Last night brought a confident upward momentum to the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin is once again testing a psychologically important level, and institutional investors continue to build positions through spot ETFs. However, there were also alarming signals: the Cosmos ecosystem found itself at the center of a security incident, and traditional finance is taking another step toward digital assets.
Market on the rise: BTC and ETH show growth
As of the morning of August 25, Bitcoin is trading near the $80,692 mark. Over the past day, the flagship cryptocurrency's price fluctuated in the range of $76,750 – $81,000, ending the day with a gain of 4.65%. This is a confident upward move, indicating a recovery of bullish sentiment after a period of consolidation.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum, also showed positive dynamics. The ETH price rose by 2.47% to $2,508, with the asset moving from $2,430 to $2,530 during the day. Such synchronized growth of market leaders usually signals an influx of fresh liquidity.
Outsiders and growth leaders among altcoins were distributed quite tellingly. In the top 25 by market cap, the best results were shown by Monero (XMR) with a rise of 8.52%, Solana (SOL) — by 8.10%, and Cardano (ADA) — by 3.32%. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) gained 2.88%. In the top 100, the Stacks (STX) protocol stood out, soaring by 18.17%. Aerodrome Finance (AERO) and Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) also showed impressive dynamics, rising by 16.19% and 15.92%, respectively.
The Aave (AAVE) token came under the most pressure over the day, losing 8.52%. It was followed by Ethena (ENA) with a decline of 6.58% and Lighter (LIT), which fell by 6.19%.
Institutional inflows and liquidations
Spot crypto ETFs continue to attract capital. Over the past day, Bitcoin funds recorded an inflow of $337.56 million, Ethereum-based products — $115.57 million, Solana — $33.49 million, XRP — $13.82 million, Hyperliquid — $5.74 million, and Chainlink — $2.68 million. Even Dogecoin funds received $146,020. This is a clear signal that institutional players are not just watching the market but actively entering it.
Volatility did not keep itself waiting: over the last 24 hours, positions of 95,896 traders were liquidated for a total of $646.93 million. The main blow fell on short positions — $457.28 million versus $189.65 million for longs. The market's rise naturally knocked out those who were betting on a decline. The largest single liquidation order was recorded on Bitget for the BTCUSDT pair, amounting to $103.54 million.
Events of the night: Cosmos, Standard Chartered, and Base
Cosmos Labs reported an ongoing security incident in the Cosmos EVM module that affected users. Security and development teams recommended validators of related networks to halt operations until the issue is resolved. The nature of the vulnerability, the list of affected networks, and the scale of losses have not yet been disclosed. They promise to publish a full analysis after the investigation is completed.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered became the first bank to begin distributing one of Hong Kong's two regulated stablecoins — HKDAP from issuer Anchorpoint Financial. The token is offered to qualified institutional clients and partners. In the fourth quarter, the bank plans to launch subscription and settlement services for tokenized money market funds, and is also testing HKDAP for intra-group settlements, cross-border payments, and treasury management.
The Base network announced the launch of tokenized shares from Coinbase under the B20 standard. The tokens are backed by real securities at a 1:1 ratio and held with regulated custodians. Qualified users will be able to hold tokenized Apple and NVIDIA shares in non-custodial wallets and use them in the network's DeFi ecosystem. Asset management is carried out through regulated broker and custodian Alpaca, opening opportunities for online trading, lending, and other financial operations.
My view: the combination of record ETF inflows and the active adoption of tokenized assets by traditional financial giants indicates that the institutional adoption phase is progressing more actively than expected. However, the Cosmos EVM incident is a reminder that the security of cross-chain bridges and modules remains the main systemic risk for the entire industry. Investors should remain cautious and diversify risks, even amid the overall bullish sentiment.