Gate Research Institute: BTC continues to rise, CONSCIOUS leads with higher trade volumes of over 900%, and the narrative drive of small and medium market capitalization intensifies.

2025-09-19 07:04:23

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Encryption Market Overview

According to CoinGecko data, from September 2 to September 15, 2025, the encryption market continued its diversified development pattern. In terms of market trends, BTC oscillated upwards along the ascending trend line, testing the resistance level of 117,400 USD multiple times; ETH once surged to 4,950 USD but entered a consolidation phase after encountering resistance at the high.

In terms of performance of altcoins, mid- and small-cap assets have become the main line of this round of capital rotation, with MYX and CONSCIOUS recording over 900% gains, showing the most remarkable performance and significant volume characteristics; PUMP also rose over 120% during the same period, strongly advancing with the combined push of community enthusiasm and trading momentum, significantly driving the recovery of short-term speculative sentiment in the market. Overall, narrative clarity and outstanding flexibility in thematic tokens have attracted concentrated investment, becoming the main rebound force in a volatile market.

On the ecological level, the Solana treasury project DeFi Development has launched the “.dfdv” domain service, actively promoting the construction of an on-chain identity system; Arbitrum has seen a net inflow of $204 million due to the DRIP incentive mechanism, with TVL climbing to $3.531 billion, and trading in stablecoins and lending protocols is active. Pump.fun has regained market dominance through token buybacks and creator incentives, with both platform trading volume and revenue rebounding. In addition, enterprises and institutions continue to increase their investments in Bitcoin, with Asset Entities and Strive Enterprises announcing a merger and raising $1.5 billion to purchase BTC, demonstrating institutional confidence in the long-term value of encryption assets.

Overall, stablecoins, lending protocols, and creator economies have gained favor from capital, with both funding activity and TVL rebounding; coupled with the rebound trends of BTC and ETH, this indicates that market confidence continues to recover, and structural trends and institutionalization are advancing simultaneously.

Overview of the price fluctuation data for this round

This article groups and analyzes the top 500 tokens by market capitalization, observing their average increase from September 2 to September 15.

The overall average increase is 17.12%, and the market structure shows a typical distribution of "strong at both ends, weak in the middle." Among them, the top 100 tokens by market capitalization (+22.07%) and the 401–500 range (+21.76%) performed the best, representing the steady rise of mainstream assets and the high elasticity of small and medium market capitalization tokens. The 301–400 (+18.45%) and 201–300 (+13.84%) ranges also maintained good growth, demonstrating robust momentum; in contrast, the 101–200 range only increased by 9.48%, making it the weakest performer among all ranges.

Overall, the current market presents a pattern of "major mainstream assets favored by institutions + mid to low market cap driving a resurgence in risk appetite", with strong synchronous gains in both leading and trailing assets, reflecting that the market structure is developing towards diversification and rotation, laying a foundation for subsequent ecological and thematic rotations.

Note: The market capitalization distribution is based on CoinGecko data, grouping the top 500 tokens by market capitalization into sets of 100 (e.g., rankings 1–100, 101–200, etc.). It calculates the price fluctuations of the tokens in each group from September 2 to September 15, 2025, and computes the average for each group as the average increase indicator for that market capitalization range. The overall average increase (17.12%) is the unweighted average of the individual increases of the top 500 tokens.

Figure 1: The overall average increase is 17.12%, with the most remarkable increase being in tokens ranked 1-100 by market capitalization, with an average increase exceeding 22%.

Price Change Leaderboard

In the past two weeks, the encryption market has continued its overall upward trend, with significant capital rotation driving explosive growth in several mid- and small-cap tokens. Among the top ten gainers, most tokens are concentrated in Meme, early projects, and emerging application ecosystems, combining topicality and hype, making them the primary targets for short-term market funds.

Among them, MYX (+935.78%) has the highest increase and performs exceptionally well. MYX is a non-custodial derivatives exchange that focuses on on-chain trading of perpetual contracts for almost any asset. With its Matching Pool mechanism, it offers low slippage, high leverage, and USDC margin features, successfully attracting a large number of high-frequency traders. Recently, the expectations for the V2 upgrade, whale accumulation, the unlocking topic, and the interaction of community enthusiasm have amplified, leading to a continuous influx of funds, making it a typical case of narrative and social dual-driven dynamics in this round of market.

