A number of cryptocurrencies have increased in value by tens of percent amid the collapse of the rest of the crypto market. The growth of these tokens accompanies the increased interest of crypto traders in the AI sector and traditional assets, RBC writes.
Unconventional situation
When the rates of bitcoin and Ethereum fall, the prices of all other cryptocurrencies usually follow them down, and the only difference is which ones sag more. But in the situation with a significant drop in the bitcoin rate since the beginning of summer, something unusual is happening: against the background of the collapse of the two first in terms of capitalization coins, several major altcoins have not only survived, but also soared up to 130% over the past seven days.
At the same time, the reasons for the fall of some coins and the growth of others may be related. On the one hand, the crypto market is experiencing the strongest capital outflow in all directions. On the other hand, the boom of artificial intelligence (AI) encourages some investors to leave the crypto market, simultaneously attracting the interest of participants to crypto-assets of the AI sector, as well as to traditional assets. Even industry leaders represented by the largest crypto exchange Binance noted that the weakness of the crypto market in recent months can be explained not by internal factors, but by the outflow of capital into U.S. stocks.
Bitcoin (BTC) has retreated 14% over the past seven days to below $63k, Ethereum (ETH) is trading around $1.76k – for both assets, these price levels are near 2026 lows. From a peak in October 2025 of over $126k, the bitcoin exchange rate has sagged by almost 50%.
The head of CryptoQuant, Ki Yong Ju, pointed out that the average bitcoin buy price, according to their analysis, was around $53k. And according to him, historically bear markets have only ended after the price fell below that level. Another analyst firm, Glassnode, pointed out that investors are selling bitcoin en masse at a loss with total losses of up to $1.35 billion per day. At the same time, $770 million comes from long-term holders who formed their trading position near the bitcoin price peak.
Against the backdrop of the last week’s decline, experts once again spoke of a bear market. Jan van Eck, head of wealth management company Vaneck, stated that the cryptocurrency market is in a state of “cryptozyme.” He also suggested that many cryptocurrencies, not including bitcoin, will not survive the next five to ten years. And Bloomberg called the current situation “the worst cryptozyme in history,” noting a number of reasons for the market’s decline, including interest in AI technologies and the rise of traditional company stocks.
However, amid the negative price performance of the main cryptocurrency, a number of large assets have shown significant growth. But this is not a typical altcoin season (a period of general growth of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin), but rather a point capital flow into assets with specific growth drivers. Of the top 10 in terms of growth over the past seven days in the Coinmarkecap Top 100 list, the performance of six cryptocurrencies is related to the AI sector and traditional assets. Another token is related to the stablecoin sector, while the remaining three represent the memcoin market.
At the same time, against the backdrop of the crypto market’s decline over the past few weeks, the prices of many assets on global stock markets are updating historical highs. For example, indices of the largest U.S. companies S&P500 and NASDAQ have regularly reached new peaks since April.
Back in January, a major market maker Wintermute voiced its opinion about a point capital flow, suggesting that investors’ funds are no longer “spreading widely across the market”, being concentrated and distributed unevenly, which is confirmed by the current dynamics in the crypto market.
AI and traditional assets
The AI sector is represented by three cryptocurrencies: the AI identity project Humanity Protocol (H), up 130% in the past seven days; Worldcoin (WLD), from the same category as H, up 65%; Venice Token (VVV), up 15%, engaged in the use of AI agents. The dynamics of AI tokens cannot be called a short-term surge, because many of these assets were on the lists of the most growing in previous weekly periods. For example, WLD and VVV were on the top list for percentage growth at the end of May, and H was one of the growth leaders for April.
Two more projects represent the decentralized trading platform (DEX) sector specializing in perpetual futures (Perp) exchange tokens Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Lighter (LIT) with 15 and 30% growth respectively. These DEXs hold the first and third leading positions in Perp-DEX volumes, giving crypto traders access to trading futures on traditional company stocks.
This is likely due to the fact that instruments giving exposure in traditional assets have become some of the most sought-after instruments on crypto exchanges: over the past five months, trading volume in perpetual crypto futures linked to the price of stocks or metals has exceeded $820 billion. Hyperliquid is the largest in terms of traditional asset futures volumes, second only to Binance.
Stellar and memcoins
Stellar (XLM) belongs to the same category of projects that interconnect the crypto market with the traditional market. In late May, Stellar partnered with DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation), the organization through which Wall Street trades are cleared and settled (servicing over $100 trillion in assets). DTCC announced that tokenized assets from its depository will be available on Stellar starting in the first half of 2027.
The three remaining tokens in the top 10 in terms of growth over the past seven days are memcoins and include Chinese meme token 币安人生 (币安人生) and Siren (SIREN) with a 60% increase, and MemeCore (M), which added about 15%. The latter two assets are known for their volatility. In recent months, they have periodically been able to rise hundreds of percent in a day and then collapse by 50% without any underlying fundamentals or accompanying news background.
The memcoin 币安人生 symbol combination translates from Chinese as Binance Life, which is the title of a book by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Thus the memcoin 币安人生 has become the unofficial symbol for everything Zhao and Binance related.
In the crypto community, memcoins are often used as a tool for “betting on an event” – for example, on the success or “hype” around a famous personality or phenomenon. Such a scenario could unfold around Binance’s new product, as 币安人生 is associated with the platform. In early June, the exchange launched the trading of U.S. stocks of companies and exchange-traded funds directly, followed by the ability to tokenize them on the BNB Chain blockchain network. Just at the same time, the exchange rate 币安人生 began an active growth.
Another cryptocurrency that did not enter the trends, but grew in value by 15%, is Ethena (ENA). Its growth came amid a partnership with the largest US crypto exchange Coinbase, whose venture capital arm reported buying ENA tokens on the open market. Although details have not yet been disclosed, Ethena has announced the release of a product related to steiblcoin USDC issuer Circle next week.
