The following is a guest post and analysis by Shane Neagle, editor -in -chief of the Tokenist.
Although the collapse of Terra (Luna) stuck the crypto -bubble in May 2022, it cost the FTX exchange catastrophe to make it pop firmly at the end of the year. Since then, the blockchain story has been replaced by the AI -Hype. Moreover, the crypto space during the Biden administration came in a vulnerable state of constant intimidation and debt.
This was at a time when digital assets had to be given, evolving and recovering the died series of Bustes in 2022. Fortunately, the crypto-friendly Trump administration now presents a real path to recovery to a blockchain-based finance (Defi). This is already clear due to the increase in capital in Dapps.
Now for $ 156 billion Defi Total value locked (TVL), this marks a return to the first half of 2022. Likewise Ethereum (ETH) Price performed drastic Bitcoin (BTC) in the past month, on +53% versus -1% respectively. This is a clear sign that an Altcoin season rises, but which primary low-1 chains should consider crypto enthusiasts for long-term exposure?
Ethereum (ETH)
If it is the second largest blockchain network and the Defi Vanguard, Ethereum is an obvious choice. Yet it should not only be overlooked for that reason, albeit within some reservations. There are two important aspects of Ethereum that are attractive as the primary exposure to the Defi story.
Ethereum has the first-mover advantage, which generated the highest developer activity, ecosystem momentum and scaling through low-2 networks such as base, polygon, unichain, optimism, arbitrum and others.
After the introduction of the token-burning mechanism with EIP 1559, the inflation of Ethereum on the same footing with bitcoin (post-4th halving) is approximately 0.75%. Although Bitcoin inflation will continue to fall with more consecutive half -half, ETH can be considered healthy money compared to the dollar with its 2% target inflation.
In other words, despite an elastic token stock-generated by deporting with the fixed delivery of Bitcoin, it is itself adjustment. As Dapp activity on the maintenance rises, more ETH is burned. And after the Pectra -upgrade, which made L2 networks more efficient with blob space, the fire speed has doubled.
Together with account abstractions and further Ethereum-Scale Rolling with Scherf, Ethereum is itself future-proof to tackle Defi traffic, while keeping transaction costs low. In turn, this is in line with the persistent stablecoin -push with the brilliant action.
Ethereum has the most diversified Stablecoin exhibition system and has $ 138.6 billion in stablecoins. This is half of the total $ 272.6 billion stablecoin market capitalization, according to Defillama. As the bridging currency that brings the fame of the dollar in Tokenized form, Stablecoins are the first interaction for most people, leading to wider exposure to Defi.
In addition, when Circle announced the launch of his arcblockchain for Stablecoin traffic, it must be noted that it is an EVM-compatible L1 network.
Superficial, this may seem to have a Bearish for Ethereum, because Stablecoin transactions from Ethereum can shift. In reality, it is bullish because it indicates the integration of Ethereum in Enterprise-Grade liquidity by cross-chains and the L2 ecosystem of Ethereum.
All these factors now provide ether accumulation on treasuries. According to the Strategic ETH Reserve Tracker, they have collected 3.57 million ETH worth around $ 16.58 billion. In fact, Ether Treasuries probably have the same effect on the ETH prize that spot-treated Bitcoin ETFs had on the BTC price.
But does this mean that investors have to comment on ETH? For existing ETH holders, they must consider locking the profit in the coming months. Historically, when the market value of Ethereum to realized value ratio (MVRV) is higher than 3.0, this indicates a peak before a sale.
After the FED’s likely interest rate reduction In September, the MVRV ratio from Ethereum should rise to that level. After the market correction, this is when new investors have to get ETH exposure. According to a recent prediction of the Fundstrat, ETH price will probably reach $ 10,000 by the end of the year.
Avalanche (Avax)
Since the launch in 2020, this L1 network has attracted attention with its new approach to Blockchain architecture design. Namely, Avalanche distributes the workload via X-chain for asset exchange, C chain to perform EVM-compatible smart contracts, and P-chain for managing subnets, validators and expansion.
The implication of this design results in an effortless export of Ethereum Dapps in addition to adapted subnets. If an organization appreciates financial privacy, this can create unique governance and consensus rules for its subnet. This opens the door to a wide range of use cases in banking, health care, supply chains and private funds.
A good example, FIFA opted for its NFT implementation in May Avalanche. The Avalanche Foundation recently launched its $ 50 million accelerator program to finance blockchain -gaming.
In terms of Tokenomics, 90% of the Avax token stock is unlocked from a total stock of 458.1 million, of the initial mining of 360 million Avax. In Q2 2025, the annual inflation percentage remained at 3.8%, after a dynamic schedule powered by the amount of Avax -ENTER and the expansion 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 will probably rise as more services are launched. To name just a few: Lending Service Euler Finance, Nexpace (Maplestory N), Vaneck’s Vbill Treasury Fund, Watr’s Commodity Trading and Dinari’s Tokenized Securities.
This eruption of activity increased the average daily active addresses by 210% on a quarterly basis, according to Messari data. Avax has risen by 18%in the past month, currently priced at $ 25 per token. The potential for profits is high, because Avax reached several $ 50 peaks in 2024. Reminder: this was still during the administration of the crypto-hostile Biden.
Cardano (Ada)
After an academic approach to the development of blockchain, Cardano is closely linked to the origin of Ethereum, as his co-founder Charles Hoskinson Cardano founded because of differences in how Ethereum organization should be set up. Over the years, Cardano gained a perception such as the “left” chain, with Solana (SOL) won fame as the competitor of Ethereum.
Nevertheless, the Route Card from Cardano is progressing and the ecosystem is slowly building up. At the beginning of 2024, Cardano obtained its own USDM Stablecoin, published by fully conforming moneta, and even met Europe’s strict mica standard. Similarly, the Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) has onboard USDM.
In the scale department, Cardano Advanced Hydra Layer-2 has launched scale-scaling for off-chain transactions and launched Mithril for lightweight junction synchronization. By the end of the year, Ouroboros Peras was set to drastically reduce the transaction reflection times. Together with Ouroboros Leios, Cardano is probably just as efficient in transaction transport as Solana.
Zero knowledge (ZK) Smart contracts are also set for Mainstet Launch at the end of 2025, which brings privacy, scalability and interoperability to the cardano table. In addition to the privacy -oriented midnight project, Cardano is surrounded by positive stories.
Another positive story from a good money -wise perspective is that the inflation of Cardano is on the same basis with Ethereum. In the first quarter it was 0.7% annually, while the trending was down due to the interplay between 5-day 0.3% expansion era, the hard limit of 45 billion ADA, transaction costs and participation in the expansion.
Year-to-date, Ada has risen by 2.5%, still under the dollar per token. In September 2021, ADA reached its high price of $ 3.10. This makes it one of the cheapest blockchain blades. And because Cardano has been rejected so often, the upward potential is strengthened if the route map delivers as planned. On the stock market, Invest dividend growth Follows a similar principle of patience and composite returns.
