The total market value of cryptocurrencies excluding BTC rose 15% to $1.59 trillion, slightly above the peak set in November 2021. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization, excluding BTC and ETH, rose 9.41% to $1.05 trillion, also a new high. The takeaway? Ethereum continues its hypergrowth, while altcoins remain largely subdued. However, with altcoin market capitalization up only 12% since the beginning of the year, we may be in the middle of a bull run, the period before altcoins typically begin to accelerate upward. Beyond market data, August also marked a series of product and institutional milestones: Protocol Innovation: Uniswap's Unichain implemented Flashblocks, achieving 200-millisecond block confirmations, comparable to CEXs and providing MEV resistance. Base and other OP Stack chains have also adopted this upgrade through Flashbots. Furthermore, Pendle Finance launched Boros on Arbitrum, allowing users to trade perpetual funding rates directly on-chain. Finally, Synthetix announced its return to the Ethereum mainnet and the launch of a new perpetual contract exchange, demonstrating that the L1-L2 hybrid experiment is far from over. Institutional Adoption: Aave Labs launched Horizon, an institutional lending platform that provides access to tokenized Treasuries and RWAs. Aave Horizon has already attracted institutions such as VanEck, WisdomTree, Hamilton Lane, Circle, and Ethena. Furthermore, Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin has joined Horizon's risk asset market, expanding its collateral options. Meanwhile, Chainlink further solidified its position as the core data layer for crypto by integrating FX and precious metals data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), connecting TradFi-grade data to DeFi infrastructure. Stablecoins and Yields: Ethena's USDe supply surged 42% to $12.4 billion, with protocol revenue reaching a new high of $61 million in August. Its rapid growth has solidified USDe's position as one of the most profitable and controversial stablecoin models in DeFi and sparked ongoing discussions about sustainability and fee capture. This bull run feels different. Unlike past cycles, institutions are now shaping the market narrative and infrastructure. Market growth is no longer driven by retail investors, but by innovative financial products, investment funds, and governments embracing the technology. AI DApps Cool Down in August AI has become one of the most transformative forces today, reshaping not only technology but also everyday life. However, within the blockchain space, August saw a slowdown. As mentioned in the industry overview, AI DApp activity dropped 49%, demonstrating that even the hottest sectors aren't immune to cyclical fluctuations. However, top AI projects remain highly ranked, and new entrants continue to push the boundaries of what's possible. New AI protocols added this month include: Vibely: An AI companion designed to alleviate loneliness and anxiety. Calories Cash: A Telegram-based AI agent that allows users to take photos of their food, receive calorie estimates, and earn token rewards. But this month's headlines came from Numerai, a decentralized hedge fund built entirely on machine learning models contributed by thousands of data scientists. Numerai secured $500 million in funding from JPMorgan Asset Management, nearly doubling its assets under management and sending its NMR token soaring over 100% in a matter of days. The fund's performance is driven by AI models staked with NMR, meaning JPMorgan's backing represents not only an influx of capital but also validation of AI-driven asset management coordinated through blockchain incentives. On the infrastructure level, the Render Network entered the AI space by piloting a US-based computing service, introducing high-end GPUs to support decentralized machine learning. This expansion beyond graphics rendering makes Render a strong competitor to cloud giants, with node operators receiving RNDR rewards. Similarly, Bittensor launched a new governance module (dTAO) that gives token holders more control over upgrades and strengthens the TAO's coordinating role in the decentralized AI ecosystem. The Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) Alliance, comprised of Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol, is focused on developer engagement. An August hackathon showcased AI agent use cases ranging from DeFi automation to decentralized data sharing. While the FET token remains stable, the ecosystem's $50 million buyback program and collaborative governance framework provide a solid foundation for long-term growth. Bottom line: Even with some cooling in usage, AI in crypto continues to advance rapidly. Institutional capital, decentralized infrastructure, and an active community are now driving the field's evolution, demonstrating that this isn't just hype but a continued building phase for decentralized AI. NFTs Gain Momentum, Courtyard Makes History The NFT market continued to gain momentum in August. Trading volume increased by 9%, despite a 4% decrease in the number of NFT sales, indicating that while fewer assets were trading, collectors were paying higher prices for each transaction. This made July and August the strongest two months for NFT trading volume and sales since February 2025. There are signs that people are returning to the NFT space. This resurgence is driven in part by mainstream adoption. In Ibiza, the world-renowned nightclub