The following is a guest post and analysis from Shane Neagle, Editor In Chief from The Tokenist.

Although the Terra (LUNA) collapse pricked the crypto bubble in May 2022, it took the FTX exchange catastrophe to firmly pop it at the year’s end. Ever since, the blockchain narrative has been supplanted by the AI hype. Moreover, during the Biden administration, the crypto space entered a vulnerable state of constant harassment and debanking.

This was at a time when digital assets needed to shore up, evolve, and recover from the overleveraged string of busts during 2022. Fortunately, the crypto-friendly Trump administration is now presenting a real path to recovery — to a blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi). This is already evident by the rise in capital across dApps.

Now at $156 billion DeFi total value locked (TVL), this marks a return to the first half of 2022. Likewise, Ethereum (ETH) price drastically outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) over the last month, at +53% vs. -1%, respectively. This is a clear sign that an altcoin season is ramping up — but which primary Layer-1 chains should crypto enthusiasts consider for long-term exposure?

Ethereum (ETH)

As the second-largest blockchain network and the DeFi vanguard, Ethereum is an obvious choice. Yet, it should not be overlooked merely for that reason, albeit within some caveats. There are two key aspects to Ethereum that are attractive as the primary exposure to the DeFi narrative.

Ethereum has the first-mover advantage, which generated the highest developer activity, ecosystem momentum, and scaling through Layer-2 networks such as Base, Polygon, Unichain, Optimism, Arbitrum, and others.

After introducing the token-burning mechanism with EIP 1559, Ethereum’s inflation rate is on par with Bitcoin (post-4th halving) at around 0.75%. Although Bitcoin’s inflation rate will continue to drop with more successive halvings, ETH could be considered sound money compared to the dollar with its 2% target inflation rate.

In other words, despite having an elastic token supply — generated by staking — compared to Bitcoin’s fixed supply, it is self-adjusting. As dApp activity rises on the mainnet, more ETH is burned. And after the Pectra upgrade, which made L2 networks more efficient with Blob Space, the burn rate has doubled.

Together with account abstraction and further Ethereum scaling with sharding, Ethereum is future-proofing itself to handle DeFi traffic while keeping transaction fees low. In turn, this ties in with the ongoing stablecoin push with the GENIUS Act.

Ethereum has the most diversified stablecoin ecosystem, holding $138.6 billion in stablecoins. This is half of the total $272.6 billion stablecoin market cap, according to DeFiLlama. As the bridging currency that brings the familiarity of the dollar in tokenized form, stablecoins are the first interaction for most people, leading to wider DeFi exposure.

Moreover, when Circle announced the launch of its ARC blockchain for stablecoin traffic, one should note it is an EVM-compatible L1 network.

Superficially, this may seem bearish for Ethereum as stablecoin transactions could shift away from Ethereum. In reality, it is bullish because it signals Ethereum’s integration into enterprise-grade liquidity through cross-chains and Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem.

All of these factors are now driving up Ether accumulation across treasuries. According to the Strategic ETH Reserve tracker, they have accumulated 3.57 million ETH worth around $16.58 billion. Effectively, Ether treasuries are likely to have the same effect on ETH price that spot-traded Bitcoin ETFs had on the BTC price.

But does that mean investors should go all in on ETH? For existing ETH holders, they should consider locking in profits in the following few months. Historically, when Ethereum’s Market Value to Realized Value ratio (MVRV) is above 3.0, it signals a peak before a selloff.

After the Fed’s likely interest rate cut in September, Ethereum’s MVRV ratio should start rising to that level. Following the market correction, this is when new investors should gain ETH exposure. According to a recent FundStrat forecast, ETH price is likely to reach $10,000 by the year’s end.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Since its launch in 2020, this L1 network has caught attention with its novel approach to blockchain architecture design. Namely, Avalanche divides workload through X-Chain for asset exchange, C-Chain to execute EVM-compatible smart contracts, and P-Chain for managing subnets, validators, and staking.

The implication of this design results in an effortless export of Ethereum dApps in addition to customized subnets. If an organization values financial privacy, it could create unique governance and consensus rules for its subnet. This opens the door to a wide range of use cases in banking, healthcare, supply chains, and private funds.

Case in point, FIFA picked Avalanche in May for its NFT deployment. Most recently, the Avalanche Foundation launched its $50 million accelerator program to fund blockchain gaming.

