The Set-Up: A Capital-Led Spring
Between 20 April and 20 July 2025 the crypto-market staged its sharpest rebound since the 2021 bull-run.
Tokens with the largest market-caps doubled—or tripled—while on-chain gauges moved at wildly different speeds.
Below is a 90-day score-card for the eight most valuable (or most talked-about) public chains, ranked by how dramatic the divergence between price and fundamentals has become.

1. Ethereum – The King is Back, Bought by ETFs
Price: ▲ 130 % (US $1 600 → US $3 800)
TVL: ▲ 61 % (US $83 B net in-flow, largest among all chains)
ETH on-chain balance: ▼ 21 % (28.4 M → 22.3 M ETH)
Daily active addresses: ▲ 12 % | Tx count: ▲ 16 %

Take-away: Spot ETH ETFs absorbed ≈ US $5 B; MicroStrategy-style corporate treasuries added another estimated US $3 B.
Most TVL uplift is mark-to-market; the actual ETH float keeps migrating to L2s and staking contracts.

2. Solana – Price Up, Users Down
Price: ▲ 36 % (US $139 → US $189)
Net flow: ▼ US $1.12 B out-flow
Daily active: ▼ 14 % | Stable-cap: ▼ US $1.5 B
Validators: shrinking (small ones squeezed)
Pump.fun still dominates with US $234 B monthly volume, but new-mint memes cooled from 90 k → 40 k per day.
Staking ratio steady at 66 %, yet concentration risk rising.

3. BNB Chain – Activity First, Price Later
Price: ▲ 30 %
Daily active: ▲ 74 % (25.2 M → 44 M)
Tx count: ▲ 114 % (7.9 M → 16.8 M)
Stable-cap: ▲ 55 % (US $7.1 B → US $11 B)
Net flow: ▼ US $0.95 B out-flow

Alpha-task campaigns (gas rebates, airdrop quests) filled blocks; converting that traffic into locked capital is the next boss-level.

4. Base – Ethereum’s Fastest Side-Pocket
Price (ETH denominated): mirrors ETH
TVL: ▲ 63 % (US $2.4 B → US $4 B)
Daily active: ▲ 115 % (15.6 M → 33.6 M)
Net flow: ▼ US $5.6 B (drained to Ethereum main-net—users bridge in, profit, bridge out)
Tech kicker: Flashblocks cut block-time to 200 ms, fastest among EVMs.
Coinbase’s new “Base App” super-app wallet + social feed keeps the retail funnel full.

5. Arbitrum – The Quiet Second
Price (ARB): ▲ 66 %
TVL: ▲ 34 % | Tx: ▲ 22 %
Daily active: flat at 4.6 M
No fireworks, but firmly the №2 L2 by TVL; positioning for the next wave of De-Fi launches.

6. Sui – Double-Double, with Volatility
Price: ▲ 97 % (US $2.15 → US $4.24)
TVL: ▲ 84 % (US $1.2 B → US $2.2 B)
Stable-cap: ▲ to US $1 B
Daily active: roller-coaster (1.5 M → 0.4 M → 1 M)
Move-language memes and order-book perps on Cetus pulled in punters; retention still a question.

7. Hyperliquid – From Governance Drama to Moon-Math
Price: ▲ 177 % (US $18 → US $49.9) – now top-13 by MC
TVL: ▲ 202 % (US $0.64 B → US $1.94 B)
Stable-cap: doubled to US $4.9 B
HLP vault earnings back at all-time-high (US $68 M); 3 k+ new users per day in July.
After a decentralisation scare in May, traders seem to trust the on-chain order-book again.

8. Aptos – The Laggard with MOVE
Price: ▲ 10 % (worst among eight)
TVL, active addresses, net flows – all negative
Tx count: ▲ 34 % (only bright spot)
Stable-cap: ▲ US $0.3 B, still < Sui.
Same language, same investors, but liquidity and mind-share are leaking to Sui.

Zoom-Out: Price First, Fundamentals Later

• Capital inflows (ETFs, treasuries, stable-mints) explain most of the 2-3× moves.

• On-chain usage is growing, but not at token-pace; bridges are busy, yet net flows are negative for half the chains.

• Base and Hyperliquid show the biggest relative improvement in real activity, while Ethereum captures the absolute dollar surge.

• Solana and Aptos warn that speculative volume can uncouple from user growth.

If history rhymes, the next leg will depend on whether the new liquidity spins up De-Fi yields, game-fi seasons or killer consumer apps—otherwise “up-only” may meet “empty-blocks”.