Binance Report: Ethereum ETF Drives Cryptocurrency Market Growth in July, DeFi Popularity Surges

Binance Research pointed out in its August market report that the overall market cap grew by 6.1% driven by multiple positive news, with increasing attention on the DeFi ecosystem, and the total supply of stablecoins approaching historical highs.

Ethereum Spot ETF Approval Drives Growth in Cryptocurrency Market Capitalization

Firstly, in terms of performance in the cryptocurrency market, the cryptocurrency market capitalization increased by 6.1% in July, mainly driven by positive news such as the completion of the German government's sale of 50,000 bitcoins, the approval and listing of nine Ethereum spot ETFs by the SEC, and the announcement by former U.S. President Trump to establish a bitcoin strategic reserve for Bitcoin 2024.

Regarding coin price performance, Bitcoin also rose by 9.7% due to the positive news mentioned above, while Ethereum, on the other hand, dropped by 1.6%.

Additionally, the report highlighted the following tokens:

• Solana (SOL) increased by 30.5%, benefiting from a 42.2% increase in DEX monthly trading volume compared to the previous period, attributed to the prevalence of meme coins and bot trading
• XRP rose by 27.6%, driven by the launch of the CME XRP Index and the resolution of the SEC lawsuit
• Tron (TRX) increased by 9.8%, entering the top ten tokens by market capitalization, after its founder Sun Yuchen announced the issuance of a native stablecoin with no Gas Fee
• Ton (TON) dropped by 12.8%, despite operating strategies imitating WeChat mini-programs and popular Tap to Earn games, the coin price experienced a pullback amid strong upward momentum

Is the surge in Solana's on-chain activities a temporary speculative trend or a forthcoming trend dominated by L1?

Will TON, the coin that never falls, rely on them? On-chain decryption: The same group of TON Foundation miners mined 85% of the supply

DeFi Heat Rising, Polymarket Shines

In the DeFi sector, the TVL of DeFi locked-in value in July increased by 3.5%, with the protocols experiencing the largest growth being CORE, Scroll, and Mantle.

In terms of trading volume, it is evident that Polymarket, benefiting from the U.S. election, took the lead with a trading volume exceeding $387 million in July, a 614% increase compared to the previous period.

Shift in Staking Heat

Additionally, due to collaborations among well-known yield protocols such as Mellow Finance, Lido, Ether.fi, Ethena, and Pendle based on the Lido Alliance, the TVL of the re-staking project Symbiotic grew by 283% in one month, while the LRT protocol Mellow also increased by 69.6%.

Is the re-staking trend cooling off? EigenLayer saw a net outflow of $4.4 billion in June, and the TVL of the LRT protocol experienced a comprehensive 20% decline

DEX Gaining Attention

The report also found that the ratio of spot and futures trading volume between DEX and CEX continues to rise, at 13.9% and 5% respectively. This indicates that DEX seems to be gaining a significant share in the cryptocurrency market compared to CEX.

Significant increase in DEX market share compared to CEX, Solana Foundation: DeFi development at an "unprecedented" speed

NFT Market Continues to Decline

On the other hand, the NFT market trading volume has been bleak since the end of last year, decreasing by 7.14% to $430 million.

Among them, the digital asset trading platform DMarket ranked first with a trading volume of $16.2 million, while other platforms such as Bitcoin Ordinals and NFT trading volumes on Ethereum saw significant declines, with only a few operational blockchain games showing growing transaction volumes, such as Illuvium and Immutable.

Stablecoin Total Supply Approaching Historical Highs

The total supply of USD stablecoins has been steadily increasing since this year, reaching $155 billion, nearing the historical high of $165 billion in 2022.

Stablecoin supply and liquidity have always been key indicators to assess the demand and enthusiasm in the cryptocurrency market.

It is reported that Ethereum and Tron dominate the on-chain stablecoin supply, accounting for 47.9% and 37.8% respectively, followed by BNB Chain with only $5 billion and a 3.2% market share.