You asked. I'm delivering.

After many requests from this community, I've put together a list of the 10 altcoins I'm most bullish on from the top 100. These are tokens you can feel ok HODLing in case 2025 doesn’t end with a huge altseason explosion that sends your portfolio to the moon.

Here's the thing we all know but rarely talk about: Everyone looks like a genius during altseason.

This is where most crypto investors get burned. They chase the hype, ignore fundamentals, and end up holding bags when the music stops.

As regular readers know, I don’t chase trends. You can do fine with that approach, but I'm here to help you build positions that make sense whether we get that beautiful blow-off top or not. That's exactly what this list represents.

These 10 altcoins hit all the criteria we've discussed in previous newsletters:

• Real utility driving genuine demand (not just speculation)

• Active development with teams that actually ship

• Institutional validation through partnerships and adoption

• Strong ecosystems with growing developer and user bases

For each pick, I share an optimal entry price and a selling price. Those are not rigid goals but general ranges that offer fair value. With altcoins, any price within 50% of the target is close enough. 

(You’ll notice Ethereum is not on the list. It’s a beast and a true success, but if I’m going to hold any crypto that large, I want to hold BTC.)

1. Chainlink (LINK) - Oracle Infrastructure Leader

Core Thesis

Chainlink connects blockchains to off-chain data and enables secure cross-chain communication. Major financial institutions and top DeFi protocols use Chainlink as an "oracle" to power applications that need real-world data. Almost every app that runs on a public blockchain needs an oracle. Chainlink is the biggest oracle network.

Fundamental Strengths

• Real-World Asset Integration: Chainlink serves as the data backbone for smart contracts, providing accurate, transparent, and secure information on the value, condition, and ownership of all categories of real assets.

• Institutional Adoption: Chainlink supports blockchain projects for Swift, Fidelity, DTCC, and other big entities.

Growth Drivers

• RWA tokenization market expansion

• Cross-chain interoperability demand

• Institutional blockchain adoption

Caveat

The team sells tokens fairly often and at their discretion.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $18

Sell Above $136

2. Arbitrum (ARB) - Scaling Infrastructure

Core Thesis

Arbitrum secures over $2.3 billion in total value across over 800 protocols and more than 300,000 active addresses, maintaining strong DeFi activity despite user decay. Few Ethereum L2s show similarly strong conviction among core users.

Fundamental Strengths

• Ecosystem Maturity: Arbitrum hosts many DeFi protocols and uses optimistic rollups to merge transactions into batches, settling on Ethereum. Its speed and security support heavy usage.

• Technical Advantage: Multi-round fraud proofs vs single-round competitors.

• Revenue Generation: Arbitrum's revenue is real, rising, and competitive with similar protocols.

Growth Drivers 

• Ethereum flaws continue to drive traffic to L2s 

• DeFi protocol migration and growth encourage participation in protocol governance via ARB tokens

Caveat

Aggressive emission schedule will tamp down on token appreciation through 2027. 

Optimal Entry Price: Below $0.42

Sell Above $5

3. Solana (SOL) - High-Performance Blockchain

Core Thesis

Solana has surpassed Ethereum in daily active addresses with over 3 million users.

Fundamental Strengths

• Performance: Low fees and high throughput. 

• User Activity: 2nd-most users, behind only Ethereum among smart contract platforms.

• Institutional Interest: Solana ETF applications by Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and VanEck remain under SEC evaluation with decision deadlines in October 2025.

Growth Drivers

• ETF approval potential

• DeFi ecosystem expansion

• NFT and gaming adoption

Caveat

Application development and transaction activity is dominated by DEXs and memecoins, raising the risk users and developers will view it as a “one-trick pony.”

Optimal Entry Price: Below $125

Sell Above $800

4. Ondo Finance (ONDO) - Tokenized Assets Pioneer

Core Thesis

Ondo Finance tokenizes real-world financial assets like U.S. Treasury bonds and corporate debt. Recent transaction volumes approached $300 million.

Fundamental Strengths

• Product Portfolio: Ondo’s platform supports short-term US treasuries, investment grade bonds, high-yield corporate bonds, and the Flux Finance lending protocol.

• Market Position: Large user base and practical use cases.

Growth Drivers 

• Traditional finance integration

• Regulatory clarity for RWAs

• Institutional demand for yield

Caveat

Aggressive emission schedule will tamp down on token appreciation through 2029.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $0.70

Sell Above $7

5. Sky (SKY) - DeFi Infrastructure Giant

Core Thesis

Multi-chain DeFi powerhouse, combining proven stablecoin infrastructure with innovative governance.

Fundamental Strengths

• Proven Scale: Secures $6.23 billion TVL with DAI, the third-largest stablecoin.

• Revenue Generation: Among top revenue-generating DeFi protocols with sustainable business model from stability fees, liquidations, and Sky Savings Rate.

• Sky Stars Ecosystem: Spark protocol has over $3 billion TVL with $1 billion RWA tokenization initiative, enabling specialized innovation.

Growth Drivers 

• Stablecoin market expansion

• Multi-chain integration

• Deflationary SKY tokenomics with burning mechanism creating supply pressure

• Real-world asset tokenization and traditional finance integration with DAI

Caveat

None.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $0.0777

Sell Above $7.77

6. Pendle Finance (PENDLE) - Yield Innovation Leader

Core Thesis

Pendle Finance enables users to tokenize and trade future yields separately from underlying assets—essentially a DeFi derivatives market.

