[비즈한국] In this week’s cryptocurrency market, DeXe (DEXE) maintained its position as the top gainer for the second week in a row. However, buying interest spread beyond DeFi as privacy coin Zcash (ZEC), AI agent platform Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL), and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization project Ondo Finance (ONDO) followed closely. Rather than a specific sector dominating the market, the trend leaned heavily toward sector rotation, with capital quickly shifting toward mid-cap altcoins that had individual positive news.
According to CoinMarketCap, a global virtual asset market data provider, DeXe rose 26.17% between 11:21 AM on July 9 and 11:21 AM on July 16, ranking first in weekly gains. Its current price is 53,946 KRW.
However, as of the end of the reporting period, DeXe had fallen 9.63% over the last 24 hours. While it had the highest weekly gain, profit-taking sell-offs intensified toward the end of the tally.
Zcash took second place, rising 22.74% over the week to 841,499 KRW. Virtual Protocol came in third with an 18.09% increase to 914 KRW, and Ondo Finance ranked fourth with a 16.81% rise to 542 KRW. Notably, Ondo Finance surged 15.21% in the last 24 hours, showing the strongest late-stage rally among the top performers.
Sky Protocol (SKY) placed fifth with a weekly gain of 12.87% to 92 KRW. Following them were ether.fi (12.77%), Ethena (12.10%), Arbitrum (11.95%), Uniswap (11.69%), and Chainlink (11.63%) in that order.
DeXe: Profit-taking follows 2-week reign at No. 1
DeXe is the governance token for the DeXe Protocol, which supports the establishment, voting, delegation, and financial management of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The project provides governance tools that allow multiple DAOs to be managed within a single application and enables DAOs to participate in the decision-making of other organizations.
After rising 31.73% last week, DeXe climbed another 26.17% this week, marking its second consecutive week at the top. The sustained interest in DAO operational infrastructure and governance tokens, combined with momentum-chasing buying, appears to have pushed the price up.
However, the sentiment shifted on a 24-hour basis, with the price dropping 9.63%. Given the rapid price increase over the past two weeks, it appears that thin liquidity and trend-chasing—rather than new positive catalysts—drove the gains, with profit-taking becoming prominent at the end of the period. While DeXe's trading volume remains high according to CoinMarketCap, its price retreated by approximately 9% in a single day.
Zcash: Network upgrade awakens privacy narrative
Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency designed to hide the sender, receiver, and transaction amount using zero-knowledge proofs.
This week’s rise was fueled by an overall market rebound coupled with expectations for the upcoming "Ironwood" network upgrade. Ironwood aims to address security vulnerabilities and improve the network; ahead of the upgrade, Zcash saw daily gains exceeding 13%.
After the price broke through major short-term resistance levels, open interest in derivatives also increased. However, whether the upward trend continues will depend on further capital inflows and the ability to maintain the breakout price.
Virtual Protocol: AI agents arrive on the Robinhood chain
Virtual Protocol is an on-chain platform that allows anyone to create and tokenize AI agents.
The key driver for this week’s rise was the connection to the Robinhood chain. As plans solidified for Virtual Protocol’s AI agent infrastructure to run on the new blockchain, along with the launch of associated applications and tokens, the price of VIRTUAL saw a significant jump around July 11.
The launch of tokenized index products and AI agent-based services has also raised expectations for increased platform fee revenue and utility. However, since the AI agent theme is prone to high volatility based on shifting expectations, the actual level of usage will be critical.
Ondo Finance: Tokenized stock launch ignites interest
Ondo Finance is a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization project that enables the trading of traditional financial assets like US Treasury bonds and stocks on the blockchain.
The direct catalyst for this week’s rise was the announcement of the launch of tokenized stock products based on the rights of securities held by the Depository Trust Company (DTC), the US central securities depository. In July, Ondo expanded its business scope by consecutively unveiling custodial tokenized securities and stock-based derivatives in the US.
Ondo Stocks currently supports over 440 tokenized assets, and the total value locked (TVL) on the platform has exceeded $1 billion. The shift from traditional Treasury products to stocks and derivatives appears to have concentrated buying interest on ONDO.
Sky Protocol: Sector rotation into stablecoin DeFi
Sky Protocol is a DeFi ecosystem rebranded from MakerDAO, operating the stablecoin USDS, deposit rewards, and collateralized loan structures. USDS is the core stablecoin of Sky Protocol, and depositors can earn returns through the Sky Savings Rate.
There was no single major announcement that explains SKY’s rise this week. Given that other on-chain finance assets like DeXe, ether.fi, Ethena, and Uniswap also rose, it appears to have been influenced by a broader sector rotation within DeFi.
However, for Sky Protocol, the long-term challenge remains connecting stablecoin usage and protocol revenue to token value. Since it rose without a clear, specific catalyst, one must monitor subsequent trading volume to see if the momentum is sustainable.
6th–10th place: DeFi projects assemble again
The 6th through 10th spots were occupied by ether.fi, Ethena, Arbitrum, Uniswap, and Chainlink. While they represent different sectors—such as restaking, synthetic dollars, Layer 2, decentralized exchanges, and oracles—they are all core infrastructure components of the on-chain financial market.
This week’s rankings reflect a market where attention was focused sequentially on DeXe's governance, Zcash's privacy, Virtual Protocol's AI agents, and Ondo's asset tokenization, rather than a single theme dominating the market. Below these, representative DeFi tokens rose evenly, supporting a recovery in the market's risk appetite.
However, even among top assets, there were discrepancies: Ondo Finance surged 15.21% in a single day, while DeXe fell 9.63%. This indicates that capital is moving rapidly from last week’s strong performers to projects with fresh positive news.
The keyword for this market week was "diffusion." Buying interest, which had been concentrated on DeFi and infrastructure last week, spread to privacy, AI, and RWA tokenization. The point to watch next week is whether DeXe’s adjustment will remain a temporary profit-taking event and whether the new business initiatives from Ondo and Virtual Protocol will translate into actual increases in usage.
※ This article was written by BizHankook and MetaVX’s generative AI.