Looking for the Best Cryptos to Buy Now? Here Are 3 Ethereum Alternatives with Better Upside Potential

The crypto market might be showing signs of recovery, but Q1 was anything but tumultuous. As the ETH price dump was brutal, and only after losing 66% of its value from the highs it achieved in December 2024 did it show a sign of resurgence.

However, things still aren’t in the green for the world’s largest altcoin, as the current $1.8K value shows that the likes of Solana and meme coins are outcompeting it, and Bitcoin’s surge has far surpassed it. It represents a special circumstance in which the best crypto to buy now could be among meme coins or SOL-based assets.

Why Did ETH Dump So Hard in Q1-2025?

Ethereum has always been a beacon of innovation within the blockchain space, so there are people who are wondering why it happened. The reasons for this crash are manifold, being built on misplaced innovations, bad timing, and the continuous attention of the market on other assets.

Layer 2 Centric Roadmap Not Allowing Ethereum to Shine

March 2024 saw the arrival of Duncan, an Ethereum upgrade that created a ‘blobspace’ for storing Layer 2 transactions.

This has been a double-edged sword, boosting throughput and reducing L2 transaction fees, but also reducing Ethereum’s revenue and burn rate.

With a reduced burn rate, Ethereum has taken an inflationary path again, leading to a growth in ETH tokens by 630,000 since July 2024.

Bitcoin ETF Getting More Attention than Ethereum

Bitcoin ETFs have been the talk of the town since they had a positive impact on the Bitcoin price by aligning institutional interest with Bitcoin’s growth.

However, Ethereum ETFs haven’t gone through the same motions, lagging behind Bitcoin Spot ETFs in terms of inflows. Whereas Bitcoin Spot ETFs have attracted net inflows of $39.56 billion, Ethereum has only managed to secure around $2.49 billion. While not bad, it hasn’t had an impact on the ETH price.

Institutions such as MicroStrategy have also helped drive more value toward Bitcoin. And while BlackRock bought a bunch of Ethereum recently—over $49.95 million—the purchase has had no impact on the Ethereum price.

Firms Have Started to Stack Solana

Solana has managed to replicate Bitcoin’s level of interest, with firms like DeFi Development Fund and Solana Strategies massively increasing their holdings.

For instance, Janover, which is now known as DeFi Development Fund, has increased its Solana holding by $10.5 million.

And SOL Strategies recently made waves by announcing that it would raise $500 million to buy more Solana tokens.

Delayed Ethereum Upgrades

Within the Ethereum ecosystem itself, things have started to shift. The shuffle in leadership indicates a change in strategy that has not proven to be conducive to market growth so far.

Pectra, an Ethereum upgrade, has been delayed again. While this is the same old story with the ETH ecosystem, the current time is bullish, and if investors see that Ethereum is not able to make any headway and take advantage of the bull market conditions, they will look at other assets to invest in.

Best Crypto to Buy Now – Ethereum Alternatives with Better Potential Upsides

With the Ethereum price not showing signs of major growth and potentially going through a period of prolonged accumulation, smart investors should take a look at the following picks.

Solaxy

Solaxy has been making waves within the cryptocurrency space by providing the first L2 solution for the Solana blockchain.

It uniquely addresses Solana’s congestion issues by adopting ZK rollups so that transactions can happen off-chain and the data can be loaded on-chain.

Other tech that Solaxy has been using includes Hyperlane and Celestia, which would enable it to create a scalable and interoperable ecosystem.

Raising upwards of $32 million in its presale, Solaxy could experience a massive pump following its launch. Analysts such as Cryptonews have already started using phrases like “Solaxy is going to melt faces” because of how hot the project is.

Solaxy also shows an image of a meme coin, riding the Solana-based meme coin narrative that could be used to toleterate its growth even further.

Since it is clear Solana is getting more traction than ETH now, Solaxy could be one of the best Ethereum alternatives on the market.

BTC Bull

BTC Bull is a meme coin project that plays on institutional and retail interest in Bitcoin to create a pathway that could help meme coin investors make gains through the BTC price pump.

While it has adopted standard mechanics like token burns and airdrops, the unique aspect of BTC Bull lies in tying these mechanics to Bitcoin’s growth.

Created by a community of those bullish about Bitcoin, BTC Bull will burn tokens when BTC reaches $125K, $175K, and $225K.

And when the BTC price