VELVET surged 155% in a week, ranking among the top five best performing cryptocurrencies

The driving factors behind it can be divided into three categories: mechanisms to buy back tokens with agreement revenue, changes to limit new supply, and news that mainly improves visibility or market access. Only the first two categories directly change the token economy model, and even so, the price impact still depends on execution and investor demand.

Weekly increase ranking

1st place: VELVET +155%(24h:+26%)
2nd place: ETHFI +25%(24h:+9%)
3rd place: JTO +23%(24h:+7%)
4th place: LINK +12%(24h:+6%)
5th place: ICP +9%(24h:+5%)

1. Velvet (VELVET): 155% rally faces supply test

As of writing, VELVET was trading at $1.18, up 26% in 24 hours and up 155% in a week. Such an increase means that product adoption rates cannot be lost.

Velvet's trading terminal integrates spot, perpetual contracts and revenue markets, covering seven networks including Base, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana and Hyperliquid. Its AI-driven routing feature is designed to save traders from switching between different interfaces. This expansion will have a substantial impact on VELVET only if it generates sustained transaction volume and drives the token to be used for rewards, governance, or fee refunds.

Velvet's eleventh award structure provides another supply-level explanation. Only 12% of distributed VELVET is in circulation; the remaining 88% are locked and pledged for 12 months. This reduced the amount that could be sold immediately, but was not destroyed. When a locked position is partially unlocked, it may become a potential source of selling pressure.

The previous surge in VELVET was linked to speculation in SpaceX and pre-IPO investment opportunities. This explains why VELVET has attracted attention, but after SpaceX's market debut, it is no longer a new catalyst. After a week of 155% gains, current platform usage carries more weight than a repetitive IPO narrative.

2. Ether.fi (ETHFI): Repurals create clearer channels of demand

ETHFI rose 9% in 24 hours and 25% in a week, at around US$0.48. Its latest update establishes a direct but not yet quantified link between agreement revenue and tokens.

On August 13, ether.fi launched a programmatic ETHFI repurchase mechanism, with funding sources covering its various products and revenue lines. Ether.fi has previously conducted token buybacks; this change is that buybacks have become routine and are tied to a broader revenue base.

The announcement did not disclose enough information to determine how much buying pressure the plan could generate. If only a small portion of the revenue is used for repurchase, or if the repurchased tokens are re-entered into circulation in the future, the increase in revenue will not necessarily lead to a proportional increase in ETHFI demand.

Ether.fi also allocated $100 million to a real-world asset vault on Plume. The vault could expand asset size and fee income, which could ultimately support larger buybacks. But this allocation itself does not represent a $100 million ETHFI purchase.

3. Jito (JTO): Buy and destroy proposal faces Solana risk

JTO rose 7% on the day and 23% in the week, trading close to $0.60. There are two-way changes in market access: Bitstamp added JTO trading pairs, while CoinTR removed its JTO trading pairs in August. The former may improve liquidity and bring in new buyers; the latter reduces access to a market. Neither changed Jito's basic income.

Proposal JIP-38 goes a step further and proposes using Jito DAO's share of JTX revenue to buy back and destroy JTO in the market until the fourth quarter of 2027. Completed buybacks will increase demand, and destruction will remove purchased tokens from supply. However, until JTX incurs considerable fees and actually executes these transactions, the policy will remain more important as a framework than as a source of buying pressure.

JTO also bears part of Solana's operational risk because Jito provides the pledge and transaction infrastructure for the Solana network. A recent routing issue reported by Marinade Finance caused approximately 29% of Solana pledges to go offline, bringing the network close to the final threshold, although blocks and transactions did not stop. Increased Solana activity could increase Jito's revenue opportunities; instability could undermine confidence in the business.

4. Chainlink (LINK): Reserves are more important than price targets

LINK rose 6% in 24 hours and 12% in a week to $9.27. Standard Chartered Bank's new coverage report brings traders a set of eye-catching numbers: a target price of US$13 at the end of 2026 and a target price of US$200 for 2030, and predicts that the tokenized asset market will reach US$4 trillion by 2028.

These are forecasts, not negotiated cash flows. They can improve market sentiment, but valuation logic still requires banks, asset issuers and blockchain to pay for Chainlink's services on a larger scale. The bank's target price does not set a price floor for LINK.

Large transactions worth more than $100,000 reportedly hit a five-month high, while addresses holding 100,000 to 10 million LINK control about 47% of supply. Such activity may reflect accumulation, but large transfers may also be internal transfers, collateral changes or preparations for sale. If major holders sell off during a rally, high concentration becomes a risk.

Chainlink reserves provide a direct economic link. Through the payment abstraction layer, service fees paid in stablecoins or other assets can be converted to LINK and accumulated in reserves. This can transform network usage into token purchases. This is not destruction, and its effect depends on the rate of growth of reserves versus the amount of LINK flowing in from other channels in the market.

5. Internet Computer (ICP): Lower inflation still requires higher usage

ICP ranks fifth with US$2.27, with a daily increase of 5% and a weekly increase of 9%. The "Target 70" plan aims to reduce token inflation by at least 70% by the end of 2026, but the goal has two separate components.

The incentive cuts were approved in April and implementation is in progress. The "Goal 70" white paper estimates that these supply measures could reduce total coinage from approximately 10% in January 2026 to approximately 5% in January 2027. This will reduce dilutions and the number of new ICPs available for sale.

The remaining cuts cannot be achieved by reducing incentives alone. To achieve an inflation rate of about 3%, cycle combustion needs to increase by about 15 times. Therefore, Internet Computer needs greater commercial demand for its cloud services and computing services, and users consume enough resources to burn more ICPs.

If network use does not grow fast enough to offset the impact of reduced incentives, reducing voting and node provider rewards may also weaken participation. "Goal 70" can reduce supply growth, but demand must meet the rest.

What to focus on after the rally

VELVET: Routing transaction volume and release schedule for lock-in rewards.
ETHFI: Value of completed buybacks as a proportion of ether.fi revenue.
JTO: JTX fees and verifiable JTO repurchase and destruction quantities.
LINK: Fee conversions and growth in Chainlink reserves.
ICP: Changes in total coinage, cycle burn, and network participation.

The rankings show the flow of funds among traders this week. The more severe test lies in scale: repurchase, destruction and issuance reductions must be large enough to have a substantial impact in the face of normal transaction volume and new token supply. A mechanism can work exactly as designed, but it is still too small to support prices. Until the data proves otherwise, these are just a strong rebound rather than evidence that the new token economy model has worked.