Crypto

Top Cryptocurrency to Invest in Before Prices Soar, According to Market Data

Published

12 months ago

January 21, 2025

Top Cryptocurrency to Invest in Before Prices Soar, According to Market Data

More than 560 million people worldwide currently own crypto assets, and new and seasoned investors alike are constantly looking for promising new projects to buy into.

New projects can usually be purchased at lower prices, when compared to established coins, and often have the potential to sky-rocket in value. Because of the potential gains to be had, investors are constantly on the lookout for possible investments.

Let’s explore the upcoming crypto that investors should think about buying before prices go up.

Upcoming Crypto With Potential

Investors often do their own research to find the best new projects to buy into. Research usually includes listening to the news, reading crypto blogs, and following sites like Coinbase closely. Coinbase provides a crucial gateway to adopt new cryptocurrencies. The “Coinbase Effect” describes new tokens listed that often experience significant price surges of 20-50%. It’s the ideal source of investment opportunities for short-term investors. Because of this, investors often review upcoming Coinbase exchange listings to find promising new coins. Crypto writer Michael Graw explains that Coinbase is known for its strict vetting process. This means that the coins listed on Coinbase have already been reviewed by experts, which many investors appreciate. Between checking sites like Coinbase, keeping up with the news, and reading crypto articles online, investors can stay up to date with potential coins to invest in. Here are a few of the top choices:

Ethereum: The Smart Contract Powerhouse

Ethereum dominates the decentralised application (dApp) realm, particularly with the Ethereum 2.0 rollout that enhances energy efficiency and scalability. Ethereum currently trades at around £5,000, providing a top choice for retail and institutional investors. The smart contract giant provides opportunities for long-term investments.

Analysts project that Ethereum could double its value over the next 1.5 years because the network demand continues to grow. The blockchain’s ecosystem hosts decentralised exchanges, DeFi platforms, and NFTs, engraving Ethereum’s status in the blockchain space as a critical infrastructure with smart contracts for data privacy and security.

Bitcoin: The Dominant Crypto Force

Bitcoin is the foundation of the cryptocurrency market, capitalising the industry at a market value of £1.5 trillion and currently trading around the £76,000 marker in early December. Bitcoin’s inflation hedge capabilities and reliable long-term value stores make it indispensable in an investor’s diversified portfolio.

Tim Draper, a trusted venture capitalist, predicts Bitcoin to hit $250,000 or £198,000 by the end of 2025, indicating the potential for a 150% growth rate on the cryptocurrency’s market. Increasingly supportive government policies and adoption will drive Draper’s predictions. For example, there is a proposed Bitcoin reserve for the US market.

High-Potential Altcoins

Solana: Exceptional Scalability and Speed

Solana is known as the Ethereum killer because it provides faster transaction speeds, reaching 65,000 transactions a second. It also charges minimal fees and has an ecosystem valued at over £25 billion. Solana is fast becoming a good choice for NFTs and DeFi applications. Additionally, analysts forecast the potential for 80-120% returns by mid-2025.

Wall Street Pepe: Trading and Staking

Wall Street Pepe ($WEPE) is showing great promise in the crypto scene. This coin ticks all of the usual boxes but also allows investors to showcase their best trades each week to win prizes. Additionally, investors can stake their Wall Street Pepe in order to earn more from what they already have, which is a win-win.

Polkadot and Polygon: Specialists in Scalability

Polygon enables faster and more affordable transactions by addressing scalability issues in Ethereum, providing layer-2 solutions. The current market cap valuation is around £10 billion but projections show possible doubling by the end of 2025. Polkadot uses a unique parachain technology that allows interoperability between blockchains, and the price prediction indicates the potential for a 383% return on investment (ROI) by the end of 2025.

XRP: Riding the Legal Victory Wave

The Ripple Network’s native token XRP shows promise with a fragmented victory against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). XRP has surged 120% since mid-2024, currently trading at around £1. Ripple’s partnerships with major giants like Standard Chartered and Santander have analysts believing it may double in value by the end of 2025.

Chainlink: Bridging Real-World Data With Blockchain Technology

Chainlink plays a pivotal role in the decentralised oracle industry, currently trading at around £7.20 and having an impressive early market cap of £3.7 billion. The technology innovates how real-world data and smart contracts interact, making it an integral tool for DeFi and enterprise solutions. Chainlink also integrates well with Solana and Ethereum and predictions show the potential for an 85% price surge by the end of 2025.

