OVERVIEW

Labor Day Over, Back To Price Discovery 🔭

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

Source: finviz

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

Source: TradingView

STOCKTWITS
Labor Day Hangover Treating You Ok? 🍻 

August is over and September begins. In today’s Litepaper we’re going to take a look at how BTC, ETH, LTC, ADA, XRP, and XMR finished August compared to their historical August performance. 🟰 

The July 31, 2025 Litepaper goes through, in detail, how all of those tickers have historically performed, so if you want to read that again, you can do that here. 

The rest of the Litepaper today is chock-full of updates from different protocols. It’s like a News In Three Sentences wall of text because there was an absolutely insane amount of updates that every crypto’s official X/blog/news page decided to post before, during and after the Labor Day weekend. ✅

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Crypto’s August Curse Claimed BTC, XRP, and XMR – ETH and ADA Didn’t Care

Bitcoin – August Didn’t Break The Curse

• August 2025 return: -6.51%. New all-time high tagged intra-month, then faceplanted.

• Historical median: -7.72%. Right in character.

• Context: Even with the shiny ATH, August kept its “second-worst month” crown. Five green closes in 15 years, and 2025 sure didn’t join the club.

Takeaway: Textbook August trap. ATH headlines hid the usual red candle. 🕵️

Ethereum – Summer Slump, Again

• August 2025 return: +18.76%. The one exception this round.

• Historical median: -7.4%. That’s a massive deviation, blowing past the usual August hangover.

• Context: Only its second double-digit green August since 2017’s ICO mania. 9th place month historically, but 2025 pushed ETH into rare upside territory.

Takeaway: ETH ignored the seasonal script and moonwalked while others bled. 🤒

XRP – August Is Still a Lawsuit Month

• August 2025 return: -8.15%. Straight into the median.

• Historical median: -11.36%. Another notch in XRP’s streak of August mediocrity.

• Context: 7th red August in 10 years. Consistency, just the depressing kind.

Takeaway: Headlines don’t help, lawyers don’t help, and August doesn’t help. 😰

Cardano – Shocking, It Didn’t Tank

• August 2025 return: +9.58%. The unicorn month.

• Historical median: -13.66%. That’s the first green August since 2021’s Alonzo hype.

• Context: Broke a three-year losing streak. Given ADA’s 86% August fail rate, this is statistically a miracle.

Takeaway: August turned ADA into a functioning asset for once. Don’t get used to it. 🧒

Litecoin – Managed To Not Ruin Everything

• August 2025 return: +2.67%. Barely positive, but positive.

• Historical median: -8.68%. Considering no back-to-back greens existed in history, 2025 broke precedent.

• Context: A green August in a halving hangover era is rare. Volume thin as always, but this time it didn’t implode.

Takeaway: August hated you less this year. That’s progress. 😠

Monero – The Money Printer Jammed

• August 2025 return: -14.59%. Catastrophic against history.

• Historical median: +6.71%. August is normally Monero’s MVP month, ranked #1 out of 12.

• Context: Worst August close since 2019’s -16.6%. Totally broke its August cheat-code record.

Takeaway: Privacy coin August alpha is dead. Someone forgot to refill the ink. 💵

In A Nutshell

• Winners: Ethereum (+18.76%) and Cardano (+9.58%). Both defied their terrible seasonal odds.

• Meh-but-green: Litecoin (+2.67%), technically counts as a win because August hates LTC.

• Losers: Bitcoin (-6.51%) and XRP (-8.15%) fell right in line with their August curse. Monero (-14.59%) torched its historical August cheat-code reputation.

👉 Net read: August 2025 mostly confirmed the “sell August” playbook, except ETH and ADA threw curveballs big enough to wreck a seasonal strategy. 🧠 

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️

🔑 Civic Auth Adds Passkeys, Finally Burying Passwords

Developers can now drop in Civic Auth and give users passkey logins – faster, safer, and less brain-melting than passwords. Amazon saw 6x faster logins with passkeys; Microsoft says success rates jump from 32% to 98%. Civic.

🤖 Blockchain AI Marketplaces: Turning Big Tech’s GPU Stranglehold Into eBay For Models

Less Big Tech chokehold, more peer-to-peer AI bazaar? Yes please. Ocean Protocol, SingularityNET, and Numerai are carving out decentralized marketplaces where AI models, data, and GPU compute are tokenized and rentable. Think Airbnb for AI brains-fractional ownership, royalties on usage, smart contracts paying creators per inference. Instead of renting GPUs from Bezos, you grab them from a global pool. Kava.

💵 Solana Now Handles Half of USDC Transfers, Ethereum Left Holding The Bag

Nearly 50% of all USDC transfers are running through Solana, and July alone saw $215B in stablecoin volume on the chain. That’s Ethereum’s crown slipping, thanks to Solana’s “cheap, fast, and doesn’t keel over (lately)” setup. Circle sealed the deal by wiring Solana into CCTP, so now USDC hops chains without sketchy bridges. 1inch.

