I. Top 5 Notable Layer 1 Altcoins
1. Ethereum (ETH)
• An irreplaceable position.
• The largest ecosystem with DeFi, NFT, staking…
• Continuously improving through upgrades (Shanghai, Dencun…).
2. Solana (SOL)
• Extremely fast transaction processing, very low fees.
• Strong recovery after the FTX period.
• A thriving NFT and DeFi ecosystem.
3. Avalanche (AVAX)
• Supports Subnet, flexible scalability.
• Attracting interest from many traditional financial projects.
• Good processing speed, suitable for complex dApp applications.
4. Sui (SUI)
• An emerging project using the Move language.
• High speed, backed by Mysten Labs.
• The ecosystem is growing rapidly.
5. Aptos (APT)
• Layer 1 built by a former Facebook member.
• Promises scalability and user-friendly UX.
• Still in the phase of shaping the ecosystem.
⸻
II. Top 5 Potential Layer 2 Altcoins
6. Arbitrum (ARB)
• Top Layer 2 of Ethereum.
• Largest TVL among L2s.
• Many DeFi projects have been deployed on Arbitrum.
7. Optimism (OP)
• Used by major protocols like Coinbase (Base).
• Aiming for a Superchain model.
• Active development community.
8. zkSync (ZK) (waiting for mainnet token)
• Uses zkRollup technology – a highly rated approach.
• Supported by Matter Labs and many large funds.
• No token yet, but great potential upon launch.
9. Starknet (STRK)
• Also an L2 using zkRollup.
• STRK token has been released.
• Developed by StarkWare – a leader in zk.
10. Base (COIN)
• L2 developed by Coinbase, built on Optimism.
• User-friendly for newcomers.
• Currently no separate token, but highly anticipated.