These are crazy markets.
First, everything dumped after President Trump announced heavy tariffs.
Then, a few days later, we got one of the biggest pumps on record after Trump backed off on aggressive tariffs.
Unsurprisingly, the VIX Index, which measures volatility, has soared to levels not seen since the COVID crash:
Source: Koyfin
Bitcoin (BTC) has surged 2,000% since the last VIX spike.
For long-term investors like us — who are putting money to work for the next 5–10 years —these are the kind of buying opportunity we dream about.
But I wouldn’t buy bitcoin.
Bitcoin was revolutionary when it first came out. But it’s a finished product. All it will ever be is digital cash — or, as some folks call it, “digital gold.”
They call it this because bitcoin is a store of value the government can’t dilute, like gold.
Whatever you want to call it, the fact remains hardly anyone uses bitcoin to actually buy things today. Few Americans use bitcoin to transfer money, either. It hasn’t even dented Western Union’s money-transfer business. Like gold, it “just sits there.”
In other words, there’s one use case for bitcoin. Meanwhile, the rest of crypto is a fountain of innovation (excluding memecoins).
Here are five cryptos to buy for the long-term.
Ethereum‘s blockchain is the “base layer” on top of which programmers are building world-changing disruptive businesses.
Think of it like a platform where anyone can create and launch “apps.”
Kind of how the App Store works on your iPhone. You can download millions of apps for just about everything. The only limit to what “apps” developers can build on Ethereum is their imaginations.
Today, there are over 3,000 apps running on Ethereum’s blockchain — and it’s the home to many of the world’s top DeFi projects.
There’s one use case for bitcoin. But with Ethereum, the sky’s the limit.
Even better… it’s making real money from all the activity happening on its blockchain. Roughly $32 billion worth of value settles on Ethereum every day.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather own a fast-growing tech business than “digital gold.”
Fewer sellers, more buyers
Tokenomics is one of the most — if not the most — important drivers of crypto prices. Tokenomics sets the rules for how a crypto token operates.
Ethereum switched to “staking” in September 2022 and now boasts some of the best tokenomics of any crypto. Since the big switch, the effects on its supply schedule have been astounding. There have been fewer sellers and more buyers.
Today, you can earn around a 3%–4% yield staking your ETH through Lido (a decentralized staking network). That’s a big incentive for crypto investors. What’s not to like about getting paid to hold ETH?
Ethereum’s “burn” mechanism is comparable to companies buying back their own stock. It reduces the supply of ETH … and should result in higher ETH prices.
The ETFs have arrived
Crypto achieved a major milestone when bitcoin ETFs got the green light to start trading at the beginning of 2024.
Just two months after their launch, $60 billion worth of investor money poured into these funds:
Source: @CharlieBilello on X
For context, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) was formerly the fastest ETF to accumulate $10 billion in assets… but it took three years to do it.
BlackRock’s (BLK) iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) achieved this milestone in just seven weeks.
The world’s largest asset managers — including BlackRock, Fidelity, VanEck, and others — are now telling their clients to buy and hold BTC and ETH in their 401(k)s.
More important, Ethereum is only about one-fourth the size of bitcoin. That means it takes less money to move its price.
Even if Ethereum attracts 20% of the inflows bitcoin got, logic says that when billions of dollars start flowing into ETH, its price will rise.
Investors who think Solana is just a platform to launch meme coins are missing the big opportunity.
Like with Ethereum, thousands of blockchain apps are being built on the Solana infrastructure.
Today, there are over 500 apps running on Solana’s blockchain. It’s the home to many of the world’s top DeFi projects like Raydium (RAY), Ondo Finance (ONDO), Jito (JTO), and others.
And each app pays millions of tiny fees to Solana for each transaction. Solana made over 29 million in fees in the last 30 days.
Developers love Solana because it’s the fastest of all the major blockchains.
Solana currently processes 65,000 transactions per second — just as fast as Visa. That’s 10,000X faster than bitcoin and 2,000X better than Ethereum.
Solana is also far cheaper to use than most other blockchains. It costs about three bucks to do a transaction on bitcoin. And between $8 and $40 on Ethereum. A transaction on Solana will set you back $0.00025 — a fraction of a penny.
Solana ETFs are coming in 2025.
We already have Ethereum and bitcoin ETFs. Solana ETFs are the logical next step.
So far, seven institutions applied for a Solana ETF including some of Wall Street’s finest: Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, 21Shares, Canary Capital, Bitwise, and Grayscale which is converting its existing Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL).
The SEC has acknowledged these applications, marking a significant step in the regulatory process. However, final deadlines for these applications are in August or later. Meaning, it could take a few more months before the SEC renders its decision.
More important, Solana is 30 times smaller than bitcoin and three times smaller than Ethereum. ETF flows could easily catapult its price to new all-time highs.
In my RiskHedge Venture crypto advisory, I recommend investing 75% of your crypto allocation to “safer” and bigger cryptos, like Ethereum, and Solana.
I recommend putting the remaining 25% into higher-upside tokens.
I just released a report writing about 3 such early-stage cryptos.
They all have real business models making real money.
One of them is disrupting Google. Second one built an Airbnb for AI chips. And the third does business with big brands like Disney, Netflix, HBO, Apple, Nike, etc.
Best of all, thanks to the recent crypto crash, you can scoop them up at a discount.
Click here to access the full report.
— Stephen McBride, Chief Analyst at RiskHedge
