The altcoin market has reached extreme undervaluation — 40% of coins are trading near all-time lows, according to analysts at Cryptoquant. However, they note that around 60,000 new cryptocurrencies appear daily, while market liquidity does not grow at the same pace. Unsurprisingly, most projects are doomed to fail.
When selecting crypto assets, one must remain highly selective. Experts told RBC-Crypto which categories of cryptocurrencies have growth potential and which altcoins are worth a closer look.
"Three themes driving the market right now"
One of the most promising areas today is perp-DEX — decentralized exchanges for trading perpetual futures without intermediaries, says Dmitry Savintsev, analyst at Cryptorg. According to him, "Hyperliquid dominates here, and its strength lies not in hype but in numbers." The platform's cumulative revenue has exceeded $1 billion, with annual revenue around $800 million, and almost all fees go toward buying back the native token HYPE.
Since the start of this year, HYPE has risen 180%, and since its launch in late 2024, it has gained 2,000% without sharp declines.
"The scheme is simple: more trading volume, more money for token holders. In terms of turnover, Hyperliquid's token is already competing with Solana for the title of the main liquidity hub in crypto and has entered the top 10, surpassing Cardano and Dogecoin. It's a rare case where a token's growth is based not on faith but on the real economics of the service," Savintsev said.
Another direction with development potential is synthetic dollars and yield on stablecoins, exemplified by the Ethena project with its USDe stablecoin, which pays holders yield. Savintsev noted that demand has been enormous: after launching on Solana, the token volume reached about $400 million in a day. As of July 8, USDe's market cap is $4.39 billion, making it the 5th largest stablecoin and 21st among all cryptocurrencies.
"Ethena is an aggressive story around yield-bearing stablecoins. This theme is important because stablecoins have become the foundation of the entire industry, with the market exceeding $300 billion and continuing to grow. But the risk here is higher than usual: the model depends on interest rates and funding, regulatory issues hit such projects first, and in a downtrend they weaken more than others," the expert warned.
In his view, betting on an entire ecosystem could also be interesting. An example is Solana — not as a single coin, but as a whole environment. The principle here is also simple, says Savintsev: capital goes where there is already a lot of it. He explained that Solana has a large volume of liquidity and on-chain activity, and the approval of a staking ETF in the US has opened the door for institutional money. The value lies not in one product but in breadth: DeFi, payments, gaming, memecoins — all revolving in one infrastructure, the analyst says. He added that such a bet is more balanced than investing in a single niche altcoin.
SOL has fallen 39% since the start of the year. It is currently the seventh largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of about $45 billion.
Savintsev noted that the options he listed have different risk levels, but together the three themes cover the entire current cycle map. Looking more broadly, beyond specific coins, three directions are holding capital now: RWA (tokenization of real-world assets like bonds, real estate, private credit), perp-DEX, and the yield-bearing stablecoin protocol segment. This is where institutional money and experienced market participants are flowing, the expert said.
Currently, the crypto market suffers from high interest rates, capital outflow to other markets, and a lack of internal activity, says Nikita Bredikhin, lead investment analyst at Go Invest. In his opinion, in such a situation, "the safest investment" is projects with real revenue from trading fees, loans, and other services. Such a project can support its price by burning part of the fees or buying back tokens.
Bredikhin also named derivatives trading on perp DEX as the most stable and fastest-growing segment of the crypto market. According to him, this sector has become the main cash flow generator in the entire DeFi sector and is gradually taking market share from centralized exchanges. The analyst also believes that Hyperliquid stands out, where almost all trading fees go toward token buybacks. Another option could be Uniswap (UNI), a token of one of the largest DEXs, which also burns part of the fees it collects.
Additionally, the analyst highlighted the Aave protocol (AAVE) and Solana again. The former is a leader in the lending sector and conducts buybacks of its native cryptocurrency, while Solana has a clear and diversified model and will be the first to feel an influx of new capital and activity growth when the market recovers.
Moreover, one of the defensive sectors is privacy coins like Monero (XMR) or Zcash (ZEC), Bredikhin said. Due to increasing institutionalization and regulation of the market, more crypto enthusiasts seek to reduce control over their funds and turn to privacy coins. This sector has low correlation with the rest of the crypto market and often grows even during a general decline, the expert added.
At the same time, Bredikhin warned that the memecoin sector is the most vulnerable. Since they have no real utility and are speculative instruments, the decline in activity and capital outflow hit this segment hardest, and during a market recovery, old leaders typically do not reach new all-time highs as new favorites emerge, the analyst said.