The cryptocurrency market traded higher on August 21, 2026, with Bitcoin rising 2.01% to $74,460 and Ether gaining 0.85% to $2,345.83. Weekly gains remained strong across several major tokens, led by XRP at 29.81%, Ether at 24.59%, Uniswap at 19.04%, Bitcoin at 18.19% and Solana at 18.17%.
Crypto Market Highlights — August 21, 2026
Bitcoin: Bitcoin traded at $74,460, up 2.01% on the day. It gained 18.19% over the week and 12.60% over the month, while remaining down 14.93% YTD and 36.31% YoY. Its market capitalisation stood at approximately $1.47 trillion.
Ether: Ether rose 0.85% to $2,345.83, extending its weekly gain to 24.59% and monthly gain to 21.21%. However, it remained down 21.03% YTD and 51.52% YoY, with a market cap of around $369.03 billion.
Binance: Binance gained 0.44% to $658.90, with weekly and monthly gains of 8.33% and 15.37%, respectively. It was down 23.82% YTD and 26.71% YoY, with a market cap of $87.22 billion.
Cardano: Cardano advanced 3.40% to $0.20572, recording a 14.16% weekly and 17.83% monthly gain. Despite the recent recovery, it remained down 38.26% YTD and 77.92% YoY.
Solana: Solana climbed 1.65% to $89.1153, while its weekly gain stood at 18.17% and monthly gain at 14.25%. It remained down 28.44% YTD and 55.66% YoY, with a market cap of $51.18 billion.
XRP: XRP gained 2.02% to $1.29308, emerging as the strongest weekly performer among the listed cryptocurrencies with a 29.81% gain. It was also up 13.44% monthly, but remained down 29.57% YTD and 57.85% YoY.
Polkadot: Polkadot declined 0.88% to $0.84, despite gaining 10.09% over the week. It was up 0.88% monthly, but remained down 52.90% YTD and 79.84% YoY.
Avalanche: Avalanche fell 0.87% to $7.24, while recording weekly and monthly gains of 12.02% and 9.41%. It remained down 41.12% YTD and 71.31% YoY.
Polygon: Polygon declined 0.59% to $0.08. It gained 7.84% weekly and 2.01% monthly, while remaining down 19.62% YTD and 68.12% YoY.
Cosmos: Cosmos rose 0.71% to $1.52, with a modest 0.95% weekly and 3.85% monthly gain. It remained down 20.90% YTD and 68.39% YoY.
Dai: Dai edged up 0.17% to $1.00102, with gains of 0.11% weekly, 0.20% monthly, 0.13% YTD and 0.13% YoY. Its market cap stood at approximately $4.57 billion.
Litecoin: Litecoin gained 0.69% to $48.114, rising 9.70% weekly and 1.99% monthly. It remained down 37.40% YTD and 60.88% YoY.
Uniswap: Uniswap advanced 1.17% to $3.81, with a 19.04% weekly gain. It was up 0.65% monthly, but remained down 32.32% YTD and 66.72% YoY.
Algorand: Algorand was almost flat, rising 0.02% to $0.09. It gained 11.53% weekly and 5.04% monthly, while remaining down 20.25% YTD and 66.80% YoY.
Market takeaway: The data points to a strong short-term recovery across much of the crypto market, particularly on a weekly basis. However, the majority of listed assets continue to show substantial YTD and YoY losses, indicating that the recent rally has not yet reversed the broader decline.
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