Gate Research Institute: ETH is rising strongly, with CRO leading the rise of over 470%, and small to mid-cap market capitalization is experiencing a rotation trend.

Encryption Market Overview

According to CoinGecko data, from July 8 to July 21, 2025, the cryptocurrency market showed overall strong upward momentum, with a significant increase in market capitalization, and most mainstream coins recorded double-digit gains. BTC strongly broke through historical highs, steadily operating within an ascending channel, while ETH also maintained a bullish pattern, with upward momentum continuing and a solid bullish structure.

At the same time, on July 17, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed three legislative proposals highly related to encryption, namely the "CLARITY Act," the "GENIUS Act," and the "Anti-CBDC Surveillance National Act," further strengthening the encryption regulatory framework. Among them, the "GENIUS Act" has been signed into law by the President, becoming the first federal-level encryption legislation in the United States, requiring stablecoins to be backed by 100% reserve assets and subject to annual audits, thereby establishing unified regulatory standards; the SEC also plans to promote an exemption mechanism for tokenized assets to support innovative development.

Overall, in the past two weeks, the crypto market has experienced significant upward movement under the resonance of favorable policies and a bullish technical pattern. Not only have mainstream assets such as BTC and ETH strongly broken through, but the overall market capitalization has also risen sharply, with funding confidence noticeably recovering. The passage and implementation of three key bills provide clear policy guidance for stablecoin regulation, asset classification, and the anti-CBDC stance, which is expected to attract more institutions and compliant capital into the market, further promoting the deep integration of Web3 and financial innovation. Driven by both clear policies and strengthened market structure, the crypto market is accelerating towards a healthier and more sustainable development stage.

1. Overview of the Price Fluctuation Data in This Round

This article groups and analyzes the top 500 tokens by market capitalization, observing the average increase in different market capitalization ranges from July 8 to July 21.

Overall, the encryption market shows a relatively balanced but slightly structured upward trend, with the average increase of the top 500 tokens falling within the range of 28%–32%, indicating that the market's bullish momentum has spread more broadly, and investor confidence has significantly rebounded.

Among them, the tokens ranked 101–200 and 401–500 performed the best, with an average increase of over 32%, indicating that funds are actively seeking mid-to-late stage targets with explosive potential, rather than being limited to leading assets. Tokens ranked 1–100 and 201–300 showed steady growth, both around 30%; in contrast, the tokens ranked 301–400 appeared slightly inferior, with an average increase of 29%, but overall still maintained an upward trend.

In this round of market, the capital rotation is more balanced, with mainstream and small to mid-cap assets generally benefiting. The market is no longer reliant on a single thematic speculation, but is evolving towards a broader and more diversified direction. The structure of the increase indicates that the current market is gradually transitioning from an institution-led mainstream trend to a new stage where thematic rotation and individual games coexist, laying a good foundation for the continuation of future markets.

Note: The market capitalization distribution is based on CoinGecko data, grouping the top 500 tokens by market cap into sets of 100 (e.g., ranks 1–100, 101–200, etc.), and calculating the price fluctuations of the tokens within each group from July 8 to July 21, 2025, as well as the average for each group, serving as the average growth indicator for that market cap range. The overall average growth (31.28%) is the unweighted average of the individual growth rates of the top 500 tokens.

Figure 1: The overall average increase is 31.28%, with the most remarkable increase being the tokens ranked 101–200 by market capitalization, with an average increase close to 33%.

Price Change Leaderboard

In the past two weeks, the encryption market has shown an overall upward trend, with active fund rotation and distinct structural differentiation. Some small-cap, high-volatility assets have performed notably well. Most of the top ten tokens in terms of increase come from the Meme, AI, public chain, or emerging community concept sectors, which have high topicality and speculative potential, becoming the focus of short-term capital attention.

In terms of the rise ranking, all ten tokens have surged over 100%, with most concentrated in Meme, public chain ecosystems, and experimental projects. Among them, CROSS has seen a remarkable increase of 476.45%. CROSS is an EVM-compatible public chain designed specifically for games, providing modular infrastructure such as SDK, DEX, bridges, and wallets to support Web3 game development. Its native token CROSS is used for Gas, governance, and staking, with a fixed supply cap, and has recently been listed on multiple exchanges, driving up enthusiasm and capital inflow.