Subsequently, CONSCIOUS (+926.57%) follows, its narrative combines popular concepts such as DID, AI, and SocialFi, rapidly gaining popularity through liquidity design and community enthusiasm; ZRX (+255.48%), SNEK (+208.93%), and IBERA (+195.20%) are characterized by high elasticity and ecological support. In addition, tokens like STHYPE, CFG, OPENX, and REX have also made the list, generally possessing clear narrative expectations and ecological incentive mechanisms, becoming key investment focuses for short-term funds.

In contrast, the decline list shows relatively mild fluctuations, with NMR (-29.65%) leading the drop, followed by FORM (-28.08%) and B (-21.33%). Others like ICX, POLYX, MASK, LINEA, and WAVES have declines ranging from -10% to -20%, mostly due to a lack of sustained themes or a decline in market attention.

Overall, the market style still focuses on high Beta and strong narrative assets. In the short term, tokens with community mobilization and funding mechanisms are more favored; while projects lacking liquidity or experiencing diminished popularity are gradually being marginalized. The structural rotation pattern is expected to continue evolving in the short term.

Figure 2: The most prominent is the decentralized derivatives trading platform token MYX, which benefits from the expectations of the V2 upgrade, whale accumulation, and the fermentation of community topics. Coupled with its low slippage and high leverage Matching Pool mechanism advantages, it has surged by as much as 935.78% in the past two weeks.

Relationship between market capitalization ranking and price fluctuation

To further analyze the structural characteristics of token performance in this round of market trends, this article presents a scatter distribution chart of the top 500 tokens by market capitalization. The horizontal axis represents the market capitalization ranking (the further to the left, the larger the market cap), while the vertical axis shows the price fluctuations from September 2 to September 15, using a logarithmic scale. Each dot in the chart represents a token, with green indicating an increase and red indicating a decrease.

From an overall distribution perspective, the number of rising tokens significantly exceeds that of falling tokens, indicating that the funding sentiment in this round of market condition is optimistic. The market has exited the general correction phase and entered a new structural rotation cycle. Most of the rising tokens have gains concentrated in the 10%-100% range, and high Beta assets with gains exceeding 100% are also clearly concentrated in the mid to late market capitalization positions.

The most outstanding among them include:

MYX (+935.78%): A decentralized derivatives platform, benefiting from the V2 upgrade, whale accumulation, and community enthusiasm, leading the market.
CONSCIOUS (+926.57%): Combining the popular concepts of DID, AI, and SocialFi, it has rapidly gained popularity through its liquidity mechanism and topic dissemination;
ZRX, SNEK, REX, OPENX, etc., are all small to mid-cap tokens that have achieved significant surges under strong narratives and funding boosts.

On the other hand, the projects with significant declines are mostly concentrated in tokens that lack topic support or have experienced a decline in popularity, including:

NMR (-29.65%) and FORM (-28.08%) are among the top declines in this round;
B, ICX, POLYX and others also experienced double-digit pullbacks, mainly due to reduced market attention and capital withdrawal.

Overall, the market's current capital preference is focused on mid to low market cap tokens with clear narratives and active communities, while most mainstream assets experience mild fluctuations, with structural rotation becoming a key characteristic of the prevailing market trend.

Figure 3: Among the top 500 tokens by market capitalization, the majority are tokens that have risen, with funds focusing on projects with distinct themes and high volatility in the mid to late market capitalization segment, showing significant structural market characteristics.

Top 100 Market Capitalization Rankings

In this round of volatile market, the top 100 tokens by market capitalization have shown a stable and upward performance, with an average increase of 22%, reflecting that mainstream assets still possess a certain level of capital support and price resilience in a fluctuating environment. Although most tokens have stable trends, some highly elastic and popular tokens have still recorded significant increases, becoming the focus of short-term capital attention.

The top five projects with the highest price increase generally possess strong narratives and community dynamics. For example, MYX leads the way with its innovative derivatives mechanism and strong community engagement; the M token has strengthened its narrative of membership-based scarcity with the "HALLO MEME" limited offline event organized by MemeCore, stimulating market demand and FOMO sentiment; PUMP benefits from a surge in platform trading volume, social media popularity, and continuous buybacks. Although there have been no significant changes in its fundamentals, the highly speculative atmosphere has made it a hot topic. Others like WLD and HASH are also attracting market funds due to expectations of ecological development and the sustainability of their themes.

In contrast, the overall adjustment range of the decline list is limited, and there is no significant panic selling pressure, indicating that the top 100 tokens by market capitalization still possess good capital absorption capability. Mainstream public chains such as SOL and POL maintain a fluctuating trend, and the structural market conditions have not yet significantly spread to core assets.

