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Altcoins, Stablecoins, Tokenized Stocks Drove July’s Crypto Gains, Binance Says
The crypto market cap rose 13% in July with ether leading altcoins higher, stablecoins overtaking Visa and tokenized stocks surging 220%, Binance Research said.
Updated Aug 18, 2025, 8:39 a.m. Published Aug 17, 2025, 1:00 p.m.
What to know:
- Ether jumped 51% in July as corporate treasury holdings more than doubled.
- U.S. stablecoin legislation fueled $2.1 trillion in monthly transfers, surpassing Visa volumes.
- Market cap of widely traded equities grew 220%, echoing early DeFi expansion.
The crypto market grew 13% in value in July, fueled by a rotation from bitcoin into altcoins, according to Binance Research’s "Monthly Market Insights" report for August.
Ether was the standout, rallying 48% as another 24 companies added the asset to their balance sheets, lifting corporate holdings by 128% to 2.7 million ETH. That's nearly half the number held by ETFs. Binance attributed the trend to staking yield, ETH’s deflationary supply and growing comfort among companies to hold cryptocurrencies directly .
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Bitcoin dominance fell 5.2 percentage points to 60.6%, driven by expectations of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and U.S. regulatory clarity from the passage of three major crypto bills, including the GENIUS Act on fully reserved stablecoins .
Stablecoin transfer volumes held near $2.1 trillion, outpacing Visa again, as they have done since late 2024. JPMorgan expanded its deposit-token pilot, Citi explored tokenized deposits for cross-border settlements and Visa reaffirmed stablecoins as complementary to its network .
The report also highlights a 220% month-on-month jump in the market cap of widely traded tokenized stocks such as Tesla (TSLA). The company excluded Exodus Movement (EXOD) shares issued via Securitize from its calculations, saying they skewed the calculation.
Tokenization is the process of representing real-world assets (RWAs) such as stocks as digital equivalents that can be traded on blockchains. As of June this year, the RWA tokenization market reached $24 billion in value.
Active on-chain addresses for tokenized stocks soared to 90,000 from 1,600, while centralized exchanges facilitated over 70 times more volume than on-chain venues. Binance likened the growth of the sector to DeFi’s 2020-2021 boom and estimated that tokenizing just 1% of global equities could create a $1.3 trillion market.
NFT sales rebounded nearly 50% in July, led by a 393% jump in CryptoPunks transactions, while Bitcoin NFTs saw a 28% rise. Still, volumes remain below prior-cycle peaks.
The report suggests that if macroeconomic tailwinds hold, the capital rotation into altcoins, coupled with the regulatory green light for stablecoins and tokenized assets, could accelerate crypto’s integration into mainstream finance.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
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