tl;dr
In July, Bitcoin reached a new high of $123,000 but saw its market dominance fall by 5.2% to 60.6% as investor interest shifted toward altcoins, whose dominance rose to 39.2%. Ethereum led the altcoin surge with a 51% increase, driven by record institutional holdings and corporate adoption. Other al...
Bitcoin maintained its role as the market’s anchor asset in July, reaching a fresh record of $123,000. Despite this milestone, the market experienced a notable shift as investor capital flowed aggressively into altcoins. Bitcoin’s dominance dropped by 5.2% to 60.6%, while altcoin dominance rose to 39.2%, marking one of the largest monthly increases in 2025. This rotation was fueled by improved macroeconomic sentiment, optimism about a potential US Federal Reserve rate-cut cycle, and the absence of destabilizing events.
Leading this altcoin rally was Ethereum, which surged 51% over the month, driven by record institutional participation. Corporate Ethereum holdings rose 127.7% to over 2.7 million ETH, nearly half the amount held by US-listed ETH ETFs. Twenty-four companies added Ethereum to their balance sheets during July, opting for direct ownership to capitalize on staking rewards and Ethereum’s deflationary supply model. Other altcoins like XRP, SUI, Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), and BNB also saw significant gains, supported by ecosystem growth, corporate adoption, and rising interest in DeFi and tokenization.
The stablecoin sector achieved a regulatory milestone with the passage of the GENIUS Act on July 17, establishing a federal framework for fully reserved and AML-compliant stablecoins. This advance boosted institutional adoption, with JPMorgan expanding its deposit-token pilot, Citi advancing tokenized deposit trials for cross-border settlements, and Visa scaling stablecoin-based payments. On-chain stablecoin settlement volumes continued to exceed Visa’s transaction throughput, highlighting growing acceptance.
The NFT market experienced a sharp rebound, with total trading volumes jumping nearly 50% in July. Ethereum-based NFTs led the charge with a 58% increase in sales, and Bitcoin NFTs rose more than 28%. A standout was a 393% surge in CryptoPunks sales triggered by a headline-grabbing whale purchase. Conversely, Polygon-based NFT activity declined. Industry conversations about embedding NFTs within ETF structures indicate early-stage institutional interest in the sector, signaling potential future integration of NFTs into mainstream financial products.