🛡️ Zashi Adds Shielded Off-Ramp For ZEC, Privacy Intact

 Zcash’s wallet Zashi now lets you swap shielded ZEC directly into any NEAR-supported crypto – no KYC honeypot exchanges required. Basically like cashing out chips at a casino without anyone writing down your name or peeking at your balance. Zcash.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙

🏦 Aave Labs Launches Horizon For Institutions To Borrow Against Tokenized RWAs

Horizon lets banks and funds post tokenized Treasuries or credit products as collateral and borrow stablecoins like USDC and RLUSD. Chainlink pipes in live NAV data so loans aren’t based on stale valuations – a key upgrade if you want RWAs to be more than window dressing. Aave.

💸 Story Rolls Out Custom Royalty Policies, Because Real Life Isn’t 70/30 Splits

Programmable prenups for IP assets-messy, conditional, but finally enforceable onchain. Story’s new Royalty Module lets IP owners define weird, real-world revenue splits via custom external smart contracts. Example: investor gets the first $1M in profits, then splits 70/30 with the scientist after breakeven. Story Protocol.

💰 MANTRA Commits $25M+ To Buy Back OM Tokens

Combined with April’s $20M raise, MANTRA has $45M earmarked to scoop OM off exchanges and stake it on-chain. That’s 10-ish% of circulating supply slated for buybacks, executed by independent firms with published wallets. MANTRA.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️

🍬 Sugar Match Launches: Match-3 Goes Full Degen

Sugarverse dropped its first game – a match-3 puzzle where you sabotage rivals and earn tokens while blowing up candy. Think Candy Crush, but you can actually ruin someone else’s combo and cash out your gCNDY for CNDY tokens at the end of the season. Easy to start, dangerous to stop. Tezos.

📱 SKALE Bets Big On SocialFi With New Incubator

SKALE wants the next TikTok-level app to actually be owned by users, not by VCs sucking up all the ad revenue. Their SocialFi Incubator will handpick 1 – 2 teams, give them funding, mentorship, and zero-gas rails to scale fast. SKALE Network.

🎮 Saga Steals The Show At Gamescom With AI NPCs That Don’t Log Off

While others still theorize about “AI + gaming,” Saga just turned NPCs into roommates you can’t mute. Saga rolled out live AI agents that persist beyond the game – characters hanging out on Discord, social feeds, even real-world events. Think of your favorite RPG character sliding into your DMs after you quit the game – insanely unsettling but… kind of badass creepy. Saga.

🤝 UXLINK Says Real-World Social Graphs + AI = Next Billion Web3 Users

Just like RWAs brought legitimacy to finance, RWS could make Web3 social usable without everyone feeling like they’re beta-testing. Wallets are clunky, identity’s fragmented, and bots kill trust – so UXLINK is baking Real World Social (RWS) on-chain, turning actual relationships into verifiable infrastructure. AI layers help filter fakes, onboard newbies, and recommend relevant connections. UXLINK.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
DeFi, DEX, & Lending News 🏦

💧 Resupply Turns Curve Into Yield-On-Yield Land

Built on Llamalend, Resupply lets you deposit crvUSD, earn yield, and then borrow against that same yield-bearing token by minting reUSD. If the math holds, you pocket more than you pay, a rare “positive carry” in DeFi. Early traction tripled Llamalend TVL, but looping games stressed the peg – so the team’s rolling out sreUSD with built-in revenue streams to stabilize demand. Curve Finance.

🔗 Suzaku Raises $1.5M To Help L1s Decentralize Without Faceplanting

Avalanche’s Suzaku protocol wants to solve the awkward puberty phase for new blockchains: moving from a handful of permissioned validators to a real decentralized set. Their framework is like training wheels for L1 security – devs get a menu of tested validator setups and staker/operator marketplaces. Avalanche.

🪙 Hedera Wants DeFi To Actually Work For Everyone

Forget gas-fee roulette and praying bots don’t front-run you – Hedera is pitching DeFi that charges a fixed $0.001 per transaction and processes trades in the order they show up. Hashgraph’s consensus works like a giant group chat where nobody can cut in line, so micro-tips and million-dollar settlements both clear instantly. Hedera.

NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Protocol News 🏦

🔐 Aragon Brings Private Voting & Lego-Governance To DAOs

The latest Aragon update brings two big toys: private voting via MACI (zk magic that stops vote-buying collusion) and fine-grained permissions (finally deciding who can touch the treasury button). Think of it like DAOs graduating from duct-tape governance to actual separation of powers. Add a UI polish and proposal flow tweaks, and suddenly onchain orgs don’t look like they’re run by unpaid interns. Aragon.

💰 Avalanche Retro9000 Drops $250K To Cohort Two Builders

Imagine that: proof of work before payday. Unlike other grant programs that spray money at promises, Retro9000 only pays out to teams that already shipped. The Avalanche Foundation just cut checks for 8 projects in round two of Retro9000, its retroactive $40M grant pool. Winners include Artery Chain (AI gaming L1) and CodeNekt (NFTs for lifecycle management). Avalanche.

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🫰 Ether Machine secures $654M ahead of Nasdaq listing

⬇️ Trump-backed World Liberty Coin slumps on trading debut — Analysts remain divided on future

👬 Winklevoss Twins eye $2.2B ‘Gemini’ valuation in upcoming IPO

🐕️ Underdog and Crypto.com partner for U.S. sports prediction market

🤔 What happens if Ethereum’s $3.9 billion ETF surge keeps rolling in Q4

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