In August, several major altcoins — cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin — accelerated sharply after Bitcoin broke out of a long sideways movement. Such assets often follow the main coin, but in strong market phases they can outpace it due to their own drivers. The rise in almost every case was accompanied by strong news flow, with some assets starting to grow even before mid-month, when the market was only preparing for a surge.
How Growth Leaders Were Selected
The selection included highly liquid crypto assets from the top 100 by capitalization in the Coingecko ranking. The comparison was made based on the dynamics over the last 30 days as of September 1. In addition to percentage growth, we looked at factors that could support demand:
- network upgrades
- launch of exchange-traded products
- token buybacks
- entry into new markets
- investor interest
For basic comparison:
- Bitcoin — almost 25% over 30 days, about $78.2K as of September 1; during August, the price approached $80K.
- Ethereum — 32% over 30 days, above $2.45K; for both assets, these were multi-month highs.
In the August movement of Bitcoin, an important signal was the breakout from a long sideways range. In general, the price of the main cryptocurrency is most strongly influenced by:
- demand from institutional and retail investors
- supply and demand balance
- macroeconomic expectations
- regulatory news
- technological changes in market infrastructure
Investments in such instruments remain high-risk: cryptocurrency can change price quickly even on positive news. At the same time, any digital asset is increasingly considered not only as a speculative position but also as part of a portfolio, where liquidity, volatility, and a clear economic model are important.
Cryptocurrencies That Outperformed the Market
And the PUMP Token: Growth Amid Buybacks
remains the largest platform for launching memecoins on the Solana network. The service made token creation fast and cheap: any market participant can launch a coin for a small fee. Since its launch in early 2024, the project has earned more than $1.43 billion, according to Dune. In terms of revenue, it is among the most profitable crypto projects, earning about $1 million daily.
The key feature of the platform is that almost all daily revenue is directed to buy back its own PUMP token. Since the start of the program, the project has already bought back tokens worth more than $382 million. PUMP as a token on the Solana blockchain received additional support precisely due to this mechanism.
Accounted for about 30% of all crypto project buybacks in 2026 — $638 million. Compared to capitalization, total PUMP buybacks have already exceeded 20% of the total market valuation of $1.76 billion.
In mid-August, the first major unlock took place: the team and early investors received 6.875 billion PUMP tokens. At the current rate, this is about $30 million. Usually, such events increase price pressure due to profit-taking, but this time the market withstood the selling pressure and the price continued to rise.
The end of August was the strongest period for PUMP in terms of revenue since September 2025: commissions for the month exceeded $36 million. As of September 1, the token was trading around $0.0044. This is still about 80% below the all-time high of $0.012, which was reached in mid-2025.
Zcash: The Return of the Anonymous Cryptocurrency
Zcash became the main representative of the privacy coin sector. As of September 1, ZEC’s capitalization exceeded $14 billion, and the price held around $840. Before that, the coin had been in a downtrend for years. After its launch at the end of 2016, it had only two notable recovery attempts — in the bull markets of 2017 and 2021.
The growth in 2025 began without loud fundamental changes and without clear mass interest in the project. Nevertheless, over 12 months, the coin rose in price by more than 2000%: in August of the previous year, ZEC was about $40.
At the end of August, the Zcash price hit a multi-year high of about $890. The previous local peak was in 2017 and was around $800. In 2025, the price also tried to consolidate above $750. The all-time high varies by exchange, but on some platforms it exceeded several thousand dollars: for example, on Bitfinex the peak was about $2.6K per ZEC.
At the beginning of August, the network received an important Ironwood upgrade. It closed a vulnerability in the Orchard pool, which is responsible for transaction privacy. The developers stated that this strengthened the security and integrity of the blockchain. Later, the team introduced a mechanism that speeds up private transactions by more than 14 times: each transaction in such a network becomes faster precisely at the technical processing level.
The main event of the month was the launch of the first spot exchange-traded fund based on ZEC in the United States. The management company Grayscale converted the private Grayscale Zcash Trust into an ETF. The fund was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ZCSH at the end of August.
