HTX Platform Weekly Asset Review (Aug. 17–23): Policy and Liquidity Expectations Improve Simultaneously, Meme and DeFi Sectors Lead Gains

Last week, the cryptocurrency market ended a months-long downturn, with August 19 serving as a turning point for the trend. On that day, US President Trump convened a meeting at the White House with representatives from crypto firms, regulators, and traditional finance, publicly urging Congress to push forward digital asset legislation; meanwhile, the US Treasury announced it would at least double the cap on the single-scale size of its long-end Treasury bond liquidity support repo operations, raising it from $2 billion to $4 billion. With both policy and liquidity expectations improving in tandem, the yield on 30-year US Treasuries fell by about 9 basis points that day, risk assets strengthened accordingly, and Bitcoin surged by over 8% within 12 hours.

For the full week, Bitcoin rose approximately 22%, breaking through the $60,000–$70,000 range that had held firm throughout the year. From August 19 to 22, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies excluding Bitcoin increased by approximately $215 billion, reclaiming the $1 trillion mark. According to data from HTX, from August 17 to 23, assets across multiple sectors on the platform strengthened simultaneously, with the Meme and DeFi segments showing particularly concentrated gains.

Meme: TRUMP, TUT, PEPE Surge Collectively

The elasticity of the Meme sector has once again surfaced during this rally. Such assets are typically used by traders to express risk appetite; when market sentiment heats up rapidly, their gains often outpace those of mainstream assets.

• TRUMP: Gained 89% this week. TRUMP is a Meme asset associated with the US President, drawing significant attention during a week filled with policy announcements.
• TUT (Tutorial): Gained 75% this week. TUT was issued on the Meme platform Four.meme on BNB Chain, stemming from a token issuance tutorial video.
• PEPE: Gained 56% this week. PEPE is one of the longest-running Meme assets with robust liquidity, usually reacting first when a sector rally takes off.
• PUMP: Gained 88% this week. Pump.fun is a Meme launchpad on the Solana ecosystem, with its price action moving in tandem with the Meme sector's revival.

It should be noted that Meme asset prices lack predictable patterns, and their drawdown speed is comparable to their upside speed. Participants should fully understand the associated risks.

DeFi: Yield Incentive Campaigns Drive Coordinated Moves in PENDLE, AAVE, and MORPHO

The strength shown by the DeFi sector last week has specific operational backing. On August 17, Pendle raised the cap of its PT Looping incentive program to $15 million and added two new liquidity pools, with PT-USD3 deployed on Morpho and PT-USDG deployed on both Aave and Morpho. The incentive window runs until August 27. This initiative directly links the yield strategies of three protocols, drawing funding attention to the related assets within the same timeframe.

• PENDLE: Gained 48% this week. Pendle's core mechanism splits the principal and yield of interest-bearing assets for separate trading, while PT Looping builds on this to offer leveraged fixed-income strategies.
• AAVE: Gained 22% this week. Aave is currently the largest decentralized lending protocol, providing the lending-layer support for these strategies.
• MORPHO: Gained 20% this week. Morpho is known for its modular lending market design, allowing risk parameters to be configured separately for principal tokens with fixed terms.

ZEC and XRP Rally as Privacy Assets Encounter Independent Catalysts

• ZEC: Gained 66% this week. Zcash's performance last week had an independent driver outside the broader market trend. On August 18, Grayscale filed Amendment No. 4 to its S-3 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to advance the conversion of its Zcash Trust into a spot ETF, planning to list on NYSE Arca. The filing also disclosed that a subsidiary under its parent company, Digital Currency Group, is engaged in non-binding discussions regarding the acquisition of approximately 200,000 ZEC. Following the announcement, ZEC climbed steadily, breaking past $800 on August 22 to set a new high since 2018.

The landscape for the privacy sector in 2026 differs markedly from the past. As regulatory frameworks gradually become clearer, the application scenarios for privacy technology have shifted from circumventing regulation to protecting data itself, prompting institutional attitudes toward this direction to evolve accordingly.

• XRP: Gained 49% this week. As a top-tier major asset by market cap, XRP posted some of the strongest gains during last week's broad rally, reflecting renewed capital inflows into leading tokens following improved policy expectations.

Conclusion

Last week's rally spanned multiple categories ranging from mainstream assets to Meme coins, marking a clear departure from the localized rotation seen in previous months. Improvements in both regulatory and liquidity expectations occurred on the same day, serving as the direct catalyst for this rally. Capital subsequently spilled over from top-tier assets outward, with DeFi, privacy, and Meme sectors following in succession.

Nevertheless, markets remain divided on the sustainability of this rebound. Although Bitcoin has broken through its yearly consolidation range, it remains considerably below the highs reached in early 2026. Whether institutional capital inflows will stabilize and whether policy advancements will materialize require more time to verify. After the initial broad-based rally at the start of a market cycle, divergence among assets typically re-emerges. HTX will continue to monitor market dynamics and developments across each sector, promptly tracking asset information to provide users with a stable trading environment and service support.