The rest, such as CFX (+197.72%) and DIA (+162.52%), also recorded impressive performances, benefiting respectively from the recovery of the Layer 1 concept and the oracle sector. Projects like M, SNEK, PENGU, and WEMIX are more community-oriented and speculative in nature, becoming high Beta targets for market speculation. Established projects like XTZ, BLACK, and the mid-sized asset PTGC have also attracted attention from rotating funds, with increases exceeding 100%.

In terms of the decline leaderboard, the overall adjustment range is relatively mild, with the largest decline being PUMP (-20.18%), which may be related to the gradual retreat of its ICO pre-sale frenzy and short-term profit-taking in the market, reflecting a typical phenomenon of selling pressure release after the pre-sale period. Most of the others are concentrated in the -3% to -18% range, indicating that although the market is generally bullish, some assets still face periodic adjustment pressure due to the cooling off of enthusiasm, lack of funding support, or absence of new themes. SYRUP, VRSC, SQD, AIC, etc., have relatively larger declines, mostly being projects with smaller market capitalizations, insufficient topics, or earlier gains that have been overdrawn.

This round of rebound is led by projects with strong topics, online catalysts, and technical potential. CROSS, as an EVM-compatible public chain specifically designed for Web3 games, has received high attention due to its listing on multiple exchanges and the announcement of an exclusive partnership with the AI game generation platform Verse8. This cooperation will allow users to create games with text prompts and issue and trade related tokens and NFTs on CROSS, strengthening its positioning in game infrastructure. Overall, market funding preferences are clearly concentrated on tokens with strong narratives, active communities, and real application prospects, while projects lacking liquidity or storytelling continue to be marginalized, with the structural rotation trend expected to continue.

Figure 2: The most prominent performance is from the gaming public chain project CROSS, which has surged by 476% in the past two weeks, driven by favorable exchanges listings and ecological partnerships.

The relationship between market capitalization ranking and price fluctuation of ###.

To further analyze the structural characteristics of token performance in this round of market conditions, this article depicts a scatter distribution chart of the top 500 tokens by market capitalization. The horizontal axis represents the market capitalization ranking (the further left, the larger the market capitalization), while the vertical axis shows the price fluctuations from July 8 to July 21 on a logarithmic scale. Each dot in the chart represents a token, with green indicating an increase and red indicating a decrease.

From an overall distribution perspective, the proportion of rising tokens exceeds half, with the increase mainly concentrated in the 30–80% range, indicating that market sentiment has warmed up, but has not yet entered a full rebound phase. Most of the tokens with significant gains are small and medium market cap assets, especially like CROSS, DIA, BLACK, CFX, PENGU, etc., which are clearly positioned at the top in the chart, reflecting the market's tendency to chase high Beta projects that have topicality, ecological support, or are catalyzed by exchanges. Among them, CROSS saw an increase of 476%, making it the most outstanding token in this round, benefiting from its recent concentrated listing on multiple exchanges and its ecological cooperation with the AI gaming platform Verse8.

Overall, the mid to late stage market capitalization range has shown relatively active performance, with a clear rotation of funds. In contrast, most projects on the decline list have encountered fund withdrawal due to the lack of thematic support or a decrease in stage-based popularity. Projects such as PUMP, SYRUP, VRSC, and SQD have also seen relatively significant declines, mostly due to a drop in topic popularity or weak liquidity among small to medium-sized tokens, making them easy targets for fund withdrawal in a volatile market.

Figure 3: Over half of the top 500 tokens by market capitalization have increased, with funds favoring medium and small market cap projects that have clear themes and high volatility, with CROSS leading the increase.

Top 100 Market Capitalization Rankings

In this round of volatile consolidation, the top 100 tokens by market cap have shown overall stable performance, with relatively converging price fluctuations, reflecting a defensive allocation tendency of funds in mainstream sectors. Excluding stablecoins and LSD tokens, the top five tokens by increase are: PENGU (+134.76%), ENA (+95.72%), CRV (+93.21%), XLM (+93.17%), HBAR (+75.21%).

