Massive Capital Shift: Stablecoins Exit, Altcoins Take Off

The crypto market is undergoing a major shift. From April to August, investors pulled funds out of stablecoins and poured into high-risk, high-reward altcoins like CRV, PENDLE, XRP, and SOL. Data shows: the proportion of stablecoins in investment portfolios plunged from 42.7% to 25%, a drop of 17.7 percentage points. What does this mean?

Why is everyone leaving?

Stablecoins used to be a safe haven, but now nobody seems to care about safety anymore. The main reasons are:

1. Altcoins are too attractive DEX tokens like CRV and PENDLE surged 30% in Q3—higher than the annual yield of stablecoins. Who wants to sit in stablecoins and collect dust?

2. Big money entering Institutional investors are no longer just sticking to BTC and ETH; they’re seeking new opportunities in the DeFi ecosystem. When the big players lead the charge, retail follows.

3. DeFi infrastructure upgrades As DeFi platforms become more sophisticated, demand for tokens supporting these ecosystems soars. It’s like building a highway—property prices nearby go up.

How do you play CRV and PENDLE?

CRV: The commander of stablecoin exchanges

CRV is the governance token of Curve Finance, mainly used for:

• Voting rights: Holders decide how fees are distributed and how the protocol is upgraded
• Mining: Staking CRV earns you yields, a staple of yield farming
• Liquidity incentives: The platform uses CRV to attract market makers and ensure market depth

In short, CRV is the “board member card” for this stablecoin exchange.

PENDLE: Bringing future yields to the present

PENDLE does something creative: it splits an asset’s future yield, making it tradable on its own.

For example, if you hold a yield farming token, PENDLE lets you:

• Sell just the yield portion for instant cashout
• Only keep the principal risk to hedge against volatility
• Or vice versa: buy just the yield portion and snipe yields

This is a Swiss Army knife for sophisticated strategy traders.

Why are big institutions entering too?

Regulatory tailwinds The US may approve an altcoin ETF, and Ripple is applying for a formal banking license—these signals give institutions confidence.

Technical breakthroughs Layer 2 solutions like Mantle 2.0 slash gas fees and skyrocket transaction speeds. Institutions care most about costs, and this is exactly what they want.

Real-world assets on-chain RWA (real-world asset tokens) on Polygon have already locked in $1.1 billion. The tokenization of financial assets is the real future, far more attractive to traditional finance than pure virtual assets.

Can this wave last?

In the short term, altseason isn’t over yet. In the long run, as the DeFi ecosystem grows more complex and derivatives become more diverse, these tokens are indeed needed as “fuel.” But the risks are real—altcoins lack the consensus foundation of BTC and ETH, making them more volatile and risky.

Before entering, make sure you truly understand the mechanisms and practical uses of what you’re buying. Don’t let the word “Altseason” cloud your judgment.