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Bitcoin Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), solana (SOL) and other top 10 coins have had a rough time recently, each dropping at least 2% in the past seven days. Still, there’s always a bull market somewhere, and several crypto subsectors have made impressive gains.
Coins associated with derivative protocols, especially those focused on permanent futures such as HYPE and LIT, have increased by 40% or more.
HYPE has been rallying since Trade.xyz, a trading interface based on the Hyperliquid blockchain, filed a permanent pre-IPO deal on Monday, valuing the company at $1.78 trillion. Trading volume on the deal reached $30 million on its first day. According to data source DefiLlama, the protocol consistently generates millions per week in fee revenue, which is more than 40% of total market-wide fee revenue.
And it’s not just Hyperliquid. Investors are also trading elsewhere. According to CoinGecko, the average monthly volume of the top 12 decentralized exchanges for perpetual futures contracts has increased from $532 billion in 2025 to $612 billion in 2026.
Privacy and quantum resistant coins such as Zcash (ZEC), Quantum Resistant Ledger’s QRL, Qubitcoin’s QTC and Starknet’s STRK are also growing, with gains between 6% and 25%.
The data shows that investors are willing to ignore macro and geopolitical concerns and deploy capital, but only in coins with strong use cases and narratives.
Privacy is the flavor of the season, something fund managers like Arthur Hayes say is a basic necessity as advanced AI, big tech firms and government surveillance increasingly erode privacy. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin on Wednesday outlined steps taken to bring privacy features to Ethereum, the world’s largest smart contract blockchain.
As for quantum threats, Google researchers have already warned that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could, in theory, attack a large blockchain like Bitcoin with significantly fewer resources than previously estimated.
Bitcoin itself is struggling to recover lost ground over the past seven days, currently trading around $77,300.
Analysts at Marex said the “softening of the final stages” of talks between the US and Iran “takes some inflationary pressure off the tape and provides room for risk assets to bounce”.
However, it doesn’t feel like the clean start of a bull trend, he said, but more like a relief bid in a market still constrained by rates.
In traditional markets, NVDA closed flat on Wednesday. Quarterly Income ReportWhile oil fell to 98 dollars per barrel. Be careful!
Read more: For an analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
What’s trending?
Today’s tip
Ether’s price has broken below the trend line connecting the March and April lows. This trend line represented a recovery rally.
A breakdown therefore suggests an end to the price rally and may invite further selling pressure from momentum traders, potentially leading to a deeper price rally.
The $1,937 low, from which prices rose in late March, is now key support. A breach there would indicate a level below $1,800.