Most of these projects have strong thematic drivers, community momentum, or ecosystem event catalysts, reflecting the current market preference for assets with "narrative and activity." PENGU, as a Meme project on the Solana chain, continues to show remarkable performance in community enthusiasm; ENA and CRV benefit from stablecoin positioning and DeFi upgrade expectations, respectively; XLM and HBAR focus on long-term narratives such as traditional payments and public chain alliances, attracting some capital attention.

In contrast, some projects in the top 100 by market capitalization have also shown significant declines. The top five with the largest drops are: PUMP (-20.18%), PI (-1.97%), WBT (-0.78%), LEO (-0.66%), FTN (+1.58%) (although it rose, it performed the weakest). Among them, PUMP experienced the deepest decline, possibly due to the concentration of profits after the earlier ICO presale heat subsided, becoming a representative of structural adjustment. The other projects like PI, WBT, and LEO showed a slowdown in their trends, lacking new themes to drive momentum, and the market's attention has relatively decreased.

The top 100 tokens by market capitalization have shown strong resilience in a volatile market, with a clear shift in capital allocation towards mainstream assets that have narrative support, ecological catalysts, or community momentum, reflecting a strategy tendency of "selecting the strong among the stable." Projects that lead in price increase often have thematic popularity and medium to long-term development potential, while assets that previously overshot expectations or lack new storylines face adjustment pressure. Overall, the market is still in a phase of structural differentiation, and in the short term, the market may continue a defensive rotation pattern.

Figure 4: Among the top 100 tokens by market capitalization, the leaders in growth are concentrated in sectors with topicality and ecological catalysis. Funds tend to allocate to mainstream projects that respond sensitively, while some previously popular assets have shown structural pullbacks.

II. Analysis of the Performance of This Round of Volume Expansion

Trading Volume Growth Analysis

Based on the analysis of token price performance, this article further observes the changes in trading volume of certain tokens during this market cycle. Using the trading volume before the market started as a benchmark, the trading volume growth multiplier as of July 21 is calculated to measure the changes in market heat and trading activity.

Data shows that the trading volume of GAL has increased significantly, reaching 47.49 times. Although its market capitalization ranks low (467th), its price has also recorded a rebound of 27.25%, indicating the high elasticity characteristics of small and medium market cap projects in capital games. Among them, the trading volume of ETC has increased by 36.56 times, with a price rebound of 48.37%. This strong rise may be closely related to the overall surge in the Ethereum ecosystem. According to SoSoValue data, the net inflow of ETH spot ETFs in the past week reached as high as 2.18 billion USD, of which BlackRock's ETHA had a weekly inflow of 1.76 billion USD, setting a new historical record, showing that institutional funds are accelerating their allocation to ETH. Against this backdrop, ETC, as a historical fork of ETH, although not included in ETF allocations, still benefits from capital rotation and thematic associations under the logic of a buoyant market sentiment and funds seeking high volatility alternative assets, becoming a strong representative in this round of market.

In addition, TRX and OHM recorded a trading volume increase of 17.43 times and 15.85 times respectively, but the price rebound was relatively limited, only 9.20% and 8.40%, which may indicate that although there are signs of trading activity in the market, the price upward momentum is insufficient, and more short-term fluctuations are presented in a range. The most outstanding performer is SUSHI, which, although its trading volume increase is relatively small (12.46 times), saw a price rebound of up to 67.63%, indicating that under the background of the DeFi sector regaining activity, established protocols with brand and trading depth advantages have also gained temporary attention.

Structurally, the current wave of volume projects has a wide coverage, encompassing mainstream public chains, DeFi, platform tokens, and small to medium projects, no longer concentrated on specific themes. This reflects that the market is shifting from a single emotional drive to a more decentralized fund gaming model. Although the rapid expansion of trading volume may not directly drive prices to continue rising, it often signifies an increase in market attention and is one of the important signals for observing short-term market trends.

Figure 5: The trading volume of tokens such as GAL, ETC, and SUSHI has significantly increased, with some prices rebounding simultaneously, indicating that market funds are seeking trading targets that offer both volatility and liquidity.

Trading Volume Changes and Price Analysis

Based on the continuation of observing projects with unusual trading volume, this article further combines price performance and plots a scatter diagram of Volume Increase Multiple and Price Change %. The x-axis represents the growth multiple of each token's trading volume over the past two weeks compared to the benchmark period, while the y-axis shows the price change during the same period, using a symmetric logarithmic scale to more intuitively present extreme changes.