Hi partnered with The Night League and London's W1 Curates to open the first permanent NFT art gallery within the club. Immersive digital installations showcased works by renowned crypto artists like Beeple, Mad Dog Jones, WhIsBe, and KidEight, signaling that NFTs are breaking out of the Web3 sphere. Another driving factor is Base, whose low minting costs and speculation surrounding an upcoming airdrop have fueled NFT activity. Base has now climbed to the third-most traded chain, highlighting how scaling solutions are impacting NFT adoption. Ethereum remains strong, dominating the NFT industry with a 61% market share. In August, developers introduced ERC-8004, a proposed standard for "Trustless Proxies," which uses NFTs as unique on-chain identifiers for autonomous programs. This will enable AI systems and dApps to securely identify and interact with each other using an NFT-based ID and reputation layer. Elsewhere, Solana made progress on scalability, successfully conducting a stress test exceeding 100,000 transactions per second, 10 times the previous average. This move makes Solana a strong contender for hosting large-scale NFT and gaming markets. On the product front, Solana wallet Phantom acquired NFT analytics platform Solsniper, with plans to integrate its wallet tracking and snap-up tools into the Phantom application. On the marketplace side, Blur surpassed OpenSea, capturing 22% of total NFT trading volume, thanks to its aggressive rollout of new features and liquidity incentives. Meanwhile, OpenSea launched a beta version of its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, an open standard that delivers NFT and wallet data in real time to AI applications on over 20 chains, placing it at the intersection of NFTs and AI. On the collectibles front, the biggest surprise came from Courtyard, which became the most traded NFT collectible, surpassing even Ethereum's blue-chip projects. Courtyard's momentum was bolstered by a $30 million Series A funding round in late July, aimed at expanding its model of bringing real-world collectibles on-chain and providing instant liquidity and verifiable provenance. The rise of Courtyard, along with platforms like Phygitals on Solana, suggests that RWAs will become a dominant NFT trend in the second half of 2025. Collaborations with blue-chip projects also made headlines. Azuki partnered with Swiss watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. to launch "Elements of Time," a series of luxury watches connected to Ethereum. Each watch comes with an NFT-based physical backing token (PBT) to verify its authenticity and ownership. Generative art also reached a milestone. Art Blocks announced the upcoming launch of its 500th project and celebrated its fifth anniversary. Scheduled for November, the "Art Blocks 500" series will cover all six categories and mark the end of its Curated Series, heralding the end of the first era of on-chain generative art. The conclusion? The NFT market is heating up again. August saw a 20% increase in Web3 attacks. August was another challenging month for Web3 security. According to the REKT database, losses from hacker attacks and exploits reached $159 million, a 20% increase from July. However, August's figures were modest compared to previous months. The most notable incident in August was a large-scale phishing attack, which accounted for 57% of total losses. Victims lost 783 Bitcoin (approximately $91 million) in a sophisticated social engineering scam in which attackers impersonated customer service representatives from exchanges and hardware wallets. This theft occurred a year after the Genesis creditor exploit resulted in $243 million in losses; the stolen funds were laundered using privacy-focused mixers such as Wasabi Wallet. The second-largest incident occurred at the Turkish exchange BtcTurk, which suffered a suspected hack resulting in losses of approximately $48 million to $50 million. The stolen funds originated from the platform's hot wallets. While deposits and withdrawals were suspended during the investigation, local fiat currency operations and trading services remained normal. Another high-profile attack targeted Odin.fun, a Bitcoin-based memecoin issuance and trading platform. Attackers manipulated liquidity in its automated market-making tool, stealing 58.2 Bitcoin (approximately $7 million). This month once again highlighted the importance of security awareness in Web3. From phishing attacks to hot wallet thefts, attackers continue to evolve their tactics. It's crucial to protect your assets, carefully verify the source of your communications, and use secure storage methods. Conclusion August highlighted the continued vitality of the DApp industry. While overall activity has cooled, DeFi TVL soared to a new all-time high, NFTs regained momentum, and AI dapps continued to attract institutional attention despite declining usage. At the same time, security incidents serve as a reminder that vigilance is more important than ever. However, it's important to note that this cycle is "different." Institutions are no longer sitting on the sidelines, but are actively shaping the market through capital, partnerships, and infrastructure. As we enter the final quarter of 2025, the interplay between retail trends, institutional adoption, and technological breakthroughs will determine the future direction of the industry.
One thing is clear: on-chain innovation is not slowing down.
Alex
JinseFinance
Future
Cointelegraph