Altcoins Surge Up to 31% as Uniswap, NEAR, Hyperliquid and Zcash Outpace Bitcoin
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The collapse of the Clarity Act in the U.S. Senate no longer seems to be weighing on investors. The crypto market is up for a third straight day, and this time the real action is happening outside of Bitcoin. While the largest cryptocurrency gained around 2.6 percent to roughly $78,200, several altcoins are posting double-digit daily gains. According to CoinMarketCap, Uniswap (UNI) jumped more than 31 percent in 24 hours, NEAR Protocol 26 percent, Hyperliquid (HYPE) almost 14 percent and Zcash (ZEC) just over 10 percent. The total crypto market capitalization stands at about $2.66 trillion.
According to FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich, none of the 40 most liquid coins fell over the period. Traders are “cautiously shifting their focus towards altcoins,” he said, even though the altcoin season index remains subdued. The reasons behind the rally, however, vary widely from project to project.
The Top Crypto Assets at a Glance
| # | Crypto asset | Price | 24h | 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bitcoin (BTC) | $78,246.43 | +2.57% | +1.62% |
| 2 | Ethereum (ETH) | $2,512.38 | +3.31% | +1.99% |
| 3 | BNB (BNB) | $752.37 | +4.13% | +5.55% |
| 4 | XRP (XRP) | $1.33 | +3.18% | -0.08% |
| 5 | Solana (SOL) | $106.36 | +6.73% | +7.14% |
| 6 | TRON (TRX) | $0.3372 | +0.78% | -0.29% |
| 7 | Zcash (ZEC) | $1,479.54 | +10.22% | +34.60% |
| 8 | Hyperliquid (HYPE) | $90.62 | +13.72% | +14.34% |
| 9 | Dogecoin (DOGE) | $0.08607 | +6.69% | +3.11% |
| 10 | Monero (XMR) | $536.05 | +7.99% | +5.35% |
| 11 | Chainlink (LINK) | $11.92 | +7.35% | +4.77% |
| 12 | UNUS SED LEO (LEO) | $8.88 | -0.44% | -2.12% |
| 13 | Cardano (ADA) | $0.2154 | +8.99% | +6.15% |
| 14 | Stellar (XLM) | $0.1879 | +3.82% | +7.82% |
| 15 | Uniswap (UNI) | $8.94 | +31.22% | +49.68% |
| 16 | Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | $249.05 | +11.25% | +10.70% |
| 17 | Ethena USDe (USDe) | $0.9995 | -0.02% | -0.01% |
| 18 | NEAR Protocol (NEAR) | $3.54 | +26.23% | +44.28% |
| 19 | Dai (DAI) | $0.9998 | +0.01% | 0.00% |
Uniswap Benefits From Tokenized U.S. Stocks
Among the large caps, Uniswap is seeing the strongest boost. UNI briefly hit nearly $9, its highest level since November 2025. The trigger was a decision by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: on Thursday, the SEC granted an innovation exemption for trading tokenized U.S. stocks. It also allows trading on permissioned AMM DEXs, meaning decentralized exchanges built on automated liquidity pools with access controls.
As the world’s largest and most liquid DEX, Uniswap is widely seen as the obvious winner. The protocol already launched exactly this kind of permissioned pool over the summer. Founder Hayden Adams wrote on X that the exemption applies to permissioned pools on Uniswap v4 and “paves the way for compliant trading in the U.S. for the assets and users that rely on them.”
Solid fundamentals add to the momentum. Since launching on Robinhood Chain in July, trading volume and protocol fees have climbed sharply, and more UNI tokens are being burned as a result. The price has more than tripled from its low of around $2.80. UNI is still far from its all-time high of roughly $45, however, with the next technical resistance at about $12.
The SEC decision is also lifting listed crypto companies. Coinbase and Robinhood each gained around 5 percent on Thursday, while tokenization platform Securitize and CoinDesk parent Bullish extended their gains in pre-market trading.
Hyperliquid: Kraken Wants to Bring HYPE Perps to the U.S.
Regulation is the driver for Hyperliquid as well. Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced plans to give U.S. clients access to on-chain perpetual futures on Hyperliquid. The trades would run through Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange, and regulatory approval is still pending. For the decentralized derivatives exchange, which U.S. users currently cannot access directly, this would open up a huge new market.
Tokenomics are also supporting the price. Hyperliquid uses a large share of its trading fees to buy back and burn HYPE, creating steady buying pressure. As Trending Topics has reported, this model has fueled the rapid rise of the decentralized exchange. HYPE is now approaching the $90 mark.
Zcash: Paradigm Stake and Faster Blocks
Zcash is continuing its remarkable run, gaining almost 35 percent in a single week. The latest boost came from crypto venture firm Paradigm: co-founder Matt Huang disclosed that the firm has invested in ZEC, calling Zcash a private complement to Bitcoin. The price jumped more than 20 percent on the news.
Shortly before, the community overwhelmingly approved two protocol changes: block times will drop from 75 to 25 seconds, while the Bitcoin-style halving model will be kept. Both strengthen the narrative of Zcash as fast, scarce and private digital money. Monero (XMR) is riding the same wave, up around 8 percent.
The rally is especially notable from a European perspective, since the EU plans to ban privacy coins and anonymous crypto transactions on regulated trading venues from 2027. For now, investors appear largely unfazed.
Macro Backdrop: Risk Appetite Despite a Rate Hike
Traditional markets are providing a tailwind too. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key rate by a quarter point, yet the feared negative reaction never came. Stocks are climbing, led by AI and semiconductor names, gold is rising to just under $4,400, and oil recently fell more than 5 percent to below $96 a barrel (WTI). This environment favors riskier assets, a category altcoins have traditionally belonged to.
Whether the move can last remains to be seen. Bitcoin is approaching the upper end of its trading range near $82,000, and Kuptsikevich expects profit-taking heading into the weekend to delay any breakout attempt. For altcoins that have posted double-digit gains in a short period, the risk of a pullback is even greater.
