception—ENA has always been one of the highest-beta assets during market rebounds; every time the market warms up, it manages to deliver returns far exceeding the average.
The core catalysts for the surge are two: First, Coinbase announced a strategic partnership with Ethena, planning to offer products based on the USDe stablecoin to over 100 million users, and for the first time invested in Ethena by purchasing ENA tokens on the open market. Second, FalconX launched a $1 billion guaranteed storage facility, deploying USDe's underlying assets into institutional lending, significantly expanding the protocol's business boundaries.
However, it's worth noting that ENA's current price is still about 89.2% lower than its all-time high—though the gain is fierce, it's still far from truly recovering lost ground.
Two: PUMP (Pump.fun). Weekly Gain: 88-99%, The Victory of the Meme Launchpad
PUMP gained between 88% and 99% last week, with its market cap breaking $2 billion.
As the most active Meme coin launch platform on the Solana ecosystem, Pump.fun directly benefited from this round of Meme coin frenzy—new tokens kept emerging on the platform, and the surge in trading volume directly pushed up the price of the platform's token, PUMP. But similarly, PUMP is still about 39.7% lower than its all-time high.
Three: STX (Stacks). Weekly Gain: 82-94%, The Bitcoin Ecosystem Narrative Rekindled
STX gained approximately 82% to 94% last week, the most outstanding performer among Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem assets.
STX's rise is closely related to the rekindling of the Bitcoin ecosystem narrative. As Bitcoin's price broke above $77,000, market attention towards Bitcoin's scaling solutions rose again, and Stacks, as one of the most mature BTC Layer 2 projects, directly benefited. However, STX's current price is still about 94% lower than its all-time high, making it the token among the top five furthest from its peak.
Four: TRUMP (Official Trump). Weekly Gain: 79-91%, The Political Meme's Rebound
TRUMP gained between 79% and 91% last week. As a political Meme coin themed around Donald Trump, its rebound resonated with the news of Trump pushing for crypto legislation.
This Meme coin themed around the former US President had been under persistent pressure due to criticism from US lawmakers and Nansen data revealing nearly one million investors accumulated losses of about $3.8 billion. However, this rebound was more of an emotional recovery from being oversold rather than an improvement in fundamentals—TRUMP's current price is still about 96.4% lower than its all-time high.
Five: ZEC (Zcash). Weekly Gain: 75%, Hit a New All-Time High
Zcash rose 75.15% last week, trading at $851, and set a new all-time high during the week.
ZEC is the only one among the top five that set a new all-time high and the only asset that has completely recovered its historical losses during this rise. As an established privacy coin, Zcash's strong performance reflects a characteristic of this rebound—veteran projects are also favored by funds; it's not only new concepts that can lead the gains. The privacy sector often garners additional safe-haven premiums in environments of rising macro uncertainty.
Meme Coins: The Vortex of Sentiment, Maximum Elasticity
Beyond these, the Meme coin sector once again proved its status as the king of elasticity during bull markets. The new BNB Chain ecosystem Meme coin "Bull Is Back" gained 30.3% on August 21 alone, with its market cap once touching $70 million; Solana's Book of Meme (BOME) rose a hefty 95.57% for the week, also becoming one of the best-performing assets among Meme coins this time.
From Ethereum's steady lead, to the king's return of AAVE, to the multiple explosions of ENA and Meme coins—this rebound clearly sketches a fund transmission path: Bitcoin sets the stage, major altcoins perform, and altcoins and Meme coins take the spotlight. The gradient distribution of gains is precisely the complete portrayal of market sentiment shifting from caution to euphoria.
