CryptoRank analysts published their July crypto market review, assessing the performance of the largest industry segments by market capitalization. RWA, GameFi, and restaking emerged as the month's top-performing sectors, while memecoins, DePIN, AI, and Layer 2 ended the period in decline. At the same time, the broader market picture was far more uneven than the headline performance of individual sectors might suggest.
RWA was the only sector where both weighted and median returns were positive. In other words, the gains were supported not only by the largest projects but also by the majority of tokens across the sector. The on-chain market capitalization of tokenized real-world assets surpassed $32 B in July, while the number of holders of tokenized stocks continued to grow.
GameFi and restaking followed a different pattern. Despite strong growth in market capitalization, most of the sector's gains came from the largest projects, while the majority of tokens ended the month with little noticeable price movement.
The same concentration was evident across the crypto market as a whole. While only 13% of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization posted gains in June, that share climbed to 55% in July. The average return across the top 100 reached 5.1%, while the median return stood at just 0.8%, confirming that a limited number of the largest tokens accounted for most of the market's gains. Bitcoin gained 9.2% over the month, once again outperforming the majority of altcoins.
The weakest-performing sectors in July were memecoins (-2.3%), DePIN (-13.2%), AI (-13.8%), and Layer 2 (-2.8%). In both the AI and Layer 2 sectors, the largest projects were also the main contributors to the decline. At the same time, total spot trading volume for BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, XRP, TRX, and BNB fell to its lowest level since the beginning of 2025.
Meanwhile, activity in the DeFi sector began to recover. The volume of active loans increased month over month for the first time since the beginning of 2026, reaching $22.2 B. Although the figure remains well below January's $34.6 B, July's performance points to stabilization after a weak June rather than a return of sustained risk appetite.