Best Crypto to Buy in 2026 [Expert Analysis]

1. Bitcoin (BTC)

We can’t publish a list of the best cryptocurrencies without mentioning Bitcoin. As the OG cryptocurrency (having launched in 2009), it is leading the list by many measures, despite its scalability challenges.

Bitcoin has continuously maintained the largest market capitalization and the strongest liquidity of all cryptocurrencies, which we see as a sign of strong investor confidence. It is traded on virtually all crypto exchanges, making it an attractive option for both individuals and institutions.

Bitcoin's primary use case is as a digital alternative to traditional currencies, aiming to be a medium of exchange and a store of value. Even though it is already widely adopted for both use cases, we believe its volatility is still a challenge for regular transactions.

On the other hand, its fixed supply cap of 21 million coins (and the scarcity that comes with it), an incredibly strong and active community, and the expected performance boost triggered by April’s Bitcoin halving event make it the #1 on our best crypto ranking.

After hitting a new all time high in 2025 of around $125,000, Bitcoin pulled back and entered a broad consolidation phase, with prices settling near ~$90,000 in early 2026. This behavior highlights how macroeconomic dynamics and institutional flows now have a stronger influence on Bitcoin’s movement than short-term speculative narratives. Bitcoin’s case in 2026 is defined by stability, liquidity, and scarcity than by headline-driven momentum.

2. Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum has established its market presence for quite some time now, reflecting its position as a leading platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Widespread availability and large daily trading volumes make Ethereum easily accessible, without significantly affecting the price. 

Ethereum’s strong use cases extend beyond a digital currency, leading to adoption in various sectors including finance, gaming, art. Similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum’s performance has been a mixed bag in the past, plagued by network congestion and high transaction fees. 

These issues are being addressed with the multi-step Ethereum 2.0 roadmap, which include the large “Ethereum Merge” in September 2022, integrations of Layer 2 solutions, and most recently the Dencun upgrade in March 2024.

We also liked the introduction of EIP-1559 back in 2021, which shifted Ethereum’s tokenomics from an inflationary model to a deflationary model, therefore reducing overall supply over time.

Ethereum’s dev team is continuously working on upgrading the network, featuring prominent crypto figures like Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation, paired with an innovative and widespread community. Additionally there are a lot of so-called Layer-2 blockchains, who expand the Ethereum ecosystem. These chains leverage the security of the Ethereum blockchain, while offering faster and cheaper transactions. Notable mentions include Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, ImmutableX and Metis. It has also become a trend for major crypto exchanges to launch their own EVM-based blockchains, for example Base (Coinbase) and Ink (Kraken).

Alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum remains one of the few cryptocurrencies with broad ETF exposure, which continues to play a key role in institutional adoption. While ETF inflows were uneven throughout 2025, Ether has firmly established itself as an investable asset for traditional investors. As of early 2026, ETH is trading around $3,100, reflecting renewed confidence compared to the lows seen in early 2025, but still a more measured recovery than in previous bull cycles.

From a network perspective, Ethereum’s focus in 2025 and early 2026 shifted away from hype-driven upgrades toward incremental scalability improvements and ecosystem maturity. The rollout of upgrades such as Pectra improved efficiency and staking mechanics, reinforcing Ethereum’s evolution into a stable settlement layer rather than a high-beta growth chain. Despite increasing competition from faster and cheaper networks, Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi liquidity, Layer-2 adoption, and real-world asset tokenization supports its continued #2 position going into 2026.

3. Solana (SOL)

Solana has already seen massive growth in 2024 but did not manage to sustainably surpass its previous all-time high around $260, despite briefly approaching it late in the year. Nevertheless, its large market capitalization and consistently high liquidity demonstrate strong investor confidence. Solana is designed for high-speed, high-volume transactions at low cost, supporting tens of thousands of transactions per second and positioning itself as a serious alternative to Ethereum for dApps, DeFi, and NFTs. Adoption continues to be driven by demand for faster and cheaper on-chain activity, a trend that has accelerated as more consumer-facing use cases emerge.

