Grayscale Updates Top 20 Altcoin List For Q1 2025 With These 6 New Additions

Grayscale Research has updated its list of the top 20 altcoins for the first quarter of 2025, adding six new digital assets.

The list highlights cryptocurrencies that the company believes demonstrate great potential for the coming quarter.

The six tiles

According to the December 30 report, this update emphasizes tokens linked to three main market themes: the US election and its potential regulatory implications for decentralized finance (DeFi) and participation, advances in Decentralized AI and blockchain adoption by AI agents and growth. of the Solana ecosystem.

Based on these factors, Grayscale has added Hyperliquid (HYPE), Athena (ENA), Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL), Jupiter (JUP), Jito (JTO) and Grass (GRASS) to its top 20 list.

Hyperliquid, a Layer 1 blockchain, powers financial applications and operates a decentralized perpetual futures exchange with a fully on-chain order book. On the other hand, Athena introduced USDe, a stablecoin backed by hedged positions in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which offers participation opportunities tied to price differences between the spot and futures markets.

The virtual protocol enables the creation of tokenized AI agents on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network. This functionality enables agents to autonomously interact with their environment and users.

Jupiter, the leading decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, has the highest Total Value Blocked (TVL) of any application on the network. Another Solana project, Jito, is a liquid stake protocol that generated over $550 million in fee revenue by 2024.

The last of the six, Grass, works as a decentralized platform for sharing data. It compensates users for sharing unused Internet bandwidth through a Chrome extension. That bandwidth is then sold to AI developers to train machine learning models, offering a unique approach to monetizing data.

In addition to these new entries, Grayscale rotated some tokens, including Celo (CELO), from the Top 20. While these removed tokens remain relevant to the broader crypto ecosystem, the company explained that the updated selection better reflects risk-adjusted returns. scheduled for next quarter.

Smart contract platforms

Grayscale’s latest report also highlighted the intensifying competition among smart contract platforms. Despite significant wins in the last quarter of 2024, Ethereum is facing increasing pressure from competitors like Solana and The Open Network.

The research explains that these platforms are gaining traction by addressing the “blockchain trilemma,” balancing scalability, security, and decentralization with innovative solutions.

Fee income also continues to play a critical role in driving the value of smart contract platform tokens. For this reason, Grayscale included Ethereum, Solana, Sui and Optimism in its top 20 list for the first quarter of 2025 as prominent smart contract platforms.

According to the asset manager, these projects can generate sustainable fee income while delivering long-term value to their ecosystems.

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