As can be seen from the chart, the upper right quadrant is crowded with assets that exhibit obvious characteristics of "increased volume + price rise" in this round of market conditions, in line with the "volume-price resonance" logic. Among them: SUSHI's trading volume increased by more than 12 times, and its price rose by 67.63%, showing impressive performance driven by the inflow of funds in the DeFi sector; ETC (Ethereum Classic) saw its trading volume surge by 36.56 times, with a price increase of 48.37%, benefiting from the spillover of enthusiasm for Ethereum spot ETFs and market sentiment; GAL's volume increased by 47.49 times, with a price increase of 27.25%. Although its market capitalization is relatively small, there is a clear trend of short-term capital chasing; others such as OSETH and OETH are also located in the upper right quadrant, as typical ETH staking derivatives, their volume increase and price rise benefit from the recent enthusiasm for spot ETFs and the warming of the staking ecosystem.

The lower right quadrant is populated with tokens where "trading volume has significantly increased but prices have not risen in tandem," such as: TRX and OHM, which have both seen volume increase by over 15 times, but their price increase is less than 10%. This may reflect that while there is trading activity, there is a lack of clear upward momentum or facing heavy selling pressure; RLUSD has seen a significant increase in trading volume, while its price has maintained stable fluctuations (around 0%). As a stablecoin launched by Ripple, it has recently benefited from various actions by Ripple in terms of regulatory and market positioning, including the application for a Luxembourg license and the approval of the XRP ETF on the NYSE, which has driven an overall increase in attention, with the volume increase likely stemming from enhanced liquidity deployment and trading demand.

In this round of market trends, the resonance of volume and price remains a key indicator for identifying the direction of funds. The SUSHI, ETC, GAL, and ETH staking tokens OSETH and OETH in the upper right quadrant have performed well, reflecting the market's preference for projects with clear narratives and liquidity support; meanwhile, TRX and OHM, although seeing increased volume, have shown limited price increases, indicating insufficient upward momentum. RLUSD, as a stablecoin, has maintained its price stability, but has seen significant volume driven by multiple favorable factors for Ripple, suggesting that in a structural market, funds are more inclined to rotate around specific themes, with overall market attention focused on assets with event catalysts and short- to medium-term speculative value.

Figure 6: SUSHI, ETC, GAL, etc. fall into the upper right quadrant, presenting a typical "volume-price resonance" structure, which represents the projects with significant capital concentration in this round of upward trend.

Correlation Analysis

After discussing the relationship between token trading volume changes and price performance, this article further analyzes the structural linkage between the two from a statistical perspective. To assess whether market capital activity systematically affects price volatility, the relative activity indicator "trading volume / market capitalization" is introduced, and its correlation coefficient with price fluctuations is calculated. Through this analysis, it is possible to identify tokens that are more easily driven by capital in the current market and reveal the strength of the linkage between volume and price.

From the chart, it can be seen that most tokens have correlation coefficients concentrated in the range of 0.75 to 0.95, indicating a certain positive correlation between capital activity and price fluctuations. The color of the bubbles in the chart represents the strength of the correlation (red for high, blue for low), while the size of the bubbles reflects the market capitalization of the tokens, making it easier to observe the price-volume structure characteristics of assets of different sizes. The tokens DIA, CFX, OM, etc., located in the upper left side of the chart, have the highest correlation, with correlation coefficients close to or exceeding 0.95, indicating that these mid and small-cap assets tend to experience synchronous fluctuations in price when trading volume is active, which is a typical "high elasticity price-volume linkage" structure, and are usually the focus of short-term capital pursuits.

On the right side of the chart, PROM, XCN, ETC, etc. have a relatively low correlation (about 0.75–0.80), and the bubble sizes are larger, indicating that they have a higher market capitalization and widespread capital participation. Although these assets have slightly weaker price-volume correlation, they exhibit milder fluctuations and more stable trends, usually playing the role of a "liquidity anchor" in structural markets. It is worth mentioning that ETC has the largest bubble, indicating that it features both volume expansion in this round of price-volume structure and carries a large amount of capital. Combined with previous analysis, its performance is closely related to the overflow of interest in ETH spot ETFs.

