THE WEEKLY WRAP
Crypto markets pushed higher this week, with total market capitalisation climbing 3.07%. Despite the move, the broader market is still trading within the range formed after the August 19 pump.
Sentiment heated up again. The Fear and Greed Index rose from 62 to 71, putting the market firmly back into Greed territory and not far from the recent high of 73.
ETF flows stayed green. Bitcoin ETFs recorded US$986.85 million in net inflows, slightly ahead of last week’s US$924.48 million. Ethereum ETFs also remained positive with US$218.41 million in inflows, although that was well below last week’s US$824.42 million.
Meanwhile, traditional finance took another step onto the blockchain. A group of 21 major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank, revealed plans to launch a US dollar-backed stablecoin in 2027.
BTC vs GOLD vs NASDAQ vs ETH vs VAS
🟡 Gold: +1.38%
🔵 Nasdaq: +16.42%
🔴 Vanguard Australian Shares: +4.06%
🟠 Bitcoin: -9.92%
⚪ Ethereum: -16.44%
Crypto clawed back some ground this week. Bitcoin improved from -10.49% to -9.92% year-to-date, while Ethereum moved from -17.75% to -16.44%.
Nasdaq extended its lead again, climbing from +15.75% to +16.42% and remains the strongest performer of the five. Gold slipped from +2.06% to +1.38%, while Australian shares eased from +4.41% to +4.06%.
Source: TradingView, BTC, GOLD, NASDAQ, VAS, ETH
BITCOIN:
Liquid Network had a very eventful weekend.
Around 4,000 BTC worth US$320 million was withdrawn from the Bitcoin sidechain’s federation wallet after an actor exploited a bug and claimed to be a white-hat hacker.
Liquid paused network activity while Blockstream patched the affected bridge nodes. After the fix, around 3,400 BTC was returned, although roughly 600 BTC remained with the attacker at the latest update.
Importantly, the issue affected Liquid and its bridge infrastructure, not the Bitcoin network itself.
On chain: Bitcoin’s production premium keeps growing
Source: Checkonchain
This chart compares Bitcoin’s market price with ThermoPrice, a measure based on the historical cost of producing mined Bitcoin.
The interesting part is how Bitcoin has traded at progressively higher multiples of that production cost over time.
The 2011 bear market reached roughly 1x ThermoPrice, 2015 bottomed above 2x, while the 2018 and 2022 lows were closer to 6x to 7x.
The latest cycle low was much higher again, at around 12x, with Bitcoin now sitting near the 16x level.
In simple terms, Bitcoin has historically developed a larger monetary premium over its estimated production cost as the network has matured.
Previous cycle highs have approached the 32x band, which currently sits around US$313,000. That does not make it a price target, but it does show how the relationship between Bitcoin’s market value and mining economics has changed across cycles.
ETHEREUM:
ETH could make paying gas much simpler
Ethereum is working on a change for 2027 that could mean users no longer need to keep ETH in their wallet just to pay transaction fees.
For example, someone holding USDC could potentially make a transaction without first buying ETH for gas. The app or wallet could handle the fee in the background, while the Ethereum network still ultimately gets paid in ETH.
It sounds like a small change, but it fixes one of crypto’s most annoying experiences: having funds in your wallet, but not being able to move them because you’re missing a little ETH for gas.
Onchain: Ethereum’s validator queue is filling up
Around 1.97 million ETH has been committed to new validators that are waiting to become active on Ethereum.
Ethereum does not let an unlimited number of validators enter or leave the network at once. Instead, new validators move through an entry queue before they can begin helping secure the network and earning staking rewards.
Right now, that queue is sitting at roughly 34 days, while the exit queue is close to empty.
Source: www.validatorqueue.com
ALTCOINS:
This week was a complete flip from the last one. Every major altcoin sector finished in the green.
AI led the pack, jumping 13.80%, helped by NEAR gaining 19.04% over the week.
Memecoins were close behind at +9.95%, although it was a mixed bag. TRUMP and PENGU finished in the red, while other parts of the meme market did the heavy lifting.
DePIN also had a strong week, climbing 9.27%, while RWA gained 5.15% and Gaming added 4.71%.
DeFi finished up 1.01%, with UNI surging 27.86%. SocialFi was also back in the green at +1.81% after leading the losses last week.
Some of the biggest moves came from the emerging Robinhood Chain narrative. PONS jumped 71.23%, making it the biggest winner in the top 100, while ARB gained 53.42%. Both have been caught up in the recent activity around Robinhood Chain and tokenised equities.
It wasn't only the newer narratives getting attention either. A number of older names including Polkadot, Dash, Internet Computer, Litecoin and Chainlink also put together strong seven-day performances.
Source: https://defillama.com/narrative-tracker
Stock-Paired Memecoins Are Having a Moment
One of the trends in crypto this week has been the rise of stock-paired memecoins on Robinhood’s tokenised equity ecosystem.
The basic setup is pure crypto. A memecoin is paired in a liquidity pool with a tokenised version of an underlying stock. When traders pile into the memecoin, large amounts of the paired stock token can get locked inside the pool, making the remaining on chain supply extremely thin.
That produced some ridiculous weekend pricing. Tokenised AMC briefly traded as high as US$166.86 while the actual stock had closed at US$2.59. Tokenised HIMS also reached US$132.64, compared with a Friday close of US$28.84.
Cue the obvious question: could crypto traders accidentally squeeze the underlying stock too? Not really.
Robinhood’s Stock Tokens are backed 1:1 by underlying shares, but the tokens themselves are still wrappers that track the equity. Making the token scarce does not make the actual shares scarce. When prices drift too far apart, new stock tokens can be issued and backed with additional shares, helping pull the on chain price back toward the traditional market.
So no, BONER (HIMS) holders probably aren’t about to break Wall Street.
But stock-paired memecoins are still an interesting new experiment. They mash together memecoins, tokenised equities, DeFi liquidity pools and 24/7 markets into something crypto has not really had before.
And right now, that appears to be the new meta.
THIS WEEK’S INSIGHTS
Could You Go on Holiday Using Only Crypto?
Flights, hotels, coffee, dinner and even sightseeing. In a few parts of the world, crypto is starting to move well beyond the trading screen.
This week, we looked at Bhutan, Lugano and Madeira to see how close you could realistically get to travelling with crypto as your main way to pay, and why crypto-friendly does not always mean crypto-spendable.