Heading into 2026, Solana’s ecosystem growth has matured beyond short-term hype cycles. While memecoin activity and DEXs like Jupiter played a major role in onboarding users, the network has since benefited from improved stability, protocol upgrades targeting long-term sustainability, and a steadily expanding developer base. Although no spot Solana ETF has been approved to date, ongoing institutional interest and Solana’s strong user experience, low fees, and active community reinforce its position as one of the most attractive entry points for new investors joining the crypto economy.

4. Sui Network (SUI)

The Sui Network is a next-generation, high-performance layer-1 blockchain designed to improve scalability, speed, and user experience. Built by Mysten Labs, it focuses on supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and digital assets, using the Move programming language. This language, originally developed for Facebook's Diem (former Libra) project, enhances security and enables faster transaction processing.

Unlike traditional blockchains, which process transactions sequentially, Sui uses parallel transaction processing, allowing it to scale horizontally and handle a high number of transactions simultaneously. This leads to lower latency and faster finality.

The Move Programming Language offers enhanced security for smart contracts and reduces the risk of vulnerabilities, making it particularly appealing for developers seeking a more secure environment. Also, the Sui blockchain offers predictable and low gas fees by decoupling consensus from simple transactions, which allows for faster and cheaper operations.

The Sui Network is designed to support various decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Its efficient architecture makes it attractive for gaming, digital assets, and complex decentralized applications.

The SUI token has been one of the best performing assets in 2024, surging by over 500% to a new all time high of almost 5$. If compared with Ethereum and Solana, the fully diluted market cap is sitting at around 10-30% of the leading layer 1s, still leaving room for high upside potential.

However, SUI has gone through a significant repricing since its early-2025 peak, with the token trading around $1.50 in early 2026, well below its former all-time high. While this reflects the broader cooling of speculative Layer-1 narratives, on-chain activity on the Sui network has continued to grow. Built by former Meta Diem engineers and using the Move programming language, Sui has steadily expanded active addresses and DeFi usage, with protocols such as SuiLend contributing meaningful volume and liquidity.

From a longer-term perspective, Sui remains a serious contender in the increasingly competitive Layer-1 landscape alongside Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Cardano. Its focus on performance, scalability, and user-friendly design positions it well for future adoption, but the sharp price correction underscores that Sui is still an emerging ecosystem rather than a proven market leader. Going into 2026, SUI represents a higher-risk, higher-potential bet within the Layer-1 segment, dependent on continued developer traction and real user growth rather than narrative momentum.

5. Hyperliquid (HYPE)

Hyperliquid is probably THE most interesting newcomer and their token one of the best performing assets of 2024. 

Hyperliquid is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed to support a fully on-chain, open financial system. It enables the development and integration of user-built applications that interact seamlessly with its native components, aiming to provide a decentralized exchange (DEX) experience comparable to centralized platforms.

Unlike many decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that rely on off-chain order books, Hyperliquid maintains an entirely on-chain order book. This ensures complete transparency, verifiability, and enhanced security for all transactions, setting a new standard for DEX design. The platform's TVL has experienced a dramatic increase, surpassing 3.2$ billion within a month following the HYPE token launch. Hyperliquid consistently achieves daily trading volumes exceeding 1$ billion, with peak volumes reaching up to 4.2$ billion. This positions it among the most actively traded decentralized exchanges in the sector.

Through the HyperEVM component, Hyperliquid is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This enables developers to seamlessly deploy Ethereum-based smart contracts and dApps, leveraging existing tools and ecosystems. 

Additionally, Hyperliquid offers gas-free trading for perpetual futures. By eliminating gas fees, the platform reduces costs for users and enhances trading efficiency, making it highly attractive for high-frequency and retail traders alike.