Fundamental Strengths

• Market Dominance: Over $2.9 billion TVL (approximately 50% market share) in the yield management space. 

• Technology: Splits yield-bearing assets into Principal Tokens (PT) and Yield Tokens (YT), enabling fixed yield strategies and leveraged yield exposure–key for sophisticated financial players.

• Technical Innovation: Purpose-built market-making design for time-decaying assets, multi-chain deployment across 8 blockchains, and AI-powered yield optimization.

Growth Drivers

• Expansion of DeFi yield market and institutional adoption of fixed-income products

• Integration with restaking protocols and real-world asset tokenization

• Growing demand for yield derivatives and sophisticated DeFi strategies

Caveat

Success depends on sophisticated financial players not mainstream users.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $2.60

Sell Above $12

7. Mantle (MNT) - TradFi-DeFi Bridge Infrastructure

Core Thesis

Mantle is a comprehensive financial ecosystem with institutional-grade products, $1.6 billion TVL, and the MI4 institutional index fund—enabled by a $4 billion treasury and governance-backed deployment.

Fundamental Strengths

• Technical Infrastructure: Fastest L2 with an upcoming ZK-proof integration.

• Strong ecosystem: mETH is one of the biggest ETH liquid staking protocols while Function (FBTC) secures $1.2 billion in wrapped Bitcoin across Ethereum, Mantle, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum.

• Strategic Partnerships: Bybit, Ethena (USDe), and Agora (VanEck/State Street stablecoin), and a $200 M EcoFund backed by prominent VCs.

• Tokenomics: Clean capital structure with 51% of tokens circulating and 49% held in governance-controlled treasury with no future token unlocks or vesting schedules, though the Treasury can sell at will.

Growth Drivers

• Infrastructure rollout—fiat ramps, FX services, and yield on idle balances

• Staking-enabled beta exposure for institutions

• Ecosystem growth around wrapped Bitcoin use cases and FBTC cross-chain expansion to non-EVM networks (e.g., Solana, SUI)

Caveat

Many of its flagship initiatives sound good but they’re early-stage or in development, not yet proven at scale.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $0.65

Sell Above $8

8. Bittensor (TAO) - Decentralized AI Network Pioneer

Core Thesis

Bittensor creates a market for artificial intelligence, combining blockchain technology with machine learning to enable collaborative AI development where models are rewarded based on their informational value.

Fundamental Strengths

• Novel Technology: Proof of Intelligence (PoI) consensus mechanism rewards participants based on their contributions to the network rather than traditional mining or staking.

• Token Supply: Capped at 21 million with first halving expected November 2025.

• Subnet Architecture: Dozens of specialized AI subnets building applications, with network organized into computational units that mirror human brain architecture.

Growth Drivers

• AI revolution and increasing demand for decentralized AI solutions

• Upcoming TAO halving reducing block rewards

• Subnet ecosystem expansion and Dynamic TAO market mechanisms

Caveat

Most current activity is driven by speculation and emissions-funded incentives, with limited adoption from enterprise or high-value users.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $230

Sell Above $1,800

9. Hyperliquid (HYPE) - Decentralized Perpetuals Leader

Core Thesis

Hyperliquid processes over 70% of DEX perpetual volume with $1.75 billion TVL.

Fundamental Strengths

• Market Dominance: Daily volumes hit roughly $400 million and weekly volumes have gone as high as $78 billion.

• Revenue Model: Protocol reinvests approximately 97% of its fee revenue into HYPE buybacks, generating over $70 million in monthly protocol fees with deflationary tokenomics.

• Technical Performance: Custom HyperBFT consensus processes up to 200,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality, enabling high-frequency trading typically found on centralized platforms.

Growth Drivers

• Perpetual trading market expansion

• Institutional adoption

• Launch of fiat-backed stablecoin

Caveat

Limited composability compared to Ethereum-based ecosystems makes it vulnerable to a drop in developers or difficulty integrating other platforms.  

Optimal Entry Price: Below $28

Sell Above $300

10. Aave (AAVE) - DeFi Lending Infrastructure

Core Thesis

AAVE is an OG DeFi platform with market-leading non-custodial liquidity markets to earn interest on supplying and borrowing assets with variable interest rates.

Fundamental Strengths

• Protocol Maturity: Offers 23 crypto assets.

• Technical Reliability: Battle-tested from years of usage, hacks, and liquidations.

• Revenue Performance: Aave ranks among top DeFi protocols for revenue generation.

Growth Drivers 

• DeFi lending growth

• Institutional adoption

• Multi-asset expansion

Caveat

TVL has stagnated relative to newer competitors with higher yields or novel mechanisms.

Optimal Entry Price: Below $180

Sell Above $1,800

Honorable mentions

Dogecoin (DOGE)—the Bitcoin of memecoins

• Always pumps during altseason.

• High name recognition, strong community, wide cultural reach. 

• Roadmap includes Dogebox decentralized payment system, GigaWallet enterprise backend, and RadioDoge connectivity for underserved areas using LoRa technology and Starlink integration.

Cardano (ADA)—smart contract platform

• Strong developer activity and mature technology.

• High name recognition.

• Extensive build-out and experienced developer network.