TL;DR
Bitcoin (BTC) remains the market leader and a safe bet. Ethereum (ETH) is a strong investment due to its extensive network. Solana (SOL) is poised for growth with its low costs, while Chainlink (LINK) is essential for DeFi. Ethena (ENA) and Usual (USUAL) are promising decentralized stablecoin providers.
Bitcoin BTC – All Hail The King
Its the original cryptocurrency, its the basis of the market and super important for macro and adoption, you can check here to know more about Bitcoin BTC. My impression is simple on this one, its basically the gold of the cryptomarket, if it goes up everything goes up, if it goes down all goes, that too much depends on it, so Bitcoin is always on the list and basically the only safe bet.
Ethereum ETH – The Expensive Kid that Can do All
Ethereum is a L1 Blockchain, basically infrastructure to all the nice crypto stuff we can do nowadays with the blockchain, it’s by far the biggest network to the point there are several blockchains connected to it to provide additional services, if you want to know more about Ethereum ETH just follow the link. My impression is also simple, if you hold ETH for speculation you wont make as much as with BTC, but you will still do good, because you can always create more ETH it doesnt have the baked in value added that BTC gives.
Solana SOL – The Comeback Kid
Solana is a somewhat decentralized L1 Blockchain, its faster, cheaper and more nimble that Ethereum, its always had its ups and downs, but after the fall of FTX one of its bigger backers it looked like it was on its way down, but a combination of factors from memecoins to a bunch of strange projects propelled it into a top crypto. My impression is that Solana although with some strange choices seems to win on easiness of use and create and although the token keeps going up, creating something on Solana SOL or making transfer are still pretty cheap unlike with Ethereum where any transaction is expensive, so there is plenty of space to keep growing and getting more value.
Chainlink LINK – The Know it All
Chainlink is a interesting, its like a database of databases it works by connecting blockchains and contracts between themselves and other sources of information, a bit like Polkadot, so its blockchain infrastructure. My impression is that although boring, Chainlink has carved itself almost a niche on the Defi/Token infrastructure, to the point of being almost indispensable, and that creates what… value… how much will that flow into the LINK token… hummm
Ethena ENA / Usual USUAL – Stable all the Way
These are kinda newer versions of Terra LUNA with UST, well not really more similar to Maker DAI, these are new stablecoins providers, the difference is that instead of a centralized provider like in USDT or USDC, these are decentralized providers of stablecoin. There are more, but i would say these 2 seem the most promising, both issue their own stablecoin and their tokens ENA/USUAL are used for governance but more importantly for rewards, so as more people hold and use their stablecoins the more profits should flow to their respective tokens…
Honorable Mentions
Binance Coin BNB – Its too centralized under the thumb of Binance, it will keep increasing in value, but just as long as Binance wills it, the same point for Crypto.com CRO and Tron TRX, actually CRO is the worst on this…
Ripple XRP – Its a kinda centralized payment crypto, why use it if you can do the same things and cheaper with fiat? Nano XNO is way better as a payment crypto or XLM.
Polkadot DOT – Great idea… but thats it, its a great idea and it hasnt come to fruition and the token itself is insane with super high inflation, so it might gain some value, might…. but i don’t see the point.
Cardamo ADA – Again great tech, but this is competing with all the other L1’s, where are you going to build your app on something more lightweight like Algorand, NEAR or even Avalanche or… well if you want more mainstream why not Ethereum, BNB or Solana… why use Cardamo?
Akash Network AKT – That and maybe Bittensor TAO and Arweave AR, as AI based and cloud infrastructure keeps developing inside the blockchain, it’s not there, but its gaining steam or should i say chips! ;D
And Closing Notes
Note that my assessment is based on 4 main factors, the most popular crypto coins and projects from 2024 and 2025, what the most respected analysts/publications predictions are (if a coin is present in most assessments it will most likely be here, also note that i favor major research like Grayscale), my own personal assessment and im also not adding any memecoins, only crypto with utility, not that i have anything against, but meme coins are 100% pure speculation, of course and i will say this everytime, this is purely informed opinion, do not make judgments and or any investments without due process and proper research!
And thats it, hope you enjoyed my insight and i hope you wall have a great 2025!