Figure 4: Among the top 100 tokens by market capitalization, the top five projects with the highest price increase mostly possess high elasticity and strong community discussion topics, attracting the favor of short-term funds.

Analysis of the performance of this round of volume release

Trade Volume Growth Analysis

Based on the analysis of token price performance, this article further observes the changes in trading volume of certain tokens during this market cycle. Using the trading volume before the market started as a benchmark, the growth multiplier of trading volume up to September 15 is calculated to measure changes in market heat and trading activity.

Data shows that HASH, ATH, and UB recorded trading volume growths of 27.50 times, 26.05 times, and 25.94 times respectively, while prices simultaneously increased by 47.51%, 92.95%, and 47.92%, demonstrating a clear "volume-price resonance" structure, reflecting a strong consensus and trading sentiment in the market regarding these three. Among them, HASH is a mainstream project ranked in the top 100 by market capitalization, and its ability to achieve significant price increases in this round of market indicates that it possesses certain capital attraction and fundamental support.

In addition, although MYX's trading volume growth is slightly lower (18.77 times), its price rebound reached as high as 935.78%, indicating that its community enthusiasm and market sentiment far exceed that of general thematic coins, possessing high speculation and explosive potential. OPENX also recorded a volume increase of 11.90 times, with a price rebound of 143.99%, making it a representative project with both enthusiasm and flexibility in the mid to low market cap sector.

From a structural perspective, this round of increased project volume is mainly concentrated in the mid to late market capitalization range, and the growth in trading volume shows a certain degree of correlation with the price increase, indicating that the market is engaged in short-term speculation around trading activity and strong narrative themes. Abnormal fluctuations in trading volume are often a precursor to capital attention and serve as an important signal for assessing potential rotation directions.

Figure 5: Tokens such as HASH, ATH, and UB have seen significant trading volume in this round of market, and most of them have experienced price increases in sync, showcasing a typical characteristic of volume-price resonance, becoming an important focus for concentrated capital games.

Volume Changes and Price Analysis

Based on the continued observation of projects with unusual trading volume, this article further combines price performance to plot a scatter distribution chart of Volume Increase Multiple and Price Change %. The horizontal axis represents the growth multiple of each token's trading volume compared to the benchmark period over the past two weeks, while the vertical axis represents the percentage change in price during the same period, using symmetric logarithmic axes to clearly present the structural relationship between volume increase and price rise.

From the chart, it can be seen that the upper right quadrant gathers core assets with significant characteristics of "increased volume + rising," representing the main direction of capital in the structural rotation of the market. The most prominent are:

MYX: Trading volume increased by 18.77 times, and price surged by 935.78%, reflecting a combination of community-driven support and strong speculative sentiment;
OPENX: Trading volume increased by 11.9 times, price rose by 143.99%, showing a clear characteristic of volume-price resonance;
ATH, UB, HASH and others also recorded more than 25 times the volume, accompanied by a price rebound of 40-90%, indicating a high enthusiasm for funding participation in mid to late stage market capitalization projects.

In addition, tokens such as WLD, MAG7, SSI, and DEGEN are also distributed in the upper right quadrant. Although the trading volume may not be extremely amplified, combined with favorable factors such as platform listings and topic fermentation, the price performance remains excellent, demonstrating the market's continued attention to projects with narrative value.

Relatively speaking, although there are still some projects with local price increases in the left area, the increase in trading volume is not significant; on the other hand, the projects in the lower right quadrant (high volume but low price increase) exhibit a "high volume but no price increase" structure, indicating a lack of sufficient fundamentals or emotional catalysts to support them, and the willingness of funds to follow is limited.

Overall, projects in the upper right quadrant generally possess clear information catalysts, strong community support, and liquidity guarantees, making them key targets for capital rotation in this market cycle. The structural characteristics of significant price increases highlight the importance of thematic effectiveness and indicate that the market is gradually shifting from emotional trading to a phase focused more on fundamentals and the intensity of narratives.

Figure 6: Tokens such as MYX, OPENX, and ATH are located in the upper right quadrant, presenting a typical "volume increase" structure, becoming key targets for short-term rotation funds in the market.

Correlation Analysis

After discussing the relationship between the changes in token trading volume and price performance, this article further analyzes the structural linkage between the two from a statistical perspective. To assess whether market capital activity systematically affects price volatility, the relative activity indicator "trading volume / market capitalization" is introduced, and its correlation coefficient with price changes is calculated. Through this analysis, it is possible to identify tokens that are more easily driven by capital in the current market and reveal the strength of the linkage between volume and price.