In terms of tokenomics, 90% of AVAX token supply is unlocked out of a total supply of 458.1 million, from the initial mining of 360 million AVAX. In Q2 2025, the annualized inflation rate remained at 3.8%, following a dynamic schedule driven by the amount of AVAX staked and the staking period.

Although this makes AVAX inflationary compared to Ethereum or Bitcoin, the AVAX token still has a hard cap of 720 million.

AVAX token price is likely to go up as more services are launched. To name a few: lending service Euler Finance, Nexpace (MapleStory N), VanEck’s VBILL treasury fund, Watr’s commodity trading, and Dinari’s tokenized securities.

This burst of activity increased average daily active addresses by 210% on a quarterly basis, according to Messari data. Over the last month, AVAX is up 18%, currently priced at $25 per token. The potential for gains is high, as AVAX reached multiple $50 peaks during 2024. Reminder: this was still during the crypto-hostile Biden administration.

Cardano (ADA)

Following an academic approach to blockchain development, Cardano is closely tied to Ethereum’s origins, as its co-founder Charles Hoskinson founded Cardano due to differences in how Ethereum should be organizationally set up. Over the years, Cardano gained a perception as the “left-behind” chain, with Solana (SOL) gaining prominence as Ethereum’s competitor.

Nonetheless, Cardano’s roadmap is progressing, and its ecosystem is slowly building up. In early 2024, Cardano gained its own USDM stablecoin, issued by fully compliant Moneta, even meeting Europe’s strict MiCA standard. Likewise, the Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) onboarded USDM.

In the scaling department, Cardano advanced Hydra Layer-2 scaling for off-chain transactions and launched Mithril for lightweight node synchronization. By the year’s end, Ouroboros Peras is set to drastically reduce transaction settlement times. Together with Ouroboros Leios, Cardano is likely to be as performant in transaction throughput as Solana.

Zero-knowledge (ZK) smart contracts are also set for mainnet launch in late 2025, bringing privacy, scalability, and interoperability to the Cardano table. In addition to the privacy-focused Midnight project, Cardano is surrounded by positive narratives.

Another positive narrative from a sound money-wise perspective is that Cardano’s inflation rate is on par with Ethereum. In Q1, it was at 0.7% annually, while trending downward owing to the interplay between 5-day 0.3% expansion epochs, the hard cap of 45 billion ADA, transaction fees, and staking participation.

Year-to-date, ADA is up 2.5%, still under the dollar per token. In September 2021, ADA reached its all-time high price of $3.10. This makes it one of the cheapest blockchain exposures. And because Cardano has been dismissed so many times, its upside potential is amplified if its roadmap delivers as planned. In the stock market, dividend growth investing follows a similar principle of patience and compounding returns.

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With the robust bullish performance observed across the general crypto market, Bitcoin has shifted toward the upside trajectory, breaking above key resistance levels. In a surprising twist that has caught the sector’s attention, old BTC investors are making their presence known in the market with massive coins moved in recent months following the resurgence in upward movements.

Historic Bitcoin Stirs Up In 2025

As the market rally gains momentum, Bitcoin has surged to levels above the $93,000 mark after many weeks of bearish actions. During this volatile period, Bitcoin sleeping giants are starting to wake up, indicating strong conviction in the asset’s long-term potential.

In a quick-take post on the CryptoQuant platform, a market expert with the username OnChainSchool reported that old dormant BTC has been moving since the beginning of 2025. Presently, more than twice as much long-dormant Bitcoin has been moved in the first three months of 2025 when compared to the same time period in 2024. 

Long-dormant BTC springing back to life hints at a potential shift in sentiment among older or early investors. The abrupt action of these old investors could signal a turning point in Bitcoin’s market dynamics, whether it be for profit-taking, portfolio rebalancing, or getting ready for the next leg of the bull market.

Data shared by the expert reveals that about 62,800 BTC aged over 7 years were spent between January and March 2025. During the same period in 2024, over 28,000 BTC were observed being moved, marking a 121% increase in the movement of old coins.

It is worth noting that this analysis does not include the 141,000 BTC related to the Mt. Gox transfers in May 2024. The reason for this is to ensure a cleaner view of organic market activity between Q1 of 2024 and Q1 of 2025.

According to the expert, the increase might indicate a change in mood among long-term holders, which could be bolstered by changes in the macroeconomic environment, expectations for prices, or institutional liquidity requirements.

