Buying swept through the altcoin market as President Donald Trump’s push to advance the CLARITY Act coincided with the US Treasury’s plan to expand Treasury buybacks. Bitcoin and Ether rebounded, while short covering added fuel to the move. Many leading altcoins posted sharp gains. Analysts, however, say it is still too early to call the move the start of a full-fledged altcoin bull market because policy expectations and short-term positioning both drove the advance.
280 of Top 300 Tokens Advance as TRUMP, ENA and XRP Jump
About 280 of the top 300 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization rose over the past week, while about 20 declined. Bitcoin and Ether led the rebound, and buying spread to major altcoins as well as smaller thematic tokens. Among the biggest gainers, tokens tied to ETF expectations and political themes outperformed.
CoinMarketCap data on Aug. 22 showed major altcoins posting double-digit gains over the past week, including Ether (ETH, 33.9%), Solana (SOL, 33%), XRP (XRP, 64.5%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, 45.1%), Dogecoin (DOGE, 42.1%), Cardano (ADA, 42%), Avalanche (AVAX, 22.6%) and Chainlink (LINK, 32.4%). The rebound was no longer confined to Bitcoin and had spread across leading altcoins.
Book of Meme (BOME, 71.2%), Bitway (BTW, 73.7%), HEX (HEX, 70.4%) and Ethena (ENA, 88.8%) also surged. Pump.fun (PUMP, 59%), SPX6900 (SPX, 55.1%), Pepe (PEPE, 69.4%) and Zcash (ZEC, 67%) were among the other strong performers.
Many of the top gainers rose on token-specific catalysts. BTW appeared to benefit from Binance Wallet’s “Bitway Booster UN Season 5” campaign and news of a BTW rewards pool allocation. Traders also pointed to a pattern of sharp gains during previous booster campaigns and an increase in futures open interest.
Official Trump (TRUMP), the political-themed memecoin, soared 87.8% over the past week. Buying picked up after rumors spread that a Trump family-related token could launch on Robinhood Chain, Robinhood’s blockchain network. So far, neither Robinhood nor Trump’s side has officially announced plans for such a token.
ENA gained as BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes bought the token and made bullish comments, while protocol revenue rose and USDe issuance expanded. ZEC advanced as Grayscale amended its filing for a spot ZEC ETF and expectations for institutional accumulation gained traction.
Among mid-cap tokens, PulseX (PLSX, 54%), ANSEM (ANSEM, 52.7%), Geodnet (GEOD, 35.5%), PulseChain (PLS, 47.1%), Plasma (XPL, 37.2%) and TIBBIR by Virtuals (TIBBIR, 39.5%) posted strong gains.
Some tokens lagged the broader market rebound. Cysic (CYS, -45.9%), TAG (TAG, -24%), Velvet (VELVET, -28.8%), Kaito (KAITO, -0.9%) and Genius (GENIUS, -2.5%) fell. CYS appeared to give back part of its earlier gains after profit-taking followed a rally earlier in August driven by expectations for the launch of a decentralized AI benchmarking platform and an Upbit listing.
Is the Altcoin Rally Becoming a Bull Market? Confirmation Still Lacking
Market participants are divided over whether the latest crypto rebound marks the start of a bull market or merely a short-term surge. Prices rebounded quickly as short positions were covered and policy expectations improved. For the altcoin rally to continue, however, Bitcoin needs to hold its recovery and buying needs to spread beyond Ether into other major altcoins.
The overall crypto market has broken out of a prolonged trading range and extended its gains. Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at FxPro, said total cryptocurrency market capitalization rose about 7% in 24 hours to $2.51 trillion. It was up 18% on the week and 24% from last month’s low. He added that the Treasury’s expanded buyback plans revived risk appetite, while short covering helped broaden the rally. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose to 72 on the day, approaching this year’s highs.
Some analysts say major altcoins, led by Ether, still have room to climb. Crypto strategist Michaël van de Poppe said most altcoins remain near their lows versus Bitcoin despite the recent rebound. If altcoins begin to turn decisively, gains could accelerate further. With Ether now above its 200-day moving average, market attention has shifted to whether buying will spread from large-cap altcoins to smaller tokens.
Policy and macroeconomic variables remain central to whether the altcoin rebound can last. Trump has signaled support for advancing the CLARITY Act, a US crypto market-structure bill, and also mentioned the possibility of national-level purchases of digital assets including Bitcoin. That has lifted policy expectations. At the same time, uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz and global oil prices persists after the US signaled tougher economic sanctions on Iran. On Polymarket, the odds of the CLARITY Act becoming law this year remained around 28%, suggesting investors need more evidence that policy expectations will translate into legislation.
Bitfire Research, a Hong Kong-based digital-asset research firm, said the crypto market’s sharp advance was driven not by a single catalyst but by a combination of short liquidations, expectations for lower long-term Treasury yields and a rotation of funds out of AI-related stocks. If regulatory uncertainty around digital assets eases further, selective buying may continue in exchange-listed tokens, token issuance, DeFi and infrastructure-related names.
Others urged caution, saying the latest rebound does not necessarily mean altcoins have entered a full bull market. Benjamin Cowen, founder of Into The Cryptoverse, said Bitcoin staged several sharp rebounds in 2018 that fueled hopes a bottom was forming, but many altcoins later fell another 70% to 80% before recovering.
He also said Bitcoin jumped 23% over a short period in 2022 before its final bottom formed, only to surrender those gains and slide back toward the lows. Until Bitcoin proves it can hold above its 200-day moving average, around $68,977, in the coming weeks, it is difficult to conclude that the altcoin rebound marks a durable trend reversal.
Kang Min-seung, Bloomingbit reporter minriver@bloomingbit.io