As can be seen from the chart, the correlation coefficients of most tokens are concentrated in the range of 0.70 to 0.85, indicating a general positive correlation between capital activity and price fluctuations. The colors of the bubbles in the chart reflect the strength of the correlation (red indicates higher, blue indicates lower), while the size of the bubbles represents the market capitalization, making it easier to distinguish structural characteristics.

The tokens DEGEN, MARSMI, VRSC, located in the upper left corner, have the highest correlation, with correlation coefficients approaching 0.9. This indicates that these small to medium market cap projects are more likely to trigger price fluctuations synchronously when trading volume increases, making them typical high-elasticity "volume-price interactive" tokens, which are often the focus of short-term capital speculation.

On the right side of the chart, tokens such as WLD, WAL, BEAM, and ATH have some projects that exhibit characteristics of volume and price increase. However, the correlation coefficient between their trading volume and price is relatively low (around 0.72–0.75). Most of these projects have a large market capitalization (larger bubbles), reflecting good depth and capital support. However, their price performance is not as sensitive as that of mid to small-cap projects, showing a more stable trend structure, which may be more favored by long-term or institutional funds.

Overall, the current market structure presents a typical "elastic layering": small and medium market cap tokens exhibit high correlation and high volatility characteristics, suitable for short-term speculation; while large market cap projects attract conservative funds with their low correlation and high stability traits. Investors can choose appropriate targets based on their own risk preferences.

Figure 7: The trading volume and price fluctuations of mid-cap tokens such as DEGEN, VRSC, and MARSMI have the highest correlation, exhibiting high volatility elasticity; large-cap projects like WLD and ATH have weaker but more stable correlations.

In summary, this round of the encryption market continues to exhibit structural rotation, with market sentiment improving and the characteristics of volume-price linkage becoming increasingly evident. Tokens with small to medium market capitalization such as MYX, OPENX, and ATH have surged strongly under increased trading volume, becoming the focus of short-term capital speculation; while large-cap projects like WLD, ATH, and WAL have shown stable performance, attracting long-term capital allocation due to their liquidity and depth, reflecting a trend of stratification in market risk appetite.

In addition to trading market conditions, several potential airdrop projects are also ongoing, covering popular directions such as AI blockchain, Web3 community incentives, stablecoin deposits, and decentralized node networks. If users can grasp the rhythm and continuously participate in interactions, they are expected to gain an early position in a fluctuating market, obtaining token incentives and airdrop qualifications. The following will organize four noteworthy projects and participation methods to assist in systematically laying out Web3 dividend opportunities.

Airdrop Hot Projects

This article organizes the airdrop potential projects worth focusing on from September 2 to September 15, 2025, covering several active early projects such as KITE AI (an AI modular blockchain built on Avalanche), OneFootball (a community platform combining football culture with Web3 incentive mechanisms), Arbitrum DRIP (an L2 reward program focused on stablecoin deposits and lending incentives), and Nexus (a decentralized node network based on zero-knowledge proofs). Users can continuously accumulate early participation credentials through account registration, wallet and social account binding, task completion, and staking operations. The following will organize each project's positioning, recent incentive paths, and main interaction processes to assist users in grasping the potential bonus window of Web3.

KITE AI

KITE AI is a modular blockchain platform designed specifically for the AI ecosystem, built on Avalanche, utilizing a unique Proof of Attributed Intelligence (PoAI) mechanism to ensure fair rewards for AI contributors. The second round of incentive testnet V2 has now launched, with an open airdrop participation channel, allowing users to earn XP points and obtain future airdrop eligibility by linking social accounts and completing tasks.

Participation method:

Go to the official KITE AI testnet platform and connect your wallet (V1 users can continue to use the original wallet address).
Complete the registration information, and you can choose to bind your X account and Discord, each earning +50 XP.
Complete the task Q&A (a total of 6 steps), and unlock the full account features afterward. The accumulated XP will serve as an important basis for airdrops and rewards.

OneFootball

OneFootball is a community platform that combines football culture with Web3 incentive mechanisms. Users can accumulate "BALLS" points by participating in tasks, completing identity verification, and engaging in social interactions to partake in future rewards and airdrops. Currently, the channels for claiming Season 1 and Season 2 are open, and social task point activities are ongoing.

Participation method:

Go to the OneFootball Community Portal, connect your wallet, and complete your account registration.
Verify the addresses participating in Season 1 and Season 2 to receive the corresponding BALLS.
Complete social tasks such as following the X account to earn extra points rewards.
Inviting friends to participate and complete tasks can also earn extra referral points, which are used for community ranking and future reward eligibility.

