Huobi HTX New Asset Weekly Review (5.18—5.24): Privacy Track Makes a Strong Comeback, AI Narrative Continues to Ferment

**In the third week of May, the crypto market experienced a long-awaited concentrated outbreak of profit-making effects. Bitcoin fluctuated repeatedly in a key range, with sentiment spilling over to activate the altcoin market. The most significant main lines of the market this week are threefold: the privacy coin sector represented by *ZEC* collectively surged against the backdrop of marginal improvements in regulatory expectations, the PerpDEX narrative led by HYPE continued to attract funding, and NEAR emerged with an independent market trend supported by the fundamentals of AI infrastructure. According to data from the Huobi HTX platform, assets that performed well in the past week (from May 18 to May 24) covered multiple core sectors including privacy, AI, DeFi, and PerpDEX, among which the newly launched asset ZEST became the standout dark horse of the week with a weekly increase of 131%.

The Perp DEX Sector Heats Up, BTCFi and DeFi Catch Up: Strengthening the On-Chain Derivatives Narrative

One of the most representative main lines this week is the decentralized perpetual contract (PERP DEX) sector centered around HYPE. As market volatility rises, users' demand for high efficiency, high leverage, and low slippage trading environments increases. The market is re-pricing the direction of "on-chain financial infrastructure." With the continuous advancement of BTC Layer2, staking yields, re-staking, and the expansion of on-chain assets, BTCFi is becoming an important incremental direction following the ETH ecosystem's DeFi.

• HYPE (Hyperliquid): Increased by 38% during the week, currently an important representative of on-chain derivatives trading infrastructure. Hyperliquid is a high-performance L1 optimized from the ground up, aiming to create a fully on-chain open financial system.

• ZEST (Zest Protocol): A newly launched asset that surged 131% during the week, becoming the project with the highest increase this week. Zest Protocol is a Bitcoin lending protocol. As a new coin in the BTCFi direction, ZEST's explosion reflects the market's continued enthusiasm for the financialization narrative of the Bitcoin ecosystem (Bitcoin Finance).

• ONDO (OndoFinance): Increased by 28% during the week, a representative asset of RWA/DeFi. ONDO has long been regarded as an important representative of real-world assets (RWA) and on-chain yield protocols, providing infrastructure for the tokenization of securities and the development of protocols supporting these assets (e.g., Flux Finance).

The Privacy Sector Warms Up: ZEC and NIL Strengthen, Funds Reassess "Anonymous Value"

Another highly recognizable main line this week is the overall warming of the privacy sector. With the enhancement of on-chain regulation, asset traceability, and increasing user demand for privacy protection, the market has begun to refocus on anonymous transactions, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), and the value of privacy infrastructure.

• ZEC (Zcash): Increased by 22% during the week, an established privacy asset. Compared to small-cap speculative assets, ZEC has a more complete technical accumulation and market recognition, thus benefiting first in the early stages of the privacy narrative warming up.

• NIL (Nillion): Increased by 60% during the week. Nillion is a private computing and storage network aimed at AI and data. This network utilizes PETs (privacy-enhancing technologies) to compute and store data while protecting privacy, enabling various scenarios such as private personalized AI, encrypted databases, and other privacy-protecting applications.

The Heat of the AI Sector Continues: NEAR Leads, Infrastructure-type AI Assets in Demand

AI is undoubtedly one of the strongest continuing main lines in the current market. From the performance over the past few weeks, the AI sector remains one of the frequently appearing segments in the Huobi HTX rise ranking, with its sustainability clearly stronger than short-cycle hotspots. As concepts such as AI Agent, on-chain computing resources, and decentralized inference networks continue to spread, the market is increasingly focused on "who can truly implement AI applications."

• NEAR (NEAR Protocol): Increased by 56% this week. NEAR is a composite asset that combines public chain attributes, development ecology, and AI infrastructure narratives. NEAR Protocol serves as the infrastructure for an open network, providing a decentralized application platform that offers a simple and user-friendly experience for developers and users.

• GENIUS (Genius): Increased by 54% during the week. Genius Terminal is the first private and ultimate on-chain terminal, a trading operating system (OS) designed for professional users, aiming to serve those who seek DeFi functionalities but dislike its complex interactive experience.

Quality Assets Continue to Emerge, Huobi HTX Helps Users Capture Structural Market Trends

From this week's market performance, it is evident that the market has clearly shifted from single-theme speculation to a phase of "multiple main lines running in parallel, with structured capital allocation." The on-chain derivatives infrastructure represented by HYPE, the warming of the privacy sector led by ZEC, and the revaluation of large-cap AI assets driven by NEAR together constitute the core logic of this week's rise.

As a leading global digital asset trading platform, Huobi HTX continues to pay attention to the evolution of market trends, focusing on key sectors such as AI, BTCFi, DeFi, RWA, and privacy infrastructure, continuously launching quality assets and high-potential projects to help users capture structural opportunities more efficiently in complex market conditions. As the market enters a new round of narrative rotation cycles, quality assets with real long-term value and ecological support may become the core direction of capital attention in the next phase.

About Huobi HTX

Huobi HTX was established in 2013 and has developed over 13 years from a cryptocurrency exchange into a comprehensive blockchain business ecosystem, covering digital asset trading, financial derivatives, research, investment, incubation, and other businesses.

As a leading global Web3 portal, Huobi HTX adheres to a development strategy of global expansion, ecological prosperity, wealth effects, and security compliance, providing comprehensive, safe, and reliable value and services for virtual currency enthusiasts worldwide.

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