TON Ecosystem and Privacy Sector Both Surge! HTX New Listings Weekly Recap (May 4–10): PAYAI Soars 248%; TON and ZEC Emerge as Strongest Market Themes

The cryptocurrency market is entering a new “structural bull phase.” Over the past week (May 4–10), Bitcoin reclaimed the $80,000 threshold, briefly hitting a new high since January 2026. Meanwhile, driven by sustained inflows into spot ETFs and improving macro liquidity, Ethereum and major altcoins exhibited clear catch-up rallies, shifting overall market sentiment from earlier defensive caution to active long positioning.

According to data from HTX, TON ecosystem tokens and privacy-focused assets stood out most strongly last week. Specifically, TON rose 104%, while ZEC surged 80%. Structurally, this week’s price action reflects more than just an emotional rebound—it signals early capital allocation around future core narratives.

TON Ecosystem Heats Up: Web2 Traffic-Entry Logic Repriced

The TON ecosystem has captured the strongest market attention this week. As Telegram continues advancing its on-chain payments, Mini Apps, and Web3 ecosystem integration, TON is evolving from a “social Layer 1” into a true super traffic gateway. Unlike traditional blockchains that rely on external user acquisition, TON’s key advantage lies in its massive built-in Telegram user base—prompting markets to reassess the ecosystem’s long-term value.

• TON (TONCOIN): Up 104% this week, emerging as one of the standout assets of the current rally. TON is a PoS-based Layer 1 blockchain deeply integrated with Telegram. Market consensus holds that TON’s core competitive edge lies in its innate ability to bridge Web2 and Web3.
• BLUM (Blum): Up 38% this week, gaining steadily rising community attention as a TON ecosystem application. Blum is a hybrid exchange offering universal token access via gamified experiences inside Telegram Mini Apps. As TON ecosystem momentum spreads, application-layer projects are now attracting capital flows.
  HTX has concurrently launched its “Spot Trading Party” campaign, covering popular assets including TON, ONDO, and SOL. From now until May 18 at 18:00 (UTC+8), users participating in spot or grid trading can share in a $30,000 USDT reward pool. New users who sign up also receive $5 USDT in spot grid trading trial credits—further fueling trading activity within the TON ecosystem.

Privacy Sector Explodes: ZEC Regains Market Spotlight

The privacy sector emerged as another core theme this week. With the AI era dawning, data privacy, on-chain anonymity, and information security have re-entered the market spotlight, prompting renewed capital interest in “privacy protection” as a foundational need. Notably, this privacy-sector rally shows clear correlation with AI development: as AI’s data-access capabilities intensify, demand for data ownership, privacy safeguards, and anonymous interaction is surging rapidly. In future scenarios where AI and blockchain converge deeply, privacy technologies may become essential infrastructure.

• ZEC (Zcash): Up 80% this week, becoming the leading asset in the privacy sector. As one of crypto’s most representative privacy coins, ZEC has long served as a flagship implementation of anonymization technology. This rally reflects a market-wide repricing of privacy assets’ intrinsic value.
• FHE (Mind Network): Up 68%. Mind Network is advancing the next-generation zero-trust internet transport protocol (HTTPZ), leveraging fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) to enable quantum-resistant, fully encrypted data transmission and AI computation.
• DASH: Up 61%. An open-source peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency offering instant transactions, private transactions, and alternative currency functionality. The entire privacy sector displayed strong correlated movement.
  Notably, HTX has also launched its “Hot Spot Trading Carnival” campaign, covering top privacy assets including XMR, DASH, ZEC, and FHE. From now until May 16 at 18:00 (UTC+8), users trading designated tokens on the spot market can share in a $50,000 USD airdrop reward pool—further amplifying market attention on the privacy sector.

DeFi Continues Recovery; Institutional Finance Narrative Rekindles

Additionally, the DeFi sector maintained high activity this week. Overall, DeFi is gradually recovering from prior sluggishness, with “real yield,” “on-chain cash flow,” and “institutional participation” emerging as key themes guiding fresh capital deployment.

• LAYER (Solayer): Up 54%. Solayer is the first blockchain leveraging hardware acceleration—offloading select blockchain components onto programmable chips to achieve over 1 million TPS and network bandwidth exceeding 100 Gbps, enabling near-zero-latency use cases.
• ONDO (Ondo Finance): Up 35%. As a leading RWA (Real World Assets) project, ONDO has drawn consistent capital interest recently. Market consensus holds that as traditional financial institutions accelerate exploration of on-chain asset issuance and stable-yield products, RWAs could serve as a vital bridge linking traditional finance and crypto markets.

AI Momentum Endures: PAYAI Emerges as Top-Performing Asset

The AI sector has now transitioned from early-stage “concept hype” into an “application imagination race.” Directions such as AI Agents, on-chain AI collaboration, compute networks, and AI-powered payments are becoming new focal points.

• PAYAI (PayAI Network): With a weekly gain of 248%, PAYAI became the strongest-performing asset on the platform this week. PayAI is an open-source, decentralized AI agent marketplace where agents hire and work for each other around the clock—built on ElizaOS, libp2p, IPFS, and Solana.
• SAHARA (Sahara AI): Weekly gain of 23%. Sahara AI is the first “AI-native” full-stack blockchain platform, enabling anyone to create, contribute to, and monetize AI development outputs—making future AI more open, inclusive, and fair. As a key infrastructure project in the AI space, SAHARA has sustained high visibility recently.

Structural Bull Run Deepens: Market Enters “Narrative Rotation” Phase

Overall, the defining feature of this week’s market was capital concentrating around “core narratives.” The TON ecosystem embodies the Web3 traffic-entry logic; the privacy sector addresses AI-era data-security demands; DeFi aligns with institutional finance trends; and AI remains the overarching long-term growth driver. Concurrent strength across multiple sectors signals a transition from earlier emotional recovery into a deeper, more mature structural bull phase.

As a globally leading digital asset trading platform, HTX remains committed to identifying high-potential assets worldwide and expanding its ecosystem through continuous listings and infrastructure development—providing users with increasingly diversified investment options. Facing this new stage of narrative-driven, fast-paced rotation in the crypto market, HTX will further strengthen its capabilities in discovering quality assets—accompanying users in capturing the next wave of core growth opportunities.

About HTX

Founded in 2013, HTX has evolved over 13 years from a cryptocurrency exchange into a comprehensive blockchain business ecosystem spanning digital asset trading, financial derivatives, research, investment, incubation, and other services.

As a globally leading Web3 gateway, HTX pursues a strategic vision centered on global expansion, ecosystem prosperity, wealth creation, and secure compliance—delivering comprehensive, secure, and reliable value and services to cryptocurrency enthusiasts worldwide.

For more information about HTX, please visit https://www.htx.com/ or HTX Square, and follow us on X, Telegram, and Discord. For additional inquiries, please contact [email protected].