Arbitrum

Arbitrum has launched the DRIP (DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program) incentive program, allowing users to participate in liquidity protocols by depositing ETH or stablecoins to earn daily $ARB rewards on-chain. This round of activities is the first season and will last until January 20, 2026.

Participation method:

Go to the DRIP event official website, connect your wallet, and browse the DeFi protocols available for participation.
Choose tasks based on your own strategy and provide liquidity.
The APR Boost (reward rate) for each strategy differs from the daily rewards. You can refer to the data shown in the task list to choose the most suitable method.

Nexus

Nexus is a decentralized network based on zero-knowledge (zk) computing, currently in the Testnet III testing phase. Users can run nodes, generate zk-proofs, and accumulate points to earn future NEX token rewards. The platform offers a global node visualization map that displays the number of active nodes, throughput, and the number of cities running, providing a high sense of participation and reward mechanism. 【5】

Participation method:

Go to the Nexus Testnet official website, run the client node, and it will automatically start generating zk-proof and counting towards Ops/s (operations per second) after startup.
After generating a zk-proof for a period of time, you can earn points (Points) by clicking the 【Claim】 button in the lower right corner.
On the left sidebar, you can view the history of reward claims on the 【Rewards】 page. Currently, every 1,000 accumulated points can be exchanged for 1 NEX testnet token.

Prompt

The airdrop plans and participation methods may be updated at any time, and users are advised to follow the official channels of the above projects for the latest information. At the same time, users should participate cautiously, be aware of the risks, and conduct thorough research before participating. [Gate]https://www.gate.com/( does not guarantee the distribution of subsequent airdrop rewards.

Summary

Looking back at the market performance from September 2 to September 15, 2025, the overall trend of encryption assets continued with a "structural rotation + theme-driven" pattern, and the signals of volume-price linkage significantly strengthened. BTC and ETH tested the key levels of $117,400 and $4,950 respectively, maintaining the upward trend of mainstream assets and providing confidence anchors for the market.

The top 100 tokens by market capitalization have shown stable performance, attracting continuous attention from institutional funds; meanwhile, small and medium market cap tokens have seen a strong explosion during the rotation of funds, with high-elasticity assets like MYX and CONSCIOUS rising over 900%, accompanied by a significant increase in trading volume, becoming typical narrative-driven hotspots in this round of market activity. Overall, the performance of tokens ranked 1–100 and those in the 401–500 range has been particularly impressive, with both leading and trailing assets contributing, driving the overall average increase to over 17%.

From the perspective of data structure, there is a high positive correlation between trading volume and price. Tokens such as HASH, ATH, and OPENX have a volume multiple exceeding 20 times, and prices are rising in tandem, concentrated in the upper right quadrant of the scatter plot, indicating that funds prefer "high activity + strong narrative" mid-cap projects. The correlation coefficients of trading volume/market capitalization to price for most tokens are concentrated in the range of 0.70–0.90, confirming that activity is becoming an important variable affecting price increases.

Overall, the market is currently in a phase of structural differentiation characterized by "topic speculation priority and mainstream wait-and-see consolidation." Funds continue to focus on small and medium-sized market-cap assets with strong community interest and topicality for short-term rotations, while mainstream asset sectors are waiting for clearer macro catalysts or technical breakthroughs to drive the next stage of trend movements.

In addition, the KITE AI, OneFootball, Arbitrum, and Nexus projects tracked in this issue focus on AI modular blockchain, football culture community platform, mainstream Layer2 incentive mechanisms, and decentralized zk computing networks, all of which are in the early incentive stage, with clear participation paths and defined reward mechanisms. Users can accumulate points and task progress through methods such as registering an account, binding social platforms, depositing assets, or running nodes to qualify for subsequent airdrops or token rewards. It is recommended to continue participating in task advancement, as it not only helps to grasp the project's development trends, but also provides opportunities to capture the new round of Web3 dividends.
References:

CoinGecko, [https://www.coingecko.com/])https://www.coingecko.com/(
KITE AI, [https://testnet.gokite.ai/landing])https://testnet.gokite.ai/landing(
OneFootball, [https://app.megaphone.xyz/pages/onefootballclub?r=Yt4G2tFdYHXz])https://app.megaphone.xyz/pages/onefootballclub?r=Yt4G2tFdYHXz(
Arbitrum, [https://arbitrumdrip.com/])https://arbitrumdrip.com/(
Nexus, [https://app.nexus.xyz/])https://app.nexus.xyz/(

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