In November 2024, Hyperliquid carried out a large airdrop, distributing roughly 310 million HYPE tokens to around 94,000 eligible users, with an average allocation valued at approximately $45,000 at the initial listing price of $3.90. Despite expectations of heavy sell pressure following the airdrop, HYPE went on to rally nearly 10×, reaching an all-time high close to $35 and establishing itself as one of the strongest-performing new tokens of that cycle.

After correcting from its peak, HYPE has since stabilized and is trading around $22 in early 2026, suggesting a more balanced price discovery phase. While early concerns around centralization—particularly the concentration of staking power—remain relevant, continued interest from large investors and sustained trading activity indicate that the market still sees long-term potential in the protocol. Going into 2026, HYPE represents a higher-risk asset with strong product traction, but its success will increasingly depend on governance decentralization and the protocol’s ability to sustain organic growth beyond speculative momentum.

6. Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche is a highly liquid player with a significant market capitalization in the blockchain space. It provides a more scalable, interoperable, and decentralized infrastructure for building decentralized applications (dApps) and executing smart contracts, although it follows a different approach than other “layer two” solutions. 

Avalanche offers so-called subnets, which are child chains of the Avalanche C-Chain. This enables it to easily launch a dedicated blockchain for various use cases, as we have seen with Off the Grid, DeFi Kingdoms or Shrapnel, three of the largest gaming projects in the web3 space. Its main use case revolves around high-throughput, scalable blockchain solutions, and it has been adopted by numerous projects seeking robust decentralized platforms.

The project’s tokenomics look solid, with a capped supply of 720 million AVAX and a unique mechanism where transaction fees are burned, reducing the circulating supply and potentially increasing the value of the remaining tokens.

The Avalanche development team is led by Emin Gün Sirer, a well-respected computer scientist and researcher, accompanied by a team of experienced professionals from academic and industry backgrounds. The rapidly growing community of devs, validators and users show massive engagement with active participation in governance proposals and community-led projects.

The Avalanche Foundation has launched the $40 million Retro9000 grant program to incentivize developers to build new Layer 1 blockchains on its testnet. This initiative is part of a broader effort to increase developer activity and adoption within the network. Another highlight is the introduction of the Avalanche Card in partnership with Visa, allowing users to make payments with AVAX and other assets wherever Visa is accepted.

AVAX has undergone a deep repricing since the 2025 market downturn and is currently trading around $12, well below the support levels that held earlier in the cycle. While this reflects broader weakness across Layer-1 tokens, it has also reset expectations around Avalanche’s growth trajectory and valuation.

On the development side, Avalanche has continued to push its long-term strategy around customizable blockchains. The rollout of the Avalanche 9,000 initiative significantly reduced the cost and complexity of launching subnets, reinforcing Avalanche’s positioning as an infrastructure layer for application-specific chains rather than a pure DeFi or retail-driven ecosystem. Going into 2026, AVAX’s investment case is increasingly tied to real adoption of subnets and institutional use cases, making it a more patient, fundamentals-driven bet rather than a short-term momentum play.

7. Binance Coin (BNB)

As the largest so-called “exchange coin,” BNB continues to occupy a unique position in the crypto market, with its value closely tied to the Binance ecosystem. The token supports multiple chains (BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain), offers fee discounts and benefits for Binance users, and remains deeply integrated across trading, Launchpad token sales, and ecosystem incentives. This breadth of utility has helped BNB remain relevant beyond pure speculation.

After reaching an all-time high of $789 in 2024, BNB has since entered a more mature phase. Going into 2026, its investment case is less about rapid growth and more about stability, liquidity, and continued usage within one of the largest crypto platforms globally. Binance’s ongoing quarterly BNB burn program continues to reduce supply over time, supporting scarcity, while consistently high trading volumes provide strong liquidity.

At the same time, BNB remains one of the most centralized assets in the top crypto rankings. Its reliance on Binance as a company, combined with ongoing regulatory scrutiny in key jurisdictions, introduces structural risks that are difficult to ignore. As a result, investing in BNB is ultimately a bet on Binance’s ability to operate, adapt, and maintain trust within an evolving regulatory environment. For 2026, BNB stands as a utility-driven, cash-flow-like crypto asset—robust in calm conditions, but inherently exposed to regulatory and platform-specific risk.