The Impact of Institutional Interest

The cryptocurrency investment landscape relies heavily on institutional interest. For example, spot Bitcoin ETF introductions captivated billions in capital while funds like the iShares Bitcoin Trust accumulated more than £30 billion in months.

Still, institutional investors use diversified portfolios with utility-driven digital assets like Chainlink to secure smart contracts. Avalanche, another fast blockchain, is also gaining traction in DeFi, with both Altcoins positioned to exceed 100% returns by the end of 2025.

The Role of Regulation

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) allows UK investors to benefit from a more secure and transparent cryptocurrency investment domain. The FCA implemented measures to regulate cryptocurrency advertisements to guarantee clear guidelines for retail investors.

The widespread adoption and regulatory improvements are expected to entice more attention from institutional investors to ensure sustainable growth while the regulatory guidelines protect everyday investors seeking long-term but steady investment prospects.

Retail Diversification and Sentiment

The retail investor environment drives market trends harder than most institutions, especially with sentiment-driven initiatives using consumer-centric tokens. Some new Coinbase listings show promise for short-term volatility with possible price surges in 2025.

However, retail investors prefer the active ecosystems, innovative decentralisation, and robust fundamentals of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some older Altcoins. If investors could learn anything from the retail sector, it would be to diversify their portfolio with high-return crypto.

Diversify investment portfolios with well-known and stable cryptocurrencies like Ethereum or Bitcoin while adding some high-potential Altcoins like Cardano, Polygon, and Solana to balance the risk and reward as retail investors do.

Crypto

This Popular Cryptocurrency Could Soar by 177% in 2026, According to Wall Street Analyst Tom Lee

Published

5 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

This Popular Cryptocurrency Could Soar by 177% in 2026, According to Wall Street Analyst Tom Lee

Key Points

Ethereum is the leading platform for developers who want to build decentralized software applications, which are popular in areas like gaming and finance.
Ether, which is Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, set a new record high during 2025, but it ended the year in the red.
Wall Street analyst Tom Lee thinks Ether could soar in the early stages of 2026, and he chairs a company that owns over $13 billion worth of coins.

Cryptocurrencies had a tough year in 2025, with most popular coins and tokens suffering losses. Not even the industry leaders like Bitcoin and Ethereum(CRYPTO: ETH) were spared, ending the year down 5% and 11%, respectively.

But 2026 is here, and Wall Street analyst Tom Lee recently came out with a set of very bullish forecasts. He thinks Ether, which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, could soar to $9,000 per coin early in the year, implying a potential upside of 177% from where it’s trading as I write this.

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Lee founded Fundstrat Global Advisors, but he’s also the chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies(NYSEMKT: BMNR), which owns approximately $13.4 billion worth of Ethereum, so he certainly has some skin in the game. How realistic is his latest forecast?

Image source: Getty Images.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a platform where people develop decentralized software applications, which are increasingly popular in industries like gaming and financial services. These apps are governed by smart contracts, which are pieces of computer code that live on the Ethereum blockchain. They typically can’t be changed, so no person or company can manipulate the app’s core set of rules, ensuring it stays decentralized.

The Ethereum network itself is also completely decentralized. Instead of using one large data center, it’s hosted on thousands of nodes (computers) all over the world that store an updated copy of its blockchain. Therefore, the network won’t be compromised even if some nodes go down, and that’s how Ethereum has boasted 100% uptime over the last decade.

Ether is like the fuel that makes the Ethereum network function. Every time a person activates a smart contract by using an app, or even transfers a crypto token built on Ethereum, they incur a fee that is payable in Ether. Therefore, the larger the network grows, the more demand there is for Ether, and the more valuable the coin becomes (in theory).

Thousands of decentralized apps have been built on Ethereum so far. Uniswap, for instance, is a popular exchange where people can trade their cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies. Pricing and execution is handled entirely by smart contracts with no intermediaries, creating a lightning-fast and cost-effective experience. Users don’t even need to create an account, because they can connect their crypto wallets directly to Uniswap and immediately start transacting.

How realistic is Lee’s target?

