Bankless Founder Sounds the Altcoin Season Bugle, 8 High-Potential Projects Worth Watching Closely

Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)

On September 18, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman boldly declared: "We are now in altcoin season, and the real rally is arriving sooner than expected." In May of this year, David Hoffman announced he had fully liquidated his ETH and rotated into altcoins including VVV, NEAR, ZEC, HYPE, and LIT. All of these tokens have since significantly outperformed ETH.

Combined with recent policy tailwinds from US regulators including the SEC, the market has rallied across the board: BTC broke above $81,000 yesterday; ETH simultaneously climbed above $2,600, UNI surged nearly 35% in a single day, second-tier tokens like ARB and NEAR followed with gains exceeding 20%, and the DeFi sector as a whole is undergoing a valuation re-rating.

Although the Federal Reserve's rate hike cycle has concluded, the engine of the crypto bull market is now in place. The window for capital rotation from BTC into altcoins is gradually opening. Odaily has compiled an "Altcoin Potential Watchlist" based on market participants' views, sector logic, and热门 targets, offering a glimpse into current market focus. (Note: The following content does not constitute investment advice and is for reference only.)

HYPE: Current Price Around $92

As the undisputed leader in the on-chain Perp DEX sector, Hyperliquid's business lines are firing on all cylinders. Beyond its on-chain trading volume consistently ranking at the top of the industry, its HIP-3 related markets have also dramatically increased their share of the Hyperliquid ecosystem compared to the beginning of the year. Relevant data: Today, Hyperliquid's open interest reached $16.36 billion, a historic high; statistics show that Hyperliquid's HIP-3 based markets accounted for nearly 50% of the platform's perpetual contract trading volume in summer 2026, up from only about 2% at the beginning of the year. Among these, TradeXYZ's equity markets dominate, including Nasdaq 100 index and individual stock contracts.

Last night, the HYPE token broke above $94, continuing to set historic highs and driving PURR up over 20% at one point. Just a month ago, HYPE's price was still around $73.

Finally, HYPE's primary price driver comes from the platform ecosystem's continuous buybacks. According to HyperliquidNews monitoring, the Hyperliquid Assistance Fund's cumulative buyback and burn of native tokens has exceeded $1