Hyperliquid and Lighter: Demand for Decentralized Perps
Hyperliquid and Lighter compete in the sector of decentralized perpetual futures exchanges. Their native tokens are HYPE and LIT. Over the past 30 days, Lighter ranked fourth among the largest perp-DEXs with a trading volume of $43 billion. The segment leader, Hyperliquid, had a volume of $210 billion over the same period.
In addition to the general improvement in market sentiment, the growth of HYPE and LIT coincided with discussions about the projects entering the US market. The HYPE price surged after statements by US President Donald Trump about bringing Hyperliquid to the US market. There were no concrete decisions, but expectations around the project increased significantly.
Donald Trump did not specify what a US-approved version of Hyperliquid might look like or what regulatory approvals it would need. On this wave, the LIT token also grew, although the US president did not mention it in his statement.
Interest in LIT may have also increased due to Lighter’s role in the Robinhood Chain ecosystem. This network is connected to the blockchain infrastructure of the American broker Robinhood. In August, Robinhood Chain became one of the fastest-growing networks and by September 1 outpaced other blockchains in daily revenue: the figure exceeded $2.5 million per day. For comparison, Ethereum generated about $100K per day.
Back in July, Lighter founder Vladimir Novakowski joined the advisory committee at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Hyperliquid, in turn, announced plans to open access to perps for US traders through a partnership with Payward, the parent company of the Kraken exchange. Payward has already presented the project structure to the regulator, but final approval has not yet been received.
Both platforms use a buyback and burn strategy. Hyperliquid accounted for about 60% of all crypto project buybacks in 2026. Since mid-August, Lighter has been buying tokens daily for more than $100K, directing 100% of revenue to this.
At the end of August, HYPE hit an all-time high of $87. LIT climbed to a local peak of about $3.9 — such prices were last seen only at the end of 2025.
Ethena and ENA: A Bet on the Return of Yield
ENA is the governance token of the Ethena protocol. The project issues the USDe stablecoin with a capitalization of more than $4.1 billion, pegged to the US dollar. Unlike classic stablecoins, USDe is backed not by money in bank accounts, but by trading positions on crypto exchanges.
Ethena builds delta-neutral combinations of long and short positions in the Bitcoin market and earns on the funding rate. This model attracted investors during the crypto market rally in 2024 and 2025, but performed weaker in the bear market. The August rise of Bitcoin could once again make the strategy effective and return cash flows to the project similar to the previous growth cycle.
The first half of August passed for ENA without major news. But closer to the end of the month, the Ethena team announced the buyback of locked ENA tokens belonging to early investors and put to a vote the issue of redistributing commissions to finance the buyback program.
On September 1, the project also announced the EthenaPay neobank based on the Avalanche blockchain network. In August, ENA rose to almost $0.19 — the highest since January 2026.
TRUMP: Memecoin Grew Despite Negative Backdrop
The TRUMP memecoin was launched on the Solana network in January 2025 with the participation of US President Donald Trump's team. Its appearance became the culmination of the memecoin season of 2024 and early 2025. At launch, the price briefly rose above $75, and capitalization exceeded $14 billion.
For most of the year, the news background around the token and related projects remained negative. In mid-August, TRUMP almost updated its all-time low, dropping below $1.4.
The August growth was not hindered by increased media publications about Donald Trump's conflicts of interest in the crypto sector and investor losses. In the fall, the US is set to hold midterm elections. Previously, experts suggested that before them, representatives of the Trump administration might be interested in supporting the crypto market.
As a result, TRUMP grew amid predominantly negative news. Even after a twofold rebound, the token remains about 96% below the peak reached during Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025.
What Unites the Leaders of the Month
Most of the assets that noticeably outpaced Bitcoin had their own driver:
- PUMP — large-scale buyback
- Zcash — network upgrades and ETF launch
- HYPE and LIT — expectations of entering the US market
- ENA — new buyback program and bet on yield recovery
- TRUMP — political factor and interest in memecoins
August showed that in a strong market phase, individual altcoins can grow faster than the main cryptocurrency. But the same list also reminds of the risks: many tokens remain far below all-time highs, and sharp movements often depend on news, regulatory decisions, and short-term demand.
