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At Grayscale Investments published Its quarterly review, revealing the top 20 crypto assets for Q1 2025. Every quarter, the Grayscale Research team evaluates “hundreds of digital assets” to guide the rebalancing of the FTSE/Grayscale Crypto Sectors index family.
As the research note puts it, “Our approach includes a combination of factors, including network growth/adoption, upcoming catalysts, sustainability of fundamentals, token valuation, token supply inflation, and potential risks.” The latest additions to the top 20 list are guided by three key market themes that Grayscale believes will shape the coming months: the US election and potential regulatory implications, rapid developments in decentralized artificial intelligence, and the expanding Solana ecosystem.
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While Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, Uniswap, SushiSwap, Aave, Bittensor, Optimism, Lido DAO, Helium, Arweave, Aerodrome, and Akash Network are still on the list, six new altcoins were added compared to the previous quarter. “We are adding the following six assets to our Top 20 list for Q1 2025,” the report states, focusing on each project’s notable alignment with one or more of the above themes.
Best (new) crypto assets for Q1 2025
Excess fluid (HYPE): It is a layer-one blockchain geared toward on-chain financial applications, and Hyperliquid’s main product is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for perpetual futures. Built around a full on-chain order book, HYPE seeks to accommodate the growing demand for advanced derivatives trading in a decentralized environment. It is worth noting that HYPE has witnessed a rapid rise over the past weeks, as it has already ranked No. 19 on the list of the largest cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization.
Athens (Aena): The Ethena protocol introduced a new stablecoin, USDe, backed by hedging positions in Bitcoin and Ether. As Grayscale explains, “Specifically, the protocol holds long positions in Bitcoin and Ether and short positions in perpetual futures on the same assets.” The staked version of the token increases the pricing differential between the spot and futures markets, potentially providing a unique return profile for participants.
Virtual (default) protocol: The virtual protocol runs on Base, a layer 2 network of Ethereum, and enables the creation of AI agents designed to operate autonomously. “These AI agents are designed to perform tasks autonomously, mimicking human decision-making,” Grayscale points out. The platform also allows for shared ownership of these agents through tokenization, linking AI capabilities with blockchain infrastructure.
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Jupiter (JUP): Jupiter has emerged as one of the leading DEX pools on Solana, recording the highest Total Value Locked (TVL) among all Solana implementations. As Solana’s user base expands and speculation around memecoins and AI agent tokens intensifies, “we believe Jupiter is well positioned to capitalize on this growing market activity,” the report said.
JTO: Jito is a liquid staking protocol on Solana that has shown strong adoption over the past year. Notably, Grayscale highlights the project’s significant profits: “Jito has seen significant growth in adoption over the past year and offers one of the best financial profiles in all of cryptocurrencies, generating over $550 million in fee revenue for 2024.”
Grass (grass): Grass rewards users for sharing unused internet bandwidth via a Chrome extension. “This bandwidth is used to mine data online, which is then sold to AI companies and developers to train machine learning models,” according to Grayscale. The project monetizes web scraping by redistributing rewards to users who contribute their idle bandwidth.
Furthermore, Grayscale notes that it remains “excited about topics from previous quarters such as Ethereum scaling solutions, tokenization, and decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN).” Examples of these specific topics include Optimism, Chainlink, and Helium, which remain in the top 20 due to their alignment with scaling, tokenization, and DePIN use cases, respectively.
It is worth noting that six assets – NEAR, Stacks, Maker CELO, UMA and TON – were rotated out of the top 20 assets list this quarter. “Grayscale research continues to see value in each of these projects, and they remain important elements of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. However, we believe the Top 20 list may offer more compelling risk-adjusted returns for the upcoming quarter,” Grayscale notes.
At press time, HYPE was trading at $29.45.
Featured image created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
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