After the fairly broad rebound seen last week, the Crypto Race 2026 is returning to a much more selective pattern.

The snapshot taken on Saturday, August 15 at 00:00 highlights two particularly clear moves: Akash is accelerating again at the top, while ATOM has almost caught up with Bitcoin.

Not all altcoins are following. Some are moving higher, while others are already giving back part of their previous rebound.

Akash extends its lead again

Akash remains the only asset in Category 1 still showing a positive performance since the beginning of the competition.

With a +10.1% gain over the week, it moves from +24.7% to around +37.3% since January 3.

Its lead is therefore widening again.

Behind it, TAO holds second place at -21.3%, but the most interesting move is happening just below.

ATOM catches up with Bitcoin

ATOM gained 12.4% in one week.

Its performance since the start of the race improves to -30.5%, compared with -30.3% for Bitcoin.

The gap is now only around 0.23 percentage points.

Bitcoin therefore still holds third place in the ranking without yield, but only just.

After several months in which ATOM mostly seemed to follow the market without materially reducing the gap, this move back toward BTC is worth watching.

Osmosis also gained 5.2%, but remains at -42.9% since January.

The altcoin rebound remains very selective

Last week could have suggested a broader recovery across the market.

This week already puts that interpretation into perspective.

Algorand, which had posted one of the strongest rebounds in the previous checkpoint, falls 10.9% and drops back to -37.8% since the beginning of the Crypto Race.

Ethereum loses around 1.8%, Bitcoin 3.1%, while Avalanche is almost unchanged.

So we are still not seeing a uniform recovery across altcoins.

For now, a few assets are simply breaking away from the rest of the pack.

CAT2: Gnosis stays ahead, Nolus gives back ground

Category 2 is clearly less dynamic this week.

Gnosis remains in first place at around -23.7% since January, despite losing 2.7% over the week.

Nolus, which rebounded strongly in the previous checkpoint, gives back around 8% and returns to -41.9% since the start.

Band falls to -55.4%, Shentu to -61.8%, while Flux remains close to -63% despite a small weekly gain.

Lava rebounds by around 12%, but remains far behind at approximately -87.5% since January.

Yields continue to change the ranking

As every week, staking rewards and node yields mechanically improve the performance of some assets.

ATOM is becoming a particularly visible example: without staking, Bitcoin is still very slightly ahead; with the rewards accumulated since January, ATOM is already ahead of BTC.

There is no need to reopen the debate from previous checkpoints here: yield does not turn a poor investment into a good one.

But after more than seven months of competition, its effect is logically becoming more significant in the final result.

An altseason? Still not

The previous checkpoint showed several altcoins recovering at the same time.

The August 15 snapshot is a reminder that one strong week is not enough to establish a trend.

Akash continues to lead the race.

ATOM is back within touching distance of Bitcoin.

But Algorand is falling again, Nolus is already giving back part of its rebound, and most of Category 2 remains deeply in the red.

Still no altseason in our Crypto Race.

For now, what we are seeing is closer to a few individual breakaways within a very fragmented pack.

And this week, one of the most interesting names among them is ATOM.