The final week of July saw the crypto market end with obvious indications of capital rotation: while larger L1s and DeFi staples moderately cooled off, micro- and mid-cap altcoins surged due to speculative pumps, DeFi activity, and narrative tailwinds.
Even while Bitcoin traded in a narrow range of $118K to $120,000, Ethereum ETFs remained the talk of the town, driving altcoin rallies. Despite recent FOMC news and macroeconomic uncertainties, the entire market capitalization remained resilient, hovering at $3.89 trillion.
- Despite pressure from the FOMC, altcoins rose: The cryptocurrency market remained stable following the FOMC’s July 30 meeting, which kept interest rates unchanged. As a result, altcoins were able to recover well from the mid-month decline.
- The greatest winners this week were PENGU (+65.42%), PEPE (+52.66%), and FLOKI (+41.22%), all of which were propelled by the momentum of meme coins and robust community support.
- AKT (-17.60%), THETA (-11.47%), and ICP (-9.88%) were this week’s top losers. These drops were mostly caused by profit-taking and deteriorating technical structure.
- Although Bitcoin remained range-bound between $118K and $120,000, significant inflows into meme tokens and community projects indicate that select altcoin strength is expected to continue into August.
- Attention was drawn to altcoins with strong community enthusiasm or novel triggers; Story and Sonic tokens also showed great momentum, while Pump.fun and Ethena lead with double-digit gains. As traders shifted to higher-risk opportunities, tokens like Conflux, Celestia, and Uniswap that had experienced large previous rallies or had contentious storylines dipped slightly.
- Now let’s dive deep into the top gainers and losers in crypto this week:
Top weekly gainers
Market cap
<$600M with ~$580M volume
Change in 7 Days
≈+22.7%
Price update
Pump.fun 
pump-2.73%Pump.fun led the list of gainers with a huge ~22.7% surge on high volume, primarily due to hype cycles and momentum trading, and was trading close to $0.003095 as of July 31.
What is Pump.fun?
Pump.fun is a meme-style micro-cap coin that has a reputation for making quick, dramatic swings without any underlying support.
Pros
- Gains that are accelerated during pump cycles.
- Quickly captures speculative and societal attitudes.
Cons
No long-term plan or utility
2. Ethena
Market cap
~$900M–$1B
Change in 7 Days
+12.8%
Price update
Ethena (ENA) is currently trading at around $0.6601, having gained roughly 12.8% in the last 24 hours and performing well each week thanks to synchronization with interest in nominal derivatives and whale accumulation.
What is Ethena?
Using DeFi primitives, this protocol exposes users to ETH and USD movements by leveraging synthetic stablecoins such as vUSDe and vETHd.
Pros
- Innovative derivatives design
- gaining popularity among DeFi traders looking for yield
Cons
- High risk of volatility and liquidation.
- Retail comfort is diminished by complexity.
3. Story Protocol
Market cap
Mid-cap level with ~$72M 24h volume
Change in 7 Days
≈ +8.9%
Price update
Driven by narrative-driven momentum and speculative interest, Story Protocol (IP) finished in the top three with a gain of about 8.9% at roughly $6.18.
What is Story Protocol?
An altcoin with social appeal and tokenomics likely tied to storytelling or NFT integrations.
Pros
- Powerful appeal of branding.
- Captures capital driven by hype.
