Hot July: Why Midsummer Was a Record-Breaking for Cryptocurrencies
2025-08-01 13:49
In July, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization peaked at over $4 trillion, with many altcoins setting new records. Bitcoin rose 8.13% in the month, reaching a new all-time high of just over $123,000 in mid-summer.
The rise in prices has significantly strengthened market sentiment and revived interest from both traders and long-term investors, Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation, told RBC-Crypto. He added that July was a truly pivotal month for the crypto market—after a long lull, a confident upward reversal finally occurred.
The crypto market's growth is the result of a synergy between institutional demand, increased regulatory clarity in the US (the passage of the GENIUS Act, which reduced uncertainty), and expectations of monetary policy easing, explained CEO of Tehnobit Alexander Peresichan. He noted that the market is increasingly pricing in a scenario of a Fed rate cut this fall. This sharply increases the appeal of risky assets like cryptocurrencies, especially against the backdrop of falling bond yields and slowing inflation, the expert added.
True hero
But the real hero of the month, according to Nekrasov, wasn't Bitcoin, but altcoins—primarily Ethereum (ETH). Its price rose by more than 50%, reaching $4,000. It failed to consolidate higher, but even this surge was an important signal: the market is once again beginning to view Ethereum as a growth leader, the analyst added.
He noted that talk has become increasingly common about the possible transition to altseason—a phase when altcoins like Ethereum outperform Bitcoin. If current conditions persist, Ethereum could reach a new all-time high in the coming months, Nekrasov said. Investors have been anticipating this for years, as, unlike BTC, Ethereum has yet to break its 2021 high.
All of this occurred against the backdrop of active inflows into cryptocurrency spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Ethereum stood out in particular, with over $2.1 billion pouring into ETH-ETFs in the last two weeks of July. By comparison, Bitcoin products saw approximately $240 million in inflows during the same period.
Peresichan explained that the Pectra upgrade, which took place in May on the Ethereum blockchain, also contributed to increased investor confidence in ETH. It was aimed at increasing the network's scalability, efficiency, and usability. While the upgrade doesn't directly impact the asset's price, as the Bitcoin halving does, the architectural improvements and increased validation limits that came with the Pectra upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain have increased ETH's appeal among investors and infrastructure players, the expert explained.
He also added that there is a clear trend toward adding cryptocurrencies to corporate reserves, and many companies are adopting a strategy of accumulating BTC, ETH, and other altcoins.
Following the launch of ETH, Solana (SOL) became another notable leader amid growing interest in altcoins, with its price rising by approximately 28-30% in a month, Peresichan said. He noted that, driven by growing institutional interest and increased network activity, Solana's TVL (total value locked) grew from $6 billion in April to $8.6 billion in July, confirming the activity of DeFi protocols and the influx of liquidity into the ecosystem.
Interest in cryptocurrencies is also fueled by the macroeconomic situation, Nekrasov said. He noted that inflation is slowing in the US, and the labor market is starting to cool—all of this increases the chances of a Federal Reserve rate cut this fall. And with yields on traditional assets falling, more and more investors are starting to consider cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative, the analyst said. Therefore, he added, liquidity has entered the market, increasing demand for Bitcoin, and especially Ethereum and other strong altcoins.
New opportunities in digital asset mining
For the first time in the history of industrial digital asset mining in Russia, market participants now have the opportunity to upgrade their computing equipment fleet by 40-50% of its total capacity by the end of this year, according to Vasily Girya, owner and CEO of GIS Mining. Demand for digital asset mining services and the construction of digital asset mining data centers from major clients is steadily growing. This is happening against the backdrop of the ruble having regained its value against the dollar by almost 40% since the beginning of the year, and Bitcoin having repeatedly set new all-time highs, the expert explained.
New data centers with power capacities of tens and hundreds of megawatts are being designed and built, both on the unified power grid infrastructure and using natural gas and associated petroleum gas, added Oleg Ogienko, an independent expert on blockchain, energy, and digital assets. He noted that entirely new players from related and other sectors are entering the market, intensifying competition for available electrical power.
Girya noted that Russia consistently ranks second globally in terms of digital asset mining capacity. However, market participants have reported connection outages and disruptions in access to digital asset mining pools, which has increased the urgency of issues such as fault tolerance and backup channels, the expert said. Furthermore, he noted, despite the robust growth of the industrial digital asset mining industry, demand for qualified Russian specialists has already significantly exceeded supply, especially in the regions.
At the same time, Ogienko pointed out that participants in the Russian industrial digital asset mining market are gradually facing the risk of government enforcement measures for operating in the shadows and using unregistered equipment. Planning investments in such an environment will be more difficult, the expert noted. A positive development, in his view, is the gradual integration of legal Russian digital asset mining infrastructure operators and the miners themselves into the regulatory sandbox for cross-border cryptocurrency transactions.
"The global Bitcoin mining market was stable in July. The network hashrate reached record levels, rising above 950 EH/s. This indicates stable infrastructure operation and strong interest from major market participants. Based on this, cryptocurrency prices are holding within a comfortable range. This situation allows companies to plan capacity utilization and invest in equipment upgrades and IT infrastructure modernization," says Girya.
The gradual growth in demand for digital asset mining services and public miner shares in the US is also driven by the fact that cryptocurrency is increasingly gaining a foothold in investment products on the international financial market, with investment funds, financial corporations, and institutional investors increasingly adding Bitcoin and altcoins to their portfolios.
The number of publicly traded companies holding more than 1,000 BTC increased from 24 in Q1 2025 to 35. The combined reserves of these companies reached nearly 900,000 BTC (over $100 billion).