Strong despite U.S.-China tensions… Which altcoin themes are resilient in a crisis?

Even in a crypto downturn

Some altcoins are strong

Watch gold·privacy themes

Last weekend, the U.S.-China tensions reignited and shook the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market, but some altcoins instead showed strength and attracted investors' attention.

According to crypto market data provider CoinMarketCap on the 16th, among altcoins within the top 100 by market capitalization, the virtual assets that rose week-on-week were Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Bitensor (TAO), Morpho (MORPHO), Tether Gold (XAUt), and PAX Gold (PAXG) — six in total. The prices of the remaining virtual assets all fell week-on-week.

Most altcoin prices fell because investor sentiment in virtual assets shrank after U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs on China. The virtual asset market, which behaves like a high-risk asset, is sensitive to such macroeconomic factors. In particular, tariff issues, which can negatively affect rate-cut prospects, are a severe blow. Immediately after the president's post was made public, Bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell to $107,000.

Major virtual asset prices such as Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Solana (SOL) also fell sharply. On the same day, the futures market for virtual assets saw liquidations totaling a record daily high of $18.28 billion (about 26.2 trillion won).

Stablecoin themes also strong

Despite this situation, some altcoins showed strength. Depending on the use and characteristics of each altcoin, they appear to have secured upward momentum even in the crisis phase of U.S.-China tensions.

① Privacy coin theme

First, privacy-themed coins emphasizing anonymity attracted attention. Privacy coins have tended to strengthen whenever geopolitical conflicts flare up. Recently, with a U.S. federal government shutdown overlapping U.S.-China trade tensions, investment demand for privacy coins is said to have increased.

Dash and Zcash are representative. Dash is a project launched in 2014 to compensate for Bitcoin's anonymity limitations. As of that afternoon, Dash (DASH) had surged about 46% week-on-week. Looking at only the weekly gain, it is the highest among virtual assets in the top 100 by market capitalization.

Zcash's price fell about 10% that day. However, its weekly gain was about 35%. Zcash is a project that encrypts all transaction-related information such as amounts, senders, and recipients using zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology.

② Stablecoin infrastructure

The stablecoin infrastructure theme, whose value is pegged 1:1 to fiat currencies, also showed strength. As funds flowed into stablecoins that maintain a certain value even in a downturn, investor sentiment toward these projects was also strengthened.

Among stablecoin infrastructure altcoins, Morpho and Synthetix recorded the highest weekly gains. As of that afternoon, Morpho and Synthetix were up about 13% and 49% week-on-week, respectively.

Morpho is a DeFi lending protocol that operates stablecoin-based lending services. Synthetix is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and issuer of the stablecoin sUSD.

③ Gold-backed stablecoins

With gold prices recently rising sharply, virtual assets pegged to gold also strengthened. In particular, Tether Gold and PAX Gold are pegged 1:1 to physical gold and are seen as potential alternative investments to the traditional safe-haven asset gold.

Both Tether Gold and PAX Gold rose more than 5% week-on-week. The market also notes that recent gold production has not kept up with rising demand, causing a shortage of physical gold, which could act as a positive factor for gold-backed stablecoins.