Last week, the U.S. September CPI came in above market expectations, prompting traders to increase their bets on a Federal Reserve rate hike in October. Bitcoin traded within the 80,000-84,000 range, while major assets remained broadly flat and capital continued to rotate into small- and mid-cap assets. According to HTX platform data, PUFFER ranked first with a 68% weekly gain from October 12 to 18, alongside strong surges from several privacy-focused assets.
Privacy Sector: Multiple Assets on the Gainers List
DUSK, NYM, AZTEC, and XMR all entered the top gainers list. Each tackles a different aspect of privacy, spanning payments, financial applications, and network communications.
● DUSK: Up 34% last week. Dusk is a privacy-focused public blockchain designed for regulated financial use cases. It uses zero-knowledge proofs to protect transaction information while meeting regulatory audit requirements. Its primary focus is the issuance and trading of tokenized securities and other real-world assets.
● NYM: Up 12% last week. Nym provides privacy at the network layer through its mixnet, which encrypts user traffic in multiple layers and shuffles routing paths to prevent external observers from analyzing communication metadata. NymVPN, built on the network, is available to users. Subscription fees paid by users are converted into NYM, separating payment records from usage activity.
● AZTEC: Up 10% last week. Aztec is a privacy-focused Layer 2 network on Ethereum that enables programmable privacy for smart contracts. Account balances, transfers, and contract interactions can remain private off-chain, while final settlement takes place on Ethereum.
● XMR: Up 8% last week. Monero is a payment asset with privacy by default. Every transaction conceals the sender, receiver, and amount using ring signatures, stealth addresses, and Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT). The community is currently advancing the FCMP++ upgrade, which aims to expand the anonymity set.
Payments Sector: AVA and AMP Rise Together
● AVA: Up 51% last week. AVA is the ecosystem token of Travala, a cryptocurrency-powered travel booking platform. Holders can receive booking discounts and rewards through the AVA Smart membership program. According to official disclosures in early October, the program had more than 170,000 members, with locked AVA accounting for approximately 16% of the circulating supply. Starting November 1, the locking requirements for new members across all membership tiers are set to double. Since September, Travala has also been matching AVA Foundation buybacks on the open market each month, with the purchased tokens added to a strategic reserve whose holdings it has pledged never to sell.
● AMP: Up 16% last week. AMP is the collateral token of the Flexa payment network. AMP staked by users backs cryptocurrency payments, allowing merchants to accept payments before the corresponding on-chain transactions are confirmed.
DeFi: PUFFER Leads as BTW Hits a New All-Time High
● PUFFER: Up 68% last week. Puffer Finance began as an Ethereum liquid restaking project and is developing UniFi, a rollup network built around Ethereum-based sequencing. In late September, Google Cloud joined Puffer Preconf as a gateway operator, using restaked ETH to provide sub-second preconfirmations for transactions on UniFi.
● BTW: Up 38% last week. Bitway is an on-chain yield and financial platform for Bitcoin holders. Its Bitcoin-compatible public blockchain, Bitway Ledger, is built using the Cosmos SDK, with native BTC lending and other features planned. BTW reached a new all-time high on October 14.
● OSMO: Up 17% last week. Osmosis is a major decentralized exchange in the Cosmos ecosystem. Using the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, it provides token swaps and liquidity services for assets across Cosmos chains.
● RSR: Up 12% last week. RSR is the governance token of the Reserve protocol. Holders can stake RSR to provide overcollateralization for the protocol’s asset-backed tokens and participate in governance votes on related parameters.
Small- and Mid-Cap Asset Rotation Continues; Privacy and Payments Draw Attention
Major assets remained broadly flat last week amid pressure from macroeconomic data, while capital shifted toward small- and mid-cap assets. Several projects in the privacy and payments sectors entered the gainers list simultaneously. These projects differ in their stages of development and the factors driving their prices, and their price volatility is significantly higher than that of major assets. Before investing, you should carefully assess each project’s fundamentals and consider your risk tolerance.
HTX will continue to monitor developments across these sectors and provide users with timely asset information, while maintaining stable and reliable trading services with a continued focus on security and regulatory compliance.
