The altcoin market capitalization showed signs of adjustment in August. TOTAL3, the market capitalization excluding BTC and ETH, decreased from 1.1 trillion USD to 1 trillion USD in the third week.
However, some altcoins have special factors that help maintain a positive sentiment. Based on sentiment indicators from data platforms, the following altcoins had the strongest price sentiment in August.
1. Aerodrome Finance (AERO)
Aerodrome Finance (AERO) currently has an 89% price sentiment, the highest in the market, according to CoinMarketCap.
Data from Santiment also shows that AERO's social discussion volume in August reached an All-Time-High, reflecting increasing investor interest in the project.
Aerodrome's social volume. Source: SantimentThis positive sentiment aligns with AERO's price increase. From the beginning of August, its price rose 80%, from 0.72 USD to 1.32 USD.
Since Coinbase integrated Aerodrome's decentralized exchange (DEX) into its main application, Aerodrome now processes 48.3% of DEX volume on Base. It has even surpassed major names like Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
Top DEXs on Base by volume. Source: DuneAdditionally, Aerodrome announced that their 24-hour DEX trading volume reached 1 billion USD, while total fees exceeded 250 million USD.
These milestones have reinforced investor confidence. Many expect the price to continue rising in August. A recent analysis from BeInCrypto suggests AERO could increase to 1.85 USD if favorable conditions continue.
2. Kaspa (KAS)
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Kaspa (KAS) also has an 89% price sentiment in August despite unimpressive price performance.
KAS has experienced volatility. Its price went from 0.08 USD to 0.10 USD, then dropped to 0.085 USD. However, the community remains optimistic for reasons beyond price action.
The primary momentum is the anticipated launch of Kasplex Layer 2 on 31/08. This upgrade will pave the way for smart contract applications. Layer 2 will bring new utilities to the KAS ecosystem, enabling decentralized applications and expanding the network.
The testnet has shown strong participation, with over 270,000 active wallet addresses and 14 million transactions processed.
Kasplex testnet. Source: KasplexThis momentum has attracted new investor interest, reflected in the increase in Google search trends for the project.
Adding to the excitement, a prominent investor on X, Sjuul, recently emphasized the strong community support for Kaspa.
"Competing with Bitcoin is challenging, but there seems to be a large $KAS user community. After searching from multiple sources, we discovered that Kaspa achieves around 25,000 daily users, with over 540,000 unique network users! In total, over 197 million transactions and growing, the Kaspa network seems to be attracting attention. But the question is, can it handle widespread adoption?" Sjuul said.
3. Sonic (S)
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the Sonic (S) community is also optimistic, with 83% positive sentiment in August.
Meanwhile, Sonic's TVL has decreased 60%, from over 1 billion USD in May to 415 million USD in August. However, investors remain optimistic due to new developments. A highlight is co-founder Andre Cronje's fundraising call for the decentralized exchange Flying Tulip.
Flying Tulip is built entirely on Sonic's Layer 1 blockchain. It aims to provide a fully-featured and high-performance decentralized exchange. This development is a positive signal for S as it expands Sonic's DeFi toolkit and could attract professional traders.
In August, Sonic also announced that their Testnet 2.1 integrated Ethereum's Pectra upgrade, including EIPs to optimize gas and account abstraction. The project promises to launch mainnet soon.
These positive updates have boosted sentiment towards Sonic, although its price has only modestly increased by 13% since the beginning of the month.
These three altcoins each have unique reasons behind their optimistic sentiment. Sometimes, this optimism does not directly translate into price rallies. However, it remains an important factor for investors to consider when rebalancing their investment portfolios.