The correlation analysis shows that there is a certain degree of linkage between the trading volume and price of most tokens, especially for mid and small market cap projects like DIA, CFX, and OM, which tend to experience price fluctuations synchronously during volume increases, reflecting their sensitivity to capital changes; while large market cap assets like ETC exhibit higher liquidity and a relatively stable fluctuation structure. Overall, the current market presents a structural characteristic of "high elasticity for mid and small caps, strong stability for large caps," revealing the distribution preferences and linkage characteristics of capital among different types of assets.

Figure 7: Tokens such as DIA, CFX, and CKB have high volume-price correlation and are greatly affected by capital fluctuations; tokens like ETC and SUSHI, which have larger market capitalization and weaker correlation, show a more stable overall trend.

In summary, the characteristics of the current round of encryption market volume-price linkage are becoming increasingly clear, and the driving effect of capital activity on price fluctuations is gradually becoming evident. Small and medium market cap assets such as DIA, CFX, and OM are more likely to experience synchronized fluctuations under increased capital volume, demonstrating higher elasticity and short-term speculative value; while higher market cap assets like ETC exhibit a stable structure, providing liquidity anchoring in structural markets. Overall, market capital is rotating around targets characterized by "high activity + strong narrative", and the structural differentiation pattern will continue.

In addition to the active performance of the trading market, this period also has multiple potential airdrop projects being promoted simultaneously, covering popular tracks such as privacy computing, browser node networks, sports community incentives, and decentralized development platforms. If users can grasp the rhythm, they are expected to lay out in advance during market fluctuations and gain potential token profits. Below, we will briefly outline the current airdrop tasks worth paying attention to and the ways to participate.

Airdrop Hot Projects

This article organizes the airdrop potential projects that are worth paying attention to from July 8, 2025, to July 21, 2025, covering several active early-stage projects such as Orochi Network (Web3 privacy computing and oracle infrastructure), Gradient Network (browser node point network), OneFootball Club (a community platform combining sports and Web3), and Fleek (decentralized website development platform). These platforms generally adopt forms such as browser plugins, social tasks, Galxe tasks, or point incentives to encourage users to participate in ecosystem construction early on. The points and achievements obtained may be exchangeable for tokens or used for airdrop distribution in the future. Users can continuously accumulate participation credentials by registering accounts, binding wallets and community accounts, completing online tasks, and other methods. The following will detail the basic positioning, latest activities, and participation paths of each project to assist users in laying out Web3 early dividends.

Orochi Network

Orochi Network is a project focused on Web3 privacy computing and oracle infrastructure. Its core component "Prover" can verify browser behavior and generate zero-knowledge proofs, aiming to provide a trusted execution environment for on-chain applications. [4]

This event is designed to encourage users to participate in the Prover testing, allowing them to obtain the native token $ON through web "mining", which is expected to serve as a proof for future airdrops.

Participation Method:

1. Go to the Orochi official website and click on "PROVER" to create your exclusive ONID using your email.
2. After logging in, keep the webpage open to start "mining"; the page will automatically accumulate points. You can increase the mining speed by inviting friends and other methods.

Gradient Network

Gradient Network is a Web3 network infrastructure project that combines browser node mining, social behavior, and a points system, aiming to provide decentralized verification and data processing capabilities through distributed user nodes. Users only need to install a browser extension and stay online to accumulate EXP points, with the opportunity to exchange them for tokens or receive airdrops in the future. 【5】

Gradient has completed a $10 million financing in June and is currently in the incentive phase of Season 1.

Participation Method:

1. Go to the Gradient official website and register an account.
2. After completing the email registration, connect your X account and follow the official account.
3. Install the browser extension and keep the extension running to start "mining" and accumulating EXP points. Completing other tasks can earn additional rewards.

OneFootball Club

OneFootball Club is a decentralized community incentive platform that combines sports culture with Web3 technology, aiming to create an interactive bridge between fans and Web3 users. The platform uses BALLS (S2) as the unit of points, and users can accumulate points by completing social tasks, participating in activities, and inviting friends.

OneFootball Club is supported by the well-known football media OneFootball, which has a large user base and brand influence, and plans to issue a native token to promote fan participation in the Web3 ecosystem. Season 2 has officially started, with activities continuously updated, and points will serve as an important basis for future airdrop distribution. [6]

Participation Method:

1. Go to the OneFootball official website, register an account or log in with your wallet/email/community account.
2. Complete the official designated tasks to earn points, such as following the official X account to receive 300 BALLS, reading the OneFootball Club introduction article to receive 300 BALLS, etc.

