Key Takeaways:
Bitcoin (BTC) rose above the psychological $100,000 mark in 2024, setting the stage for an even bigger increase in 2025.
Analysts expect the rally to continue this year but believe that Solana, Chainlink, and Bittensor will rise faster.
DeFI-related altcoins Aave, Ethena, and Uniswap are also tipped to soar.
Bitcoin (BTC) broke records in 2024, hitting an all-time high of $108,200 in mid-December. Market analysts expect the rally to continue this year, spurred by talk of a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. and elsewhere.
But as 2025 unfolds, many investors are keeping an eye on altcoins that could potentially outperform Bitcoin. With insight from industry experts, we look at three altcoins – crypto assets other than BTC—that show promise for significant growth.
Solana (SOL)
Solana has emerged as a frontrunner in the crypto sector, showing massive growth and rapid tech improvements since its launch in 2020.
According to Valeriy Yasakov, CEO of the Telegram-based crypto trading mini-app The One, the crypto community is “buzzing about Solana” because of what he called the blockchain’s “technological superiority.”
He pointed to Solana’s clear advantage over Ethereum – the network that pioneered smart contracts – in terms of transaction processing speed and costs. Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) token is the second most valuable cryptocurrency after BTC.
The latest data shows that Solana can process transactions 90 times faster than Ethereum. As of Jan. 13, Solana processed over 1,255 transactions per second (TPS) at an average cost of $0.00026 per transaction.
That compares with just 13 transactions processed every second on Ethereum, with average transaction fees of $0.17, per Etherscan data.
Some experts speculate that Solana’s architecture might even allow for up to 710,000 TPS on a so-called “standard gigabit network.”
“This blazing performance is attracting developers and users alike, positioning Solana as the premier platform for decentralized applications and DeFi projects,” Yasakov told Cryptonews.
In 2021, the price of Solana, or SOL, the eponymous native token of the Solana blockchain, soared nearly 12,000%. In 2024, SOL climbed about 90%, remaining one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
SOL’s total market value briefly rose above $100 billion in late November, when its price peaked at $253. As of this writing, SOL is down 2.1% to $182 on the day, with a market capitalization of around $88.4 billion.
“…Solana will break through resistance levels and potentially reach $400-$750 in the near future,” Yasakov predicted.
He spoke about Solana’s expanding ecosystem and how the “meme coin mania,” fueled by meme coin launchpads such as Pump.fun, has boosted the network’s visibility and trading volume.
According to CoinGecko, the Solana blockchain now hosts thousands of meme coins, with a combined market cap of $16.7 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $4 billion.
Total value of assets locked on Solana. Source: Defillama
In addition, the network’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has increased, climbing more than 500% to $8.6 billion in 2024, according to DefiLlama. Yasakov said this shows the growing adoption of Solana in DeFi.
“This is likely just the beginning of Solana’s trajectory,” he said. “As we look toward 2025, the network is poised for even greater adoption as ‘serious’ projects begin to leverage Solana’s technological advantages.”
Yasakov added, “some decentralized exchanges on Solana are now seeing higher trading activity than their Ethereum counterparts…[a shift that] could be the catalyst that propels SOL to new heights.”
Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is another cryptocurrency that Yasakov expects to outperform Bitcoin this year. As an oracle network, Chainlink “plays a critical role in connecting blockchain smart contracts to real-world data,” he says.
In cryptocurrency, oracles are basically what Yasakov described—third-party services that provide trusted information to smart contracts from the outside world, such as prices or exchange rates.
He sees value in Chainlink’s “strategic pivot” toward asset tokenization. “This move aligns perfectly with the growing trend of bringing traditional financial assets to the blockchain,” Yasakov told Cryptonews via email.
According to a 2023 report by crypto asset management firm 21.co, the market for tokenized assets could reach $10 trillion in a “bull case” and $3.5 trillion in a “bear case” by the end of this decade.
Other reports have made similar projections, including Chainlink itself.
“The convergence between crypto and traditional asset classes, including fiat currencies, equities, government bonds, and real estate, is experiencing an unprecedented growth,” said the 21.co report.
“Crypto is transitioning from frenzy to synergy. Through this transition, crypto will increasingly integrate with existing financial software and bring RWAs on-chain via tokenization,” it added.
A growing number of entities are putting traditional financial products such as private equity, debt, and real estate onto the blockchain—a category dubbed real-world assets (RWA) in the crypto industry.
The Chainlink report, released in September 2024, valued the tokenized asset market at $119 billion, with smart contract on the Ethereum network holding 58% of all tokenized assets. Tron (TRX) and Solana had a chunk of the market share, too.
“By partnering with major financial institutions to facilitate this transition, Chainlink could position itself at the forefront of a financial revolution,” said Yasakov, the CEO of The One crypto trading platform.
He added:
“LINK is no longer just a crypto project – it is positioning itself as the backbone of a decentralized financial market infrastructure, solving trillion-dollar inefficiencies.”
As of this writing, the price of LINK is down 4.5% at $19. Over the past 52 weeks, the token has climbed 35% but remains 63% off its peak of $52 reached in May 2021. LINK’s total market cap is currently at $12 billion.
Bittensor (TAO)
Yasakov said Bittensor represents what he sees as “an intriguing intersection” of two of the hottest trends in tech: cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI).
With a limited supply mirroring Bitcoin’s scarcity model of a maximum of 21 million coins, Yasakov says, “Bittensor has in-built deflationary pressure”.
“As the demand for AI solutions continues to grow, Bittensor’s role in enabling decentralized AI networks could drive significant value appreciation,” he said.
“However, it’s important to note that the AI crypto space is still in its infancy and highly volatile. While Bittensor shows promise, investors should be prepared for rapid shifts in market sentiment,” Yasakov added.
As Cryptonews previously reported, experts say that AI will interact more with crypto and enhance the functionality of blockchain tech in 2025.
They believe AI-powered solutions at the application level, rather than AI tokens, will be the real game-changer. In decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence will act as “both a passive help and an active participant.”
TAO price. Source: CoinGecko
As of this writing, the price of TAO has fallen over 7% to $410. In the last 12 months, the token has soared 85%, reaching a total market cap of $3.3 billion.
Georgii Verbitskii, founder of web3 platform Tymio and former managing director of eToro Russia, expects that more people will start using DeFi services to manage their digital capital this year.
“Altcoins that prove to be useful will flourish,” he told Cryptonews.
Verbitskii’s top altcoin picks for 2025 all relate to decentralized finance, including Aave, Ethena, and Uniswap, which he described as “the major earning protocols with clear product market fit.”
“If the regulatory situation improves, and they implement ‘fee switch’, which allows distributing protocol earnings among token holders, these altcoins stand all chances of outperforming BTC in 2025,” he predicted.
Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.
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