Crypto Rebounds: ETH Soars 21%, Ethena Crosses $10B, Zora Hits ATH

Happy Monday, TM Family!

Welcome to the Token Metrics Research | Daily newsletter, where we cover key market movements, regulatory updates, and early alpha for our readers and investors. 

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Now let's get back to the top stories of the day.

The crypto market started the week strongly, reversing some profit-taking over the August 9-10 weekend. Bitcoin (BTC) edged closer to its all-time highs, trading around $120,000 with a modest 4.9% weekly gain, buoyed by institutional inflows and positive macroeconomic signals. Ether (ETH) stole the show, rallying over 21% in the past week to surpass $4,300, driven by ETF inflows and pro-crypto regulatory optimism, with implied volatility spiking as traders bet on a retest of its record highs. Solana (SOL), meanwhile, hovered around $181, down nearly 1% in the last 24 hours after weekend selling pressure, with fading bearish momentum and potential for a push toward $200.

Ethena Labs is cementing its status as a DeFi powerhouse. Its synthetic dollar USDe reached a staggering $10B in total value locked (TVL) just 500 days after launch, making it the fastest-growing stablecoin in history. This milestone underscores Ethena's innovative delta-neutral hedging model, collateralizing USDe with staked ETH and short futures positions, generating yields while maintaining peg stability. Supply has ballooned from $6B in July to $10B, fueled by integrations across chains like Solana and Binance Smart Chain, and surging demand for yield-bearing stables amid high ETH staking rewards.

The native ENA token has mirrored this growth, surging over 150% in the last month, with 24-hour volume exceeding $1.3B. Key catalysts include whale accumulations, major exchange listings (e.g., Binance, Bybit), and broader crypto rallies.

Zora, the NFT and social token protocol on Base (Coinbase's L2), shattered records this weekend, surging nearly 50% in 24 hours to push its market cap to $450M and token price toward new highs around $0.14.

This breakout is part of a 1600% rally since mid-July, propelled by its integration into Base's relaunched Superapp, which leverages Zora and Farcaster for seamless creation and trading of "Creator Coins", social tokens tied to content like posts, memes, or NFTs.

Zora's role in Base is pivotal: It powers the creator economy by enabling users to mint coins paired with $ZORA as the base asset, with creators earning 1% fees on trades and 50% of supply streaming to liquidity providers. Post-relaunch, metrics exploded, 1.6M+ Creator Coins minted, 3M unique traders, and $33M+ daily volume, surpassing Solana in token creation activity.

Popularity among creators (e.g., viral projects like Fake Taxi) and investors stems from its low-fee, on-chain socialfi model, distributing $27M+ in rewards in Q2 2025 alone. Critics call it a "hypercasino," but for natives, it's democratizing monetization.

Corporate adoption of crypto treasuries is accelerating, with firms like MicroStrategy and Bitmine exemplifying strategies to bolster balance sheets via BTC and ETH accumulation. MicroStrategy marked the fifth anniversary of its first BTC purchase by adding $18M (155 BTC), pushing holdings to 628,946 BTC valued at ~$76B, or 3% of total supply, with unrealized gains of $30B (65%). Since 2020, the firm has raised $46B in debt/equity to fund buys, yielding 3,000% stock returns vs. BTC's 1,000%. This "BTC boom" has inspired the top 100 public companies to hold 964,314 BTC collectively.

Shifting to ETH, Bitmine Immersion Technology (BMNR) added $2B in ETH last week, nearing $5B in holdings (1.15M ETH) en route to 5% of supply (~$25B target). BMNR's volume topped $2.2B daily, outpacing JPMorgan, with shares up 10% pre-market. This reflects a broader trend: ETH treasuries emphasize yield via staking/DeFi, as seen in SharpLink (215k ETH staked) and emerging players like The Ether Machine. Risks include volatility and leverage, but benefits, resilience in downturns, and income generation, make this a core institutional play.