Digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments has released its updated Top 20 cryptocurrencies list for the first quarter of 2025. The latest iteration includes six new digital assets: HYPE, ENA, VIRTUAL, JUP, JTO, and GRASS. This quarterly review reflects the company's ongoing analysis of the evolving digital asset landscape.
Grayscale’s research team employs a multifaceted methodology to select top assets from various cryptocurrency sectors. The evaluation incorporates several critical factors such as network growth, user adoption, upcoming catalysts, sustainability of fundamentals, token valuation, supply inflation, and potential tail risks.
This quarter, the analysis highlighted three major thematic areas influencing the market: the potential impact of the U.S. election on industry regulation—particularly concerning decentralized finance (DeFi) and staking—continued innovation in decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and the expanding growth within the Solana ecosystem.
New Additions to the Top 20 List
The selection of new tokens is a direct response to the dominant trends identified by Grayscale’s researchers. Each asset represents a unique innovation within its respective sector.
Hyperliquid (HYPE)
Hyperliquid operates as a Layer 1 blockchain specifically engineered to support advanced on-chain financial applications. Its flagship product is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for perpetual futures, which utilizes a fully on-chain order book for enhanced transparency and efficiency.
Ethena (ENA)
The Ethena protocol has introduced a novel synthetic dollar stablecoin, USDe. This stablecoin is primarily backed by a delta-neutral hedging strategy using Bitcoin and Ether as collateral. The protocol maintains long spot positions in these assets while simultaneously holding short positions in their corresponding perpetual futures contracts. Users can also stake their tokens to earn yield.
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL)
Built on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, Virtuals Protocol provides a platform for creating and managing tokenized AI agents. These autonomous agents are designed to perform tasks and make decisions that mimic human behavior. The platform enables co-ownership, allowing multiple users to invest in and benefit from the AI's operations.
Jupiter (JUP)
Jupiter is the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator on the Solana blockchain, commanding the highest total value locked (TVL) of any application on the network. Its position is strengthened by the surge of retail activity on Solana, driven by interest in memecoins and AI-related tokens. Jupiter is poised to be a primary beneficiary of this growing ecosystem activity.
Jito (JTO)
Jito is a prominent liquid staking protocol on the Solana network. It has seen remarkable adoption over the past year and is recognized for its strong financial performance, generating over $550 million in fee revenue during 2024. It offers one of the most attractive economic profiles in the crypto staking space.
Grass (GRASS)
Grass establishes a decentralized data network that leverages a novel resource: unused internet bandwidth. Users install a Chrome extension to share their bandwidth, which is then used to gather publicly available web data. This data is sold to AI companies for training machine learning models, creating a new paradigm where users are compensated for their contribution to the AI data economy. 👉 Explore more decentralized data strategies
Understanding Grayscale’s Selection Process
Grayscale’s quarterly list is more than a simple ranking; it is a curated snapshot of the crypto market’s most promising areas based on rigorous, multi-factor analysis. The goal is to identify assets that not only show strong current fundamentals but also possess significant potential for future growth and adoption within key trending sectors.
The consistent framework allows investors to track evolving market dynamics and understand the catalysts driving asset performance. This process helps in identifying long-term value beyond short-term price fluctuations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of Grayscale's Top 20 list?
Grayscale's list is a quarterly research publication that aims to identify a diversified set of leading digital assets. It serves as a benchmark for investors seeking exposure to high-potential cryptocurrencies across different sectors, based on fundamental analysis rather than just market capitalization.
How does decentralized AI (DeAI) influence the new selections?
The emergence of decentralized AI is a major theme in this update. Assets like VIRTUAL, which creates tokenized AI agents, and GRASS, which builds a decentralized data network for AI training, are directly tied to this trend. Grayscale's analysts believe blockchains will play a crucial role in the development and monetization of AI technologies.
Why is the Solana ecosystem featured prominently?
The Solana network has demonstrated substantial growth in user activity, developer engagement, and Total Value Locked (TVL). Two new additions, JUP and JTO, are fundamental pillars of the Solana ecosystem, providing critical infrastructure for trading and staking, which positions them to capture value from the network's expansion.
What is a delta-neutral strategy in stablecoin design?
A delta-neutral strategy aims to hedge against the price volatility of the underlying collateral. Ethena's USDe stablecoin uses this approach by holding both long spot positions and short perpetual futures positions in BTC and ETH. This theoretically neutralizes the price risk of the collateral, supporting the stablecoin's peg.
How does liquid staking work?
Liquid staking protocols like Jito allow users to stake their crypto assets to help secure a blockchain network. In return, they receive a liquid staking token that represents their staked assets and accrued rewards. This token can then be used elsewhere in the DeFi ecosystem, providing liquidity and enabling users to earn additional yield.
Is sharing bandwidth with Grass safe?
According to its design, Grass only utilizes a small fraction of a user's unused internet bandwidth to scrape publicly available web data. It does not access personal files, browsing history, or private information. The activity is similar to using a VPN and is intended to be a low-impact way for users to earn rewards.