Long-Term And Short-Term BTC Holders’ Current Behavior

Bitcoin’s price has regained its footing as it hovers near critical resistance levels. Amid the renewed upward trend, there has been a significant behavioral divergence between long-term and short-term BTC holders.

Recent reports reveal that long-term BTC holders have been accumulating more coins at a rapid rate while short-term holders are capitulating and selling into weakness. LTH accumulation and STH capitulation typically indicate the beginning of a re-accumulation phase.

BTC’s Long-Term Holders’ Net Position Change has turned positive for the first time since the local top, suggesting that seasoned investors have resumed accumulation after months of continued distribution. Meanwhile, short-term holders are still liquidating their holdings, with net outflows falling deeper into negative territory.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com

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A popular crypto strategist believes that memecoins will have their day under the sun after getting crushed over the last few months.

Pseudonymous trader Altcoin Sherpa tells his 244,300 followers on the social media platform X that he expects meme tokens to eventually take center stage, highlighting that the crypto sector relies on trader attention.

But while the analyst believes that memecoins will make a comeback, he says those that have been around longer than others will likely lead the surge.

One asset on his radar is the Solana (SOL)-based token Bonk (BONK).

“Most memes got smashed overall but I think that they’ll eventually come back to some degree. Memes by nature are attention driven but I do think that some of the more ‘Lindy’ ones will have a better chance

You probably just go off ecosystem. When SOL is hot, coins like BONK are going to be decent bets (along with some others like Fartcoin and WIF and others). BONK being down 85% from highs to lows probably makes it an ok bet down here (I have a bag of it).”

The trader is referring to the Lindy Effect, a concept suggesting that the longer something has survived, the longer it’s likely to keep surviving.

At time of writing, BONK is worth $0.000012.

Another memecoin on the trader’s roster is the Ethereum (ETH)-based token Pepe (PEPE).

“Feels like PEPE is also around a bottom, too.

PEPE obviously an ETH beta but it’s also a good one if BTC starts going wild in my opinion.” 

Looking at the trader’s chart, he seems to predict that PEPE would either rally to a high of $0.000015 or collapse to a new 2025 low of $0.000001.

At time of writing, PEPE is trading for $0.000007.

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The NFT market experienced significant fluctuations in the past year. Nine months ago, it peaked at $2 billion before crashing, but it has since seen a resurgence.

NFT Market Recovery Snapshot

In November, the NFT market began to recover, achieving a trading volume of $698 million, which represents a 22% increase from October. This was driven by renewed interest in high-value collections like Pudgy Penguins. However, the number of sales decreased by 11% to 3 million, indicating that there were higher-value transactions rather than an increase in volume.

What’s Driving the Recovery

The increase in volume is due to NFTs being seen as cultural commodities not speculative assets. Established collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club are leading the charge.

Mainstream collaborations have also played a big role in bringing NFTs to a wider audience. For example McDonald’s launched the “GM Spread Joy” campaign with Doodles, featuring NFT artwork on over 100m McCafé cups across the US, bridging the gap between Web3 and mainstream culture.

Despite the good news, the NFT market has challenges. Nike is shutting down its NFT subsidiary RTFKT by January 2025, a sign that big brands are shifting their priorities and that it’s hard to sustain long term engagement and mass adoption.

Blockchain Dynamics

Ethereum continues to be the leading blockchain for high-value NFT collections and maintains its lead in volume. However, other blockchains are gaining traction.

Polygon is leading in NFT sales, partly due to integrations such as Instagram’s feature that allows users to mint, showcase, and sell NFTs directly. This development is significant for creators and the broader NFT ecosystem. Solana ranks second in volume, becoming increasingly relevant.

The Future of NFTs

Gaming dapps on Polygon and Immutable are driving market activity. Blockchain gaming is the key to broader NFT adoption and sustained growth, as it is interactive, engaging, and attracts a wider audience.

Furthermore, NFT utility is expanding beyond art and collectibles into gaming, fashion and entertainment. NFT platforms and tech are evolving and collectors and investors are getting interested again, so more mainstream adoption to come.

Final Thoughts

The NFT market is recovering, with increased volume, cultural integration, and technological advancements. Although volatility and significant brand changes will always exist, the long-term outlook is positive. NFTs are poised to influence digital culture and commerce.

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Owen Skelton.