8. Chainlink (LINK)

LINK remains a highly liquid large-cap cryptocurrency, widely available across all major exchanges. While its price recovery has been uneven since the last cycle and it still trades well below its 2021 all-time high, Chainlink’s importance as core Web3 infrastructure has continued to grow. As overall on-chain activity expands, demand for secure and reliable external data feeds is expected to rise accordingly.

Chainlink’s protocol plays a critical role in enabling smart contracts to interact securely with off-chain data, making it foundational for DeFi, tokenized real-world assets, and cross-chain applications. Its oracle network and Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) are increasingly used beyond pure crypto use cases, including proof-of-reserves, cross-chain stablecoin transfers, and integrations with traditional financial institutions.

The value of LINK is closely tied to real network usage rather than speculative narratives. While the lack of a hard supply cap remains a point of debate, Chainlink’s expanding role as a neutral middleware layer between blockchains and external systems strengthens its long-term relevance. Going into 2026, LINK is best viewed as a picks-and-shovels asset for Web3 and on-chain finance—less dependent on hype cycles and more on sustained adoption across crypto and TradFi integrations.

9. Toncoin (TON)

Toncoin (TON) is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network (TON), a decentralized blockchain originally developed by Telegram and later continued by an independent open-source community after Telegram stepped back due to regulatory pressure in 2020. Since then, TON has evolved into a high-throughput blockchain with a strong focus on usability and consumer-facing applications.

TON’s key differentiator remains its deep integration with Telegram’s massive user base, which now exceeds 800 million users. The decision to standardize blockchain functionality for Telegram Mini Apps on TON has significantly accelerated adoption, enabling native payments, wallet interactions via TON Connect, and seamless peer-to-peer transfers directly inside the chat interface. While this tight coupling raises valid concerns around ecosystem flexibility and centralization, it has also created one of the clearest real-world onboarding funnels in crypto.

After peaking near $8.30 in 2024, Toncoin has since cooled and is trading around $3.00 going into 2026. Despite the price correction, ongoing user growth, in-app utility, and relatively limited regulatory friction continue to support TON’s relevance. For 2026, Toncoin stands out as a consumer-focused blockchain bet, with upside tied less to DeFi speculation and more to sustained usage within the Telegram ecosystem.

10. TreasureDAO (MAGIC)

Treasure DAO is a decentralized gaming and metaverse ecosystem that expanded its infrastructure in late 2024 by launching its own Layer-2 chain within the zkSync Elastic Chain. Originally built on Arbitrum, Treasure has developed a broader gaming stack including a native marketplace, player profiles, achievement systems, and shared progression across multiple Web3 games—often compared to a decentralized alternative to platforms like Steam or Epic Games.

The ecosystem is powered by MAGIC, a cross-game utility and governance token used across titles such as Bridgeworld, The Beacon, and other community-driven games. MAGIC functions as the connective layer between games, players, and economies, while also enabling DAO governance. Its token design incorporates deflationary mechanics tied to ecosystem usage, aiming to align long-term value with player activity rather than speculation.

Going into 2026, MAGIC continues to trade at depressed levels, reflecting the prolonged downturn in the NFT and blockchain gaming sector. While price recovery has been slow, Treasure DAO has remained focused on building infrastructure, experimenting with new formats such as AI-driven gaming agents, and improving onboarding through gasless transactions and account abstraction. For 2026, Treasure represents a high-risk, long-term bet on the revival of Web3 gaming—dependent less on short-term token performance and more on whether blockchain gaming can reach sustainable mainstream adoption.

How We Evaluate Cryptocurrencies

Market Capitalization

Market capitalization is the price per coin or token multiplied by the total amount of coins or tokens in circulation.

