When it comes to the electric vehicle (EV) industry, most investors instantly think of Tesla. That’s fair — Tesla arguably has done more than any company to change the game for the EV industry by making EVs nearly mainstream in popularity.

But over the past five years, shares of Chinese EV maker BYD have surged 377% higher, more than double Tesla’s 157% gain, and there’s reason to think BYD is just getting started. Just look at its most recent move.

More like Ferrari?

When investors consider BYD, they most likely think of the Chinese juggernaut EV maker that has caught Tesla in global markets and is undercutting the competition with rock-bottom pricing. What investors probably don’t think of when BYD comes up in conversation is that it might want to be the next Ferrari.

The difference between the two is stark. Ferrari can sell a vehicle for $4 million, while BYD tries to get its selling price under $30,000, a price level that few competitors can match. A recent example is BYD’s launch of its new electric SUV, the Atto 2, in the United Kingdom with prices starting from 30,850 pounds. While still a bit higher priced than its target, BYD is still undercutting much of the competition in Europe with its Atto 2 and the Dolphin Surf.

This leaves much upside for BYD if its focus moves to the premium and ultra-premium markets. Its recent move suggests that it wants to do just that. BYD wants to change, or at least add to, its brand image by offering luxury models over $200,000. That would certainly begin to reverse the brand image known for mainstream volume and affordability.

BYD is even going as far as building entire automotive racing and testing tracks for potential customers to step in and play in a different world. This isn’t all for show, either. The Chinese automaker already opened an “all-terrain circuit” in Zhengzhou earlier this month and plans to invest 5 billion yuan, or $700 million, to set up more tracks open to the public.

How it works

For a fee of 599 yuan, or less than $100 , potential BYD customers and racing fans alike can get an hour-long drive of the test track, including in a popular Yangwang U9 with a price tag of 1 million yuan. The test track can give drivers all sorts of experiences, including speeding away on a straightway, a zigzag maneuver, or even emergency swerves designed to test a vehicle’s agility. There’s a dune built with over 6,000 tons of sand, and even a pool where potential owners can test the vehicle through water hazards.

Image source: BYD.

This is a little different than most test tracks automakers build, as those are generally kept private for a company’s own testing of new models. But this development is more like a “Halo car,” in which a company will build an ultra-high-end model to drive up intrigue and interest in the vehicle’s more standard trims. The difference is that BYD isn’t doing this for a segment or model — it’s doing this for its entire brand.

What it all means

There’s obviously one enormous advantage to selling ultra-premium vehicles priced at over $200,000, and that’s juicier margins. Ferrari’s operating margins dwarf those of its automotive competitors, and BYD wants to have its cake and eat it too. It just might be able to pull off both its highly affordable lineup and ultra-luxury. The test tracks will help drum up interest in BYD’s more premium models, and perhaps change its brand image from affordable vehicles into something more Ferrari-like, with racing heritage and high-priced models.

That said, becoming Ferrari overnight isn’t easily achieved. That’s why Ferrari stock trades at a premium — it has durable competitive advantages such as brand image and pricing power. However, if BYD even makes progress toward creating a market for its higher-priced vehicles, it could be a lucrative change for long-term investors.

Arthur Hayes has a clear answer to the battle of his favorite bars in the market. In an August 21 interview with Ran Neuner, the Bitmex co-founder said that both Ethereum and Solana will rally together violently, but he has explicitly leaned towards ETH for the rest of the cycle. “Do you think Solana will go up? It will definitely go up. Do you think it will go up above ETH? I don’t know. Probably not,” Hayes said. He didn’t hedge when he pushed the portfolio structure.

Ethereum Vs. Solana: Who will win this cycle?

Neuner framed a conversational context, from “Solana only” to Ethereum-led trade. This turned ETH into “Wall Street’s beloved assets” by citing a sequence of catalysts from Stablecoins to Marquee Advocates. Hayes did not dispute the premise. Instead, he described the contest between the two chains as “racial.” It is now increasingly defined by the size of capital that is now zero in Ethereum. In other words, if the flow is thick enough, the size is not a bug. This is the feature that guides the biggest bid.

