SideShift.ai Weekly Report | 19th - 25th August 2025

Welcome to the one hundred and sixty-eighth edition of the weekly stats report - your one-stop shop for all things SideShift.ai.

Highlights

• SideShift processed $14.38m in weekly volume, with 8,882 shifts logged, averaging 1,269 per day.
• XAI broke $0.17 for the first time since spring, finishing the week at $0.1717 with market cap up +4.2% to $25.96m.
• BTC remained the top coin at $5.53m, as steady settlements offset weaker deposits despite its market pullback.
• USDT (TRC-20) volume climbed to $3.52m (+18.1%), its fourth straight week of growth, supported by several large shifts over $50k.
• Top affiliates reshuffled for just the second time this year, with a new entrant climbing to third place at $836k (+196.5%) as the usual leaders pulled back.

XAI Weekly Performance & Staking

XAI extended its steady climb this month, breaking above the $0.17 handle for the first time since spring. The token moved in a range between $0.1597 and $0.1717, with momentum building through a series of higher steps before finishing at $0.1717. That put the market cap at $25.96m, a +4.2% gain from the previous week and reflective of the broader trend that has carried XAI gradually higher across August.

Staking activity stayed consistent, with 194,611.53 XAI ($29,433.24) distributed across the week at an average APY of 7.65%. The peak day came on August 19, when 38,684.23 XAI was sent directly to our staking vault at 10.78% APY, supported by $2.45m in daily volume.

An additional 100,000 USDC was added to SideShift’s treasury over the past week, and the current total is sitting at a current estimated value of $30.41m. Users can follow along with live treasury updates, via sideshift.ai/treasury. 

Additional XAI updates:

Total Value Staked: 138,355,710 XAI (+0.2%)
Total Value Locked: $23,641,537 (+3.5%)

General Business News

Crypto markets opened the week with ETH in clear control, breaking to a new all-time high just under $4.9k, its first time in uncharted territory since 2021. The milestone shifted momentum across majors, with BTC dominance sliding from ~60% to ~57% as capital rotated toward ETH and other alts. SOL followed with a strong climb toward $210, reinforcing the sense that attention has truly expanded beyond BTC for the first time in months.

SideShift processed $14.38m in gross weekly volume, a −27.3% step down from the previous period. User shifting contributed $10.66m (−28.8%), while liquidity shifts made up $3.71m (−22.6%), reflecting the downstream impact of reduced overall flow. Stablecoin activity was front and center, with USDT (TRC-20) featuring heavily — the network’s top stablecoin occupied two of the top three user pairs, led by USDT (TRC-20)/BTC at $684k and ETH/USDT (TRC-20) at $640k. BTC/USDT (ERC-20) followed at $549k, but the concentration of Tron-based USDT highlighted where most attention was this week.

Shift count was more resilient relative to volume. Gross weekly shifts reached 8,882, a -9.3% decline, translating to a daily average of 1,269 shifts alongside ~$2.05m in daily volume. The contrast with the sharper change in volume indicates that users kept shifting regularly, but with lighter amounts per shift. This measured pace somewhat mirrored broader market sentiment, which held at a neutral 43/100, a mid-range outlook that signaled neither strong conviction nor a decisive shift in risk appetite.

BTC held the top spot with $5.53m in total volume (deposits + settlements), a −27.5% decline from the week prior. Deposit activity cooled to $1.98m (−37.5%), while user settlements moved slightly higher at $2.28m (+2.9%). The split marked a reversal from last week, when BTC hit fresh all-time highs and drew heavy inflows — this time, buying interest on SideShift persisted even as price retraced, while deposits tapered off. Despite the pullback, BTC still accounted for the largest single-coin share of activity, underscoring its core demand on the platform.

ETH ranked second with $4.59m in total volume, climbing +15.8% since the time of the last report. Deposits totaled $2.30m (−7.9%), while settlements rose to $1.04m (+18.9%). The gains stood out in contrast to BTC’s pullback, narrowing the gap between the two more than at any point in recent weeks. Importantly, ETH’s advance came as the asset set new all-time highs just under $5k, and the persistence of settlement activity at those levels signaled buyer confidence as its price pushed into record territory. By contrast, SOL slipped to a total volume of $1.50m (−44.9%), marking one of the sharper declines on SideShift even as its market price climbed above $200.

USDT variants completed the top five, with Tron’s network emerging as the frontrunner. USDT (TRC-20) advanced to $3.52m in weekly volume (+18.1%), with user deposits nearly doubling to $905k (+81.9%) and settlements falling slightly to $1.29m (−9.4%). A reason for the sustained two-way volume was the presence of several large shifts (>$50k) moving in both directions, sourced from integrations as well as directly from the site. This week also marked the fourth consecutive period of total volume growth for USDT (TRC-20) on SideShift, pointing to momentum that is broadening rather than relying on a single driver. Meanwhile, USDT (ERC-20) fell sharply to $2.97m (−43.7%), with deposits down to $796k (−48.6%) and settlements sliding to $1.48m (−40.8%), leaving Ethereum’s version trailing its Tron counterpart for the time being.

Alternate networks to ETH totaled $9.99m, a weekly decline of −22.8%, with nearly every chain trending lower. The Tron network was the clear exception, climbing +19.0% to $3.75m and decisively overtaking the Solana network ($2.55m, −28.5%) as the top alt, a result driven almost entirely by USDT (TRC-20). Beyond these two, activity was limited — the BSC network slipped to $1.34m (−41.9%), Arbitrum dropped to $852k (−60.5%), while Avalanche and Polygon came in at $515k (−6.2%) and $458k (−48.8%), respectively. Base stood out slightly, nearly doubling to $500k (+99.2%), but volume there remained relatively subdued. Overall, the larger picture was one of contraction across alts, with the Tron network standing out as the only meaningful driver while alternate networks more generally continue to lag Ethereum on SideShift.

Affiliate News

Top affiliate activity closed the week at $5.18m, a nominal decline of −14.7%, though their share of our total volume rose to 36.0% (+5.3%). For the first time this year, our new third placed affiliate charged its way to a top spot with $836k (+196.5% from $282k last week), disrupting the usual hierarchy that has only once been interrupted in May by a separate affiliate. That reshuffle came as first and second place pulled back to $1.50m (−30.3%) and $1.33m (−37.3%), respectively, with their rankings unchanged. 

That’s all for now - thanks for reading and happy shifting.