Tom Lee thinks decentralized apps will take over the financial industry, and as the largest platform of its kind, he’s betting Ethereum will lead the transition. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, is already exploring plans to tokenize some of its exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by moving them onto the blockchain, where they can trade more efficiently compared to using traditional stock exchanges.

That is just one example suggesting Lee could eventually be right. But the growing adoption of stablecoins — many of which are built on Ethereum — is another sign. These cryptocurrencies are designed to maintain a stable value (hence their name), and they can be sent anywhere in the world practically instantly. Therefore, they are far more efficient than traditional payment rails that often take several days to move money across borders.

According to Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management, over $15 trillion in payment volume was processed using stablecoins in 2024, which was more volume than both Visa and Mastercard processed.

But could all of this send Ether soaring by 177% to $9,000 per coin in the early stages of 2026? I’m not so sure. Ether climbed to a record price of $4,946 per coin in 2025, which was a win for investors, but it was the first new high in four years. Plus, the coin has already lost 32% of its peak value, so I’m not sure if it can muster enough momentum to almost triple in value in the next few months like Lee predicts.

With that said, $9,000 per coin would give Ether a market capitalization of around $1.08 trillion, so it would still be much smaller than Bitcoin, which has a market cap of $1.85 trillion. Therefore, I wouldn’t rule out Lee’s target, especially if the decentralized revolution continues to gather momentum, but I would certainly be cautious about the timing. Plus, it’s important to remember Lee chairs the BitMine Immersion Technologies company, which owns 4.1 million Ether coins, so he has a vested interest in putting forward highly bullish targets.

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Crypto

Fed ‘Sweet Spot’ Sends Signal for Bitcoin as Jobs Data Quietly Sets Stage for $100K BTC

Published

17 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Fed ‘Sweet Spot’ Sends Signal for Bitcoin as Jobs Data Quietly Sets Stage for 0K BTC

Bitcoin’s march toward $100,000 is gaining momentum as cooling U.S. labor data, shifting Fed policy expectations, and geopolitical tensions converge, setting the stage for renewed price discovery and a possible breakout beyond prior all-time highs.

Crypto

Rumors are swirling about Venezuela holding $60 billion in Bitcoin—but crypto experts are skeptical | Fortune

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Rumors are swirling about Venezuela holding billion in Bitcoin—but crypto experts are skeptical | Fortune

Following the United States’ capture of Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, a report came out claiming that Venezuela had $60 billion stored in Bitcoin—leading to speculation that the U.S. could lay claim to cryptocurrency as well as oil. Despite numerous reports of the huge Venezuelan Bitcoin stash, however, a crypto forensic firm is skeptical of the claims.

The news of Venezuela’s Bitcoin holding began to bubble up last Saturday, the same day that Maduro was ousted. The digital publication Project Brazen reported that his regime could control $60 billion in the original cryptocurrency—but offered little in the way of proof.

“The article does not mention any addresses as a starting point, making it difficult to verify any of these speculated claims,” said Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at Nansen, about Project Brazen’s report.

Barthere is not the first person to express skepticism about the country’s purported crypto treasure trove. Mauricio di Bartolomeo, the Venezuelan co-founder of the financial services company Ledn, told Fortune on Wednesday that the level of the country’s corruption makes the figure hard to believe. He expanded his argument in an opinion piece he wrote for Coindesk.

Estimates of Venezuela’s crypto holdings vary wildly. Bitcointreasuries.net estimates that the country has $22 million worth of Bitcoin. That figure would make Venezuela the government entity with the ninth-most money tied up in the original cryptocurrency, just behind North Korea.

While the exact size of Venezuela’s Bitcoin wealth is unclear, the country has long been a player in crypto. Maduro introduced a token called the Petro in 2018, which was shuttered six years later. Its citizens have also turned to stablecoins as a way to fight their currency’s hyperinflation.

Trump has said that he will “run” Venezuela, and some have speculated that includes seizing the country’s Bitcoin holdings. Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, said he could not speak to the likelihood of such a seizure. He did, however, explain what gaining control of assets might look like.

A freezing of assets could occur through centralized services, he says. These services would get a court order for an exchange or an issuer like Tether or Circle who could blacklist an address. The second method is through physical seizure. The U.S. could get control of wallets, devices, and keys through compelled cooperation.

For now, there is unlikely to be a full and accurate account of Venezuela’s Bitcoin holdings until the political situation in the country becomes more stable.

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