Crypto Won’t Just Be About Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2025

That’s one of the takeaways from digital asset manager Grayscale’s latest quarterly roundup of high-upside tokens.

Grayscale has unveiled its latest quarterly roundup of high-upside tokens, presenting a diverse list of 20 digital assets poised to make waves in Q1 2025.

Among the tokens, six are making their debut on the list: Ethena, Hyperliquid, Jupiter, Jito, Virtuals, and Grass. These additions are largely influenced by several key trends that are considered bullish for the crypto industry, according to Grayscale.

The digital currency asset management firm highlights the potential impact of Republicans’ success in the US election on decentralised finance and staking, as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence “agents” and the Solana blockchain.

To provide further context, Grayscale is one of the largest issuers of crypto exchange-traded funds, overseeing more than $24 billion in Bitcoin and Ether, the two leading cryptocurrencies.

In its analysis, Grayscale notes that some of the tokens included on the list stand to benefit significantly from the red sweep in the US election, which saw Republicans gain control of both chambers of Congress and the presidency.

According to industry observers, this outcome is expected to pave the way for more crypto-friendly regulations over the next four years.

Since the election, the entire crypto market has surged by over 40%, bringing its total value to nearly $3.4 trillion as of today.

Solana has emerged as one of the comeback winners from the bull market. Following the collapse of FTX, which had propped up Solana's value, the token experienced a steep decline.

After FTX's implosion in 2022, Solana's token plunged from its previous all-time high of $259 to less than $10.

However, a surge in new DeFi protocols and the popularity of memecoins and AI agents propelled it to a new all-time high in November, enabling it to surpass Tron as the blockchain with the second-largest DeFi ecosystem this year.

Two of Solana's largest DeFi protocols, Jupiter, an aggregator of decentralised exchanges, and Jito, a liquid staking protocol, are among the six new additions to Grayscale's list.

Grayscale highlights Jupiter's potential to capitalise on Solana's role as a hub for AI agents and memecoin trading. Meanwhile, Jito ranks as one of the most profitable protocols in DeFi, having collected over $500 million in fees in 2024.

The intersection of AI and crypto has generated significant attention in 2024, and for good measure. Investors have poured hundreds of millions into crypto-AI projects, while researchers estimate that the combination will add another $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Grayscale's list reflects this buzz, with two of the new tokens operating at the juncture of AI and crypto: Virtuals, which simplifies the creation of AI agents on the Base blockchain, and Grass, which enables users to rent their unused internet bandwidth to AI companies that require it to scrape the web for data to train AI models.

In addition, Grayscale has included a pair of protocols that have ascended to the forefront of DeFi: stablecoin issuer Ethena and Hyperliquid, a blockchain focused on trading.

Hyperliquid's airdrop in November created dozens of new crypto millionaires and sparked speculation about a DeFi resurgence.

Ethena, on the other hand, launched earlier this year and its stablecoin, USDe, has already surpassed Sky's DAI to become the third-largest, according to data from DefiLlama.

Grayscale also noted the removal of six tokens from its top 20 list: TON, Near, Stacks, Sky, UMA Protocol, and Celo.

"Grayscale Research continues to see value in each of these projects," the firm stated. "However, we believe the revised Top 20 list may offer more compelling risk-adjusted returns for the coming quarter."

Aleks Gilbert, based in New York City, is DL News' DeFi Correspondent. Tips can be sent to aleks@dlnews.com.