Crypto Market Weekly Report: Stablecoin Rise Indicates Fund Inflow, but Overall Sentiment Remains Dull

This week, the crypto market has shown a trend of fluctuating decline, with the market sentiment index dropping from 11% to 8%. Nevertheless, the market capitalization of stablecoins has experienced a rapid rise, with USDT reaching 142.7 billion and USDC reaching 57.2 billion, with growth rates of 0.49% and 2.32% respectively, indicating that institutional funds are re-entering the market, primarily driven by the growth rate of US capital.

Although recent economic data and the Federal Reserve's announcements have eased market concerns about a recession in the United States, and the market has begun to anticipate three interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year, possibly starting in May, these factors have not improved market sentiment. On the contrary, recent policy fluctuations have triggered significant volatility in Bitcoin prices, leading to increased panic in market sentiment, with most altcoins underperforming the market.

Hot Track Analysis

Aave

Aave performed outstandingly this week, with a TVL growth rate ranking second among the top 20 DeFi projects, reaching 5.86%. The price of AAVE rose by 21.38%, performing impressively among the top 50 tokens by market capitalization.

Aave is hot mainly for two reasons:

1. Plan to optimize ecosystem governance and token economic model, including repurchasing tokens, increasing staking rewards, optimizing liquidity, etc.
2. The White House supports the abolition of DeFi trading report rules, reducing compliance burdens and promoting innovation.

As a benchmark project in the DeFi industry, Aave's movements may influence the development direction of the entire industry. In the current market environment lacking innovation, Aave's focus on strategies that bring actual returns to users may lead to new trends. It is expected that more DeFi projects will shift towards dividend or buyback models to enhance coin value in the future.

Berachain

Despite the overall market decline, Berachain's TVL rose by 17.21% this week to $3.449 billion, ranking sixth among all public chains. However, its coin BERA saw a price correction of 12.94%.

In the Berachain ecosystem, the main focus is on the rise of the LSD project Infrared Finance and the DEX project BEX, with growth rates of 31.15% and 25.22%, respectively. This is mainly attributed to their high APY strategy, which is highly attractive to investors in the current fear-driven market.

The core strategy of Berachain revolves around the DeFi track, achieving the goal of "staking as productivity" through a dual drive of staking and liquidity release. The key to its development lies in maintaining a high APY to ensure arbitrage opportunities while controlling the token supply. Currently, about 30% of BERA is in a staking state on-chain, leaving room for future growth.

Market Theme Overview

This week, the PayFi track performed the best, while the Sociafi track performed the worst.

In the PayFi sector, XRP, LTC, and XLM account for 95.07%, with a rise and fall of 18.96%, -18.47%, and 6.23% respectively.

In the Sociafi track, TON and CHZ account for 94.39%, with a decline of -10.68% and -2.31% respectively.

Important Events Next Week

• March 12: Release of the U.S. February end seasonally adjusted CPI year-on-year.
• March 13: Web3 Amsterdam 2025 conference held

Summary

This week, the crypto market has shown a complex pattern amidst fluctuations and fearful sentiment. Although the return of funds to stablecoins and the solid fundamentals of some hot sectors, the overall market is still affected by the uncertainty of macro policies and insufficient investor confidence. In the future, projects like BTC, AAVE, and Berachain may become market highlights. Investors need to continuously pay attention to on-chain data, the direction of macro policies, and the impact of upcoming unlocking events on the market.