Identifying the next coin to explode in popularity and value is something that thousands of analysts all over the world are trying to do at this very moment as you are reading this article. Some of them will be successful in their quest, others — not so much. The problem with making predictions about the crypto market is that it is largely speculative, with the value of digital assets moving erratically under various external pressures.
We will talk about some speculations about the next big cryptocurrency and discuss various risks associated with the very process of searching for it. In 2025, many narratives are reshaping and refocusing, as the global economy, international trade, and national monetary systems are being tested by all sorts of crises.
In this chaotic environment, making correct capital allocation decisions is quite difficult even if you have training and experience. So, take all our speculations with a huge grain of salt, do your own research, and focus on creating a balanced portfolio that can deliver good results under all sorts of market conditions.
Identifying market leaders
It is relatively easy to find projects that are doing fine and leading the industry. There are several metrics that we can use to evaluate digital assets and their performance in real time.
Here are some of them:
- Total value locked or TVL is a hugely important metric for the DeFi ecosystem. It measures the value of all assets that are locked in a pool, protocol, or chain. The number indicates the popularity of the asset or products and the general level of investor confidence. For example, the current leader of the DeFi sector is Aave with its $17.6 billion TVL.
- Market capitalization is a good metric when trying to find tokens that are popular among retail traders and investors. The total market cap of the crypto market is roughly $2.27 trillion. The biggest tokens are BTC ($1.66 trillion), ETH ($190 million), and Tether ($144 million). These are some of the most important tokens in the whole ecosystem.
- Utilization and user activity. Measuring these metrics can be difficult due to the lack of comprehensive data. However, some projects are more popular than others. For instance, one of the most pronounced trends of 2025 is the increasing use of DeFi and RWA tokens like DAI, NEAR, ICP, and others.
- Market dominance is another useful metric. It allows investors to quickly identify leaders within the blockchain industry and find optimal capital allocation targets. Bitcoin dominance sits at 63.1%, which is much lower compared to the ATH of 96.6% achieved in 2013. However, it is noticeably higher than 2021, when it was as low as 37% due to the growth of the DeFi ecosystem propping up Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and other networks.
These are helpful metrics if you are looking for a good token to invest in. However, these can also be quite misleading. For instance, the recent Mantra collapse was somewhat expected by the community. Many people who researched the project noticed the lack of meaningful partnerships and interesting products within the Mantra ecosystem.
The discrepancy between the actual state of the project and the growing price of OM did not go unnoticed. Nonetheless, many investors were left holding the bag.
Ethereum and Solana dominance
Among crypto projects that deserve all the attention of enthusiasts, Ethereum and Solana stand out due to their incredibly sharp focus on creating a useful ecosystem that can house a variety of unique financial products that simply do not exist in traditional markets. Fueled by the rapidly developing art of creating autonomous smart contracts, these two networks are at the forefront of the whole blockchain industry.
Recently, improvements like zk-rollups and cross-chain tech have made Ethereum and Solana more compatible, eradicating the border between many DeFi protocols that operate across the whole ecosystem.
Here are some reasons to keep an eye on these networks:
- The number of unique Ethereum wallets interacting with various decentralized protocols reached an ATH in January 2025, when the number of monthly active users grew to over 21 million. Solana has experienced a similar growth in user activity.
- The combined TVL of these two networks is over $53.5 billion. These two chains are responsible for over $59.2% of all value locked in the DeFi ecosystem. Solana has 210 tracked protocols and has the biggest daily DEX volume of over $2.5 billion.
- Ethereum and Solana are spearheading the AI implementation in decentralized finance. Currently, 15 tracked protocols are focused primarily on agentic AI. Most of them are deployed on these two chains. Many real-world infrastructure projects fueled by the expansion of artificial intelligence are also deployed on Ethereum. Since AI in blockchain ecosystem products is an important, future-defining narrative, these two networks may benefit greatly in the near future.
Many experts believe that the DeFi ecosystem is destined to become the biggest financial environment ever conceived by humanity. While we have to abstain from such optimistic views of the future, it is true that chains focused on building useful technology will be more relevant if DeFi reaches mainstream.
Notable crypto trends in 2025
DeFi enthusiasts must be mindful of various narratives that are becoming hot topics within the crypto community. With the AI hype train moving at unprecedented speeds, looking into projects that are focused on AI implementation, development, and maintenance should be a no-brainer. NEAR Protocol, Internet Computer (ICP), Bittensor, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, and many other projects should be on your radar.
RWA projects and chains like Chainlink, Avalanche, Hedera, MakerDAO, Algorand, and others are among high-potential crypto projects that can reach new heights in 2025 simply because they may become flavor-of-the-month destinations for capital allocation.
The future of crypto investments
We strongly believe that many projects in the DeFi ecosystem have a chance of making it big in the world of crypto within the next several months. However, identifying which protocols and tokens will do better is quite difficult due to the uneven nature of the DeFi ecosystem and the veil of uncertainty in geopolitics, international trade, and the global economy.
Instead of trying to pinpoint the exact asset that will fly to the moon, it is a much better approach to build a balanced portfolio diversified across multiple chains and strategies. While some may think that selecting the right assets for such a portfolio is challenging, we have to remind you that diversification is created exactly for such scenarios, where investors do not have a strong plan in mind.
Visiting the Rivo Yield Marketplace is a good way of familiarizing yourself with strategies that have been picked by professionals and verified by dedicated specialists. The platform does all the due diligence on your behalf and presents you with the finest strategies ranked by potential profitability, risk level, and total value locked.
You can quickly find the best course of action and choose cryptocurrencies and investment pools that will work well for you!