Grayscale lists HYPE, VIRTUAL, ENA, JUP among the most likely signals for Q1 2025.
Key receivers
Grayscale Research has added HyperLiquid, Etena, Virtual Protocol, Jupiter, Gito and Grass to its top 20 crypto assets in Q1 2025. The company's listing reflects its focus on decentralized AI technologies and the development of Solana's ecosystem.
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As 2024 draws to a close, Grayscale Research has published an updated list of the top 20 crypto assets expected to perform well in the coming quarter. The list contains six new altcoins including HyperLiquid (HYPE), Etena (ENA), Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL), Jupiter (JUP), JETTO (JETTO) and GRASS (GRASS).
Grayscale Research notes that these updates will be influenced by the implications of the US elections, advances in decentralized AI technology, and growth in the Solana ecosystem. The team predicts these will be key themes for Q1 2025.
Decentralized AI platforms were previously included in Greyscale's Q4 2024 list, Bittensor (TAO). For the next quarter, there is a lot of focus on this sector, including virtual and SARS.
Launched on the foundation in October 2024, the virtualization protocol allows users to create, deploy and monetize AI agents without requiring technical expertise. The VIRTUAL token reached $1.4 billion in market capitalization within a month of its launch. At press time, according to CoinGecko data, it is the largest AI agent coin with a market value of $3.4 billion.
Tapping into both the growing AI and Solana ecosystems, Grass is a decentralized network built on Solana Layer 2. It allows residential users to contribute unused internet bandwidth through nodes, which collect public web data for AI training. The GRASS token has grown by around 160% since its launch at CoinGecko in late October.
Meanwhile, Hyperliquid has emerged as a leader in closed trade volume and total value among decentralized perpetual exchange platforms. The HYPE token It has risen nearly 300% since its Nov. 29 launch, reaching $28.
With Jupiter leading Solana as the leading DEX aggregator, the highest total value is locked in, while Gito, a liquid staking protocol, will generate more than $550 million in fee revenue by 2024, Grayscale Research highlights.
Alongside the new additions, six assets – Toncoin (TON), Near (Near), Stack (STX), Maker (MKR), Celo (CELO) and UMA Protocol (UMA) – have been removed from the list.
According to Greyscale Research, these projects remain relevant to the crypto ecosystem, but the group believes that the improved selection will provide a more compelling risk-adjusted return profile for the next quarter.
Smart contract platform
A key observation from Greyscale Research is the growing competition in the smart contract platform segment. Although Ethereum had some big wins in the fourth quarter, it faced increasing competitive pressure from other blockchains, especially Solana.
Moreover, investors are starting to look at other alternatives to Ethereum, such as Sui and Ton. These platforms, like Greyscale Research, They have different approaches to blockchain trilemma”
The group reiterated that fee revenue will be a key driver for smart contract platform tokens. They point out that the platform's ability to generate fees is directly related to the market Capitalization and the ability to reward Token holders such as token burning or Pinching
” of It is greater Ability to generate network fee income, ed It is greater The ability to transfer value to the network through token burning or rewards. This quarter, the top 20 characteristics of gray level research the following Smart contract platforms: ETH, SOL, SUI and OP,” the report reads.
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