In crypto, we often need to differentiate between “Current Market Cap” and “Fully Diluted Market Cap”. The first includes all coins or tokens, which are available to date, while the second also includes all coins or tokens which are still locked, but will get released in the future through processes like crypto mining or crypto staking.

If there is a huge difference between those two values, it is very likely that the price will fall in the future, as more tokens (supply) meet the market (demand).

These numbers are probably THE most important factor in determining a viable crypto investment, and is often overlooked when comparing the price of a single unit of a token. 

Just because the price of some tokens is 0.00001€, it could still have a very high market capitalization if there are 100,000,000,000,000 of tokens in existence. 

Trading Volume

A high and consistent trading volume on an asset is generally a very good sign. It means more and/or larger parties are interested, suggesting that the asset is likely listed across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges.

High trading volume means higher accessibility, making it easier for investors to buy or sell without significantly affecting its price.

Liquidity

Liquidity shows how easy you can exit your position, which is often a problem with newer coins or tokens.

If the liquidity is very low, let’s say less than 10x your investment, it will be impossible to sell that asset at current market price. So you should only invest in low-liquidity assets if you plan to hold that asset for a longer period of time and expect liquidity increase in the future.

Use cases and real-world adoption

When looking at a coin or token, it is important to ask yourself what that use case could be and if it is realistic that, at some point in time, the product will get there.

You can go even deeper into the analysis; consider estimating the scale of adoption needed—how many users need to engage with and pay for this product—to cover the operational costs. 

Comparing this and the current market capitalization of a project might often lead to an interesting revelation.

Tokenomics

One of the most crucial questions to ask is: How does the token actually work?

Tokenomics describe the economics of a token and can quickly reveal a bad investment even if the product and team are exceptional.

Supply and demand dedicate the token price, so the balance between the two and how it could develop show the potential of an investment. Ask yourself:

• What do I need the token for? Is there demand for the token if the product is successful?
• Are new tokens generated in the future and if, how and when does that happen?
• Are tokens locked for the team and early investors, and when will they unlock? (They probably bought at a lower price and might want to take profits once they can.)
• Can tokens be burned (destroyed) and if so, what triggers this reduction of supply?

Development team

The technological backbone is of high importance in the age of digitalization. Ask yourself:

• What do I know about the team behind a token-based project?
• What is their background? Their skillset?
• Do you think they can deliver on the promise?
• Are they working as hard on the project as they should?

Many crypto development teams share insights into their GitHub profile, which shows the actual work they are doing.

If you don’t have the know-how to evaluate this yourself, it might make sense to talk to someone who can, before investing in a project.

Community support

Today’s community might turn into tomorrow’s users and clients of a product. It is important to factor this in and take a closer look at the community. Ask yourself these questions:

• Is the community real? Or are the followers on Twitter/Discord etc. just empty accounts?
• Are the people actually interested in the product or just speculators?

If the community consists of mostly speculators and people farming for quick rewards, free crypto, airdrops, whitelists etc. it is very likely that there is huge sell pressure, once the asset will be tradable.

Security and transparency

As we have seen repeatedly in the past, security and transparency can break a project and its value within seconds, if not executed well.

Interestingly, security breaches often stem from human errors—such as poorly written code or inadequate governance—rather than inherent flaws in the blockchain technology itself.

While security issues are not intentional in most cases, actual crypto scams are. Having enough transparency gives a better opportunity to detect fraudulent behavior early on. Ask yourself:

• Who has critical access to the code? What is a worst case scenario?
• Is there a single point of failure (e.g. one person holding the private keys to alter a smart contract)?
• Is any information obscured, which should be transparent?

<div fs-richtext-component="info-box" class="info-box"><div class="flex-info-card"><img src="https://assets-global.website-files.com/65098a145ece52db42b9c274/650c6f4cef4c34160eab4440_Info.svg" loading="eager" width="64" height="64" alt="" class="icon-info-box"><div fs-richtext-component="info-box-text" class="info-box-content"><p class="color-neutral-800">Nothing in this article constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the article constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto.</p></div></div></div>