Related readings

That flow first view explains why Hayes sees Es’ upside acceleration when resistance is convincingly cleared. In response to Neuner’s observation that Bitcoin is far above previous all-time highs while ETH “struggles to break,” Hayes has increased his eyesight beyond catching up to open-ended momentum. He added in a shorter time frame, “The chart says it’s now higher,” and that he “buys back some of the ETH” he previously sold.

This doesn’t mean that Hayes is bearish towards Solana. He advised Upexi, a Nasdaq-listed company with a Treasury Ministry focused on Solana, reiterating his expectations that Sol would benefit from the same risk-on current. However, he returned to his relative case, even in his proximity to Solana’s ecosystem.

Related readings

Neuner has dullly summed up the story shift. “We captured this massive Wall Street story,” announced by famous assets such as Josephulvin and Tom Lee, who placed their megaphones behind Ethereum after “The Sol Cycle,” as well as tokenized assets and well-known champions.

Hayes’ answer wasn’t to trust high-tech stacks. Neuner even joked about Solana as a “fast monolithic chain,” but it’s about locking in capital formation and passive demand es-over calls that assemble Ethereum’s market structure. Just as vehicles and public finance companies within the facility revert fresh inflows, “larger assets moving” become the natural sink of the thickest flow.

Thus, Hayes’ comparison views rest on three pillars of record. First, positioning: he is overweight ETH and SOL on a percentage basis. Second, Flow: He expects more money to chase ETH at this stage of the cycle despite (and therefore), despite the larger base. Third, Trajectory: As ETH maintains a breakout, he takes over the “Sky Limit” dynamics, with cycle targets reaching $10,000-$20,000 at ETH. Solana’s advantages remain, but the winner is Ethereum, the winner of Hayes’ numbers and his own book.

At the time of pressing, ETH traded for $4,285.

Featured images created with dall.e, charts on tradingview.com

X’s Grok chatbot declined to select a winner for a $1,000 Ethereum giveaway organized by crypto influencer Crypto Rover, citing prior allegations of pump-and-dump activity detailed by on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

In replies to users participating in the weekend contest, Grok stated it was abstaining from choosing a winner due to “substantiated reports” implicating Rover in schemes that could compromise community safety.

The messages are now unavailable but circulated in screenshots showing Grok referencing ZachXBT’s findings and calling for caution. The interaction stemmed from a routine promotional giveaway in which Rover, who posts under @rovercrc and has over 1 million followers, invited users to like, repost, and follow his account for a chance to win the prize.

As ZachXBT reported, the allegations center on a project Rover was contracted to promote in May 2023. The deal included a $10,000 payment, a percentage of the project’s token supply.

According to the investigation, Rover made no promotional posts as agreed and later claimed he would delay content until “better market conditions,” while threatening legal action against the project’s team for attempting to call him out.

ZachXBT linked Rover’s wallet activity to subsequent token sales, generating roughly 40 ETH in profits. The funds were routed to a known Bybit deposit address previously associated with Rover.

The probe also identified 10 fresh wallets tied to the same promotional period that accumulated 9 percent of the token’s supply shortly before Rover posted about the asset. The project team behind the meme coin ceased communications shortly after, with no further updates beyond May 2023. In previous posts, Rover reportedly stated he could “pump projects from half a million to ten million easy,” a remark ZachXBT highlighted as part of a broader pattern of manipulative behavior.

Rover did not publicly address Grok’s specific decision and has continued to tag Grok for his next giveaway.

Not all of Grok’s responses refused to engage with Crypto Rover. Many replies to Crypto Rover and his followers affirmed that the bot would select a winner for the giveaway. However, per the latest posts, none was chosen by the bot.

Grok, developed by xAI, has previously drawn scrutiny for its erratic output, including unverified claims and inflammatory responses, though its creators position it as a “maximally truth-seeking” assistant.

ZachXBT’s forensic investigations have become a fixture in crypto accountability circles, with previous work cited in law enforcement actions and asset recoveries totaling over US $210 million, per a 2024 Wired profile.