Fleek

Fleek is a platform focused on Web3 infrastructure, providing decentralized website hosting, content distribution, and development tools, aimed at creating a more efficient and user-friendly decentralized web development environment. Fleek has officially launched a points reward program, where users can earn points by completing designated tasks, purchasing products, and participating in promotion programs, with native tokens to be distributed proportionally to points in the future.

This round of activities mainly relies on the Galxe platform for task management, with tasks including on-chain certification, community interaction, and subscriptions, making it suitable for early users to get a head start.

Participation Method:

1. Go to the Galxe platform, enter the Fleek event page, and complete tasks to earn points.
2. Complete official designated tasks to earn points, such as following the official X account.

Tip Airdrop plans and participation methods may be updated at any time. Users are advised to follow the official channels of the above projects for the latest information. At the same time, users should participate cautiously, be aware of risks, and conduct thorough research before participating. [Gate]https://www.gate.com/( does not guarantee the issuance of subsequent airdrop rewards.

Summary

Reviewing the market cycle from July 8 to July 21, 2025, the characteristics of volume and price linkage in the encryption market have become increasingly evident, showing a pattern of structural rotation and thematic driving in parallel. Among the top 500 tokens by market capitalization, the game public chain project CROSS saw a price increase of 476%, standing out the most; mid-cap tokens like GAL and SUSHI surged significantly, becoming preferred targets for short-term funds; while large-cap assets like ETC remained stable in volatility, playing a role in liquidity anchoring.

Based on the observation of trading volume fluctuations, tokens such as GAL, ETC, and SUSHI have seen significant increases in volume, with some trading volume increasing more than 10 times. Coupled with rising prices, this forms a typical "volume-price resonance" pattern that attracts market attention. The volume-price distribution chart indicates that assets located in the upper right quadrant have clearer capital inflows and price reactions, reflecting market preferences for liquid, topical, and event-catalyzed targets; for instance, ETH staking assets like OSETH and OETH have also experienced simultaneous volume increases due to the current spot ETF craze and the warming of the staking ecosystem.

Overall, the market's capital rotation still revolves around "high activity + strong narrative" for allocation, with changes in trading volume remaining an important indicator for identifying short-term market trends and thematic rotations. Small and medium-cap assets exhibit higher volatility elasticity and trading opportunities during this structural phase. If the market continues to be supported by favorable policies and capital inflows, it is expected that the structural rotation pattern will continue, providing a foundation for momentum accumulation for the mid-term market.

In addition, this issue tracks projects such as Orochi Network, Gradient Network, OneFootball Club, and Fleek, covering popular sectors like privacy computing, browser nodes, sports community incentives, and decentralized development platforms. The tasks are clear, and the participation paths are straightforward. Most are currently in the testing or early incentive stages, and users can accumulate points by registering accounts, binding to communities, installing plugins, and completing tasks to gain eligibility for subsequent airdrops or rewards. Continued participation not only helps in obtaining token incentives but also benefits in seizing early Web3 dividends.
Reference materials:

1. CoinGecko, [https://www.coingecko.com/])https://www.coingecko.com/(
2. X, [https://x.com/cross_protocol/status/1945041047010075097])https://x.com/cross_protocol/status/1945041047010075097(
3. Sosovalue, [https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/Total_Crypto_ETH_ETF_Fund_Flow?page=usETH])https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/Total_Crypto_ETH_ETF_Fund_Flow?page=usETH(
4. Orochi Network, [https://onprover.orochi.network/])https://onprover.orochi.network/(
5. Gradient Network, [https://app.gradient.network/dashboard])https://app.gradient.network/dashboard(
6. OneFootball Club, [https://ofc.onefootball.com/s2/])https://ofc.onefootball.com/s2/(
7. Galxe, [https://app.galxe.com/quest/fleek/?sort=Trending])https://app.galxe.com/quest/fleek/?sort=Trending(

Disclaimer Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risks. Users are advised to conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products they are purchasing before making any investment decisions. )[Gate]https://www.gate.com/( does not assume any responsibility for any losses or damages resulting from such investment decisions.