Altcoins are often seen as a playground for speculators, yet professional investors increasingly rely on fundamental evaluation of tokens. On a market driven by hype and narratives, such analysis is rare, but a clear trend is emerging: revenue-rich DeFi projects like Hyperliquid and Ethena are gaining traction. For retail investors, identifying these outperformers early is difficult — which is why we asked crypto investment firms where they are focusing now.
Ethereum and Solana as the Foundation
All major investment firms still rely heavily on Layer-1 coins. Ethereum and Solana dominate their portfolios, as they directly benefit from stablecoin adoption and tokenization. “More assets and transactions are moving on-chain, and these projects capture that growth,” says Anton Werner of Fountainhead Digital.
Currently, ETH is Wall Street’s favorite thanks to the tokenization and stablecoin narrative, but sentiment could soon shift. Luke Nolan, Senior Research Associate at CoinShares, highlights the October deadline for a potential Solana ETF as a strong price driver. At the same time, Solana is pressing forward with fundamental upgrades, including the upcoming vote on the Alpenglow Consensus — a change expected to lower validator fees and improve blockchain performance.
Approaching the Stock Market Logic
Professional investors are also betting on other DeFi bluechips. “Many of these protocols have achieved product-market fit and are already highly profitable,” says Martin Bechter, co-founder of Fountainhead. Under clearer regulation, he believes their earnings could effectively be distributed like dividends.
This is why analysts predict a rapid repricing of DeFi tokens. Their logic is increasingly compared to traditional finance: buybacks, recurring revenues, and cash-flow-based valuations. Nolan from CoinShares adds: “More blockchains and app-chains will use revenue for token buybacks, giving tokens a valuation logic closer to equities.”
Aave and the DeFi Revenue Focus
Other firms concentrate on “on-chain businesses that already earn money or soon will.” According to analysts, these projects could grow dramatically in the coming years. They point to Aave, stablecoin issuer Sky (formerly Maker), and Solana’s DEX aggregator Jupiter as top picks.
DeFi protocols are also seen as beneficiaries of growing tokenization and stablecoin usage, as increasing on-chain liquidity seeks returns. Digital Asset Treasury companies (DATs) are expected to put their reserves to work in DeFi, with long-standing protocols reducing smart contract risks.
AI, Oracles, and the Multi-Chain Future
Not all firms agree on future sectors. Some currently avoid NFTs, AI, and memecoins. Fountainhead Digital, however, highlights the crossover between AI and crypto, especially DePIN projects that provide data storage, compute power, and infrastructure for training AI models.
CoinShares’ Nolan sees additional opportunity in Chainlink, which could profit from a fragmented blockchain world as new Layer-1s emerge from Circle, Google Cloud, and others. With every new chain, the demand for reliable data oracles grows — positioning Chainlink as a key infrastructure provider.
High Risk Tokens to Avoid
Despite their popularity among retail traders, memecoins remain too risky for most professionals. Nolan warns: “These tokens usually drop two or three times as much as Bitcoin or Ethereum when the broader market corrects.” Similarly, tokens with large unlock schedules are seen as dangerous bets.
Analysts also caution against “old Layer-1 tokens in the top 10 or 20 that no one uses and no one needs. Simply buying them is a huge mistake.”