Mentioned in this article

Features writer

Connor Sephton

Features writer

Connor Sephton

About Author

Connor Sephton is a journalist based in London, who also works for Sky News and the BBC as a radio newsreader and online reporter. He has covered crypto since 2018 — reporting from major conferences…

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Elena Bozhkova

Features Lead

Elena Bozhkova

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Elena is the Features Lead at Cryptonews.com. With a Master’s degree in science journalism from City University, London, she is passionate about exploring complex topics in the world of technology.

Last updated: 

June 25, 2025

XRP is “a winner among altcoins” according to a new report — with institutional and retail investors “turning bullish” towards the world’s fourth-largest cryptocurrency.

Bybit says the number of users holding this altcoin on its exchange doubled between November and May as prices surged.

Over this period, prices accelerated from $0.50 to $2.19 — a staggering 338% increase — as tensions between the SEC and XRP’s issuer Ripple died down.

Another key moment came when Donald Trump declared this token would form part of a U.S. crypto reserve, but those plans didn’t end up materializing.

And if that isn’t enough, Polymarket suggests there’s an 85% chance of an XRP ETF being approved some time this year, which would likely lead to billions of dollars of buying pressure as funds flow into Wall Street products.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart recently argued the likelihood is even greater than this — putting the odds at 95%.

In the report — Bybit noted that the holding percentage of XRP jumped from 1.29% to 2.42% in just six months, adding:

“The crypto investing industry view is that Ripple spot ETF approval is likely ahead of such approval for a Solana spot ETF. As such, weʼve observed partial capital allocation on the part of institutions from SOL to XRP.”

However, Bybit noted that BTC remains the most popular digital asset for crypto investors by a country mile — and among the exchange’s users, 30.95% of assets are allocated into the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

Other key trends include a substantial surge in demand for Ether. A low holding percentage of 3.89% was recorded in April 2025, but that had more than doubled to 8.43% just one month later. However, the report’s authors noted that this remains well below a peak of 11.12% seen last November.

And here’s another key headline: enthusiasm for Solana has fallen dramatically, with SOL’s percentage plummeting by 35% in just six months. This is undoubtedly linked to a huge bubble bursting in the meme coin market.

The Bybit report — which covers the period when the trading platform fell victim to an audacious $1.5 billion attack at the hands of North Korean hackers — said:

“BTC and ETH concentration started at 55.2% in October 2024, fell to a low of 48.2% in February 2025 and has newly recovered to 58.8% as of May 2025. Despite the weak demand for ETH in Q1 2025, BTC and ETH concentration continued to grow in the same period, pointing to a resilient demand for Bitcoin from investors, despite market volatility.”

One statistic puts Bitcoin’s popularity into sharp context: for every $1 in ETH that an investor holds on Bybit, they’re likely to have $4 of BTC in their wallet. This marries up nicely with CoinMarketCap data that shows Bitcoin’s dominance has grown from 53.2% to 64% over the past 12 months, with Ether’s market share halving from 18% to 9% in the same timeframe.

There are also signs of a clear divide between the strategies deployed by everyday consumers and professional investors.

“As of May 2025, retail traders continue to hold significantly less Bitcoin and Ether than institutions, with BTC and ETH holding percentage standing at 11.64% and 6.8%, respectively. Retail tradersʼ holdings in Bitcoin and Ether are around half that of institutions throughout this period.”

This perhaps isn’t surprising. Retail investors are likelier to be more adventurous with their exposure to altcoins, but strict regulations mean institutions are limited when it comes to what they can invest in. Another potential narrative is this: smart money is embracing Bitcoin, but the public is yet to notice.

What’s more, there are statistics to support the notion that the traditional “altseason” has been cancelled — or at least delayed. The holding percentage of smaller cryptocurrencies crumbled from 35.2% in November to 23.5% in May, “but meme coins, Layer 1s and DeFi tokens have held up better than other categories.” The same couldn’t be said for AI tokens and Bitcoin Layer 2s, as well as the GameFi and NFT sectors.

“When the broader market reaches a new high (as it did in November 2024, it usually points to the arrival of altcoin season. However, when Bitcoin reached another ATH in May 2025, altcoins didnʼt follow suit, suggesting that the May bull run hasnʼt led to broader bullish sentiment.”

Bybit’s report neatly encapsulates the main themes of 2025 so far — and could give us an indication as to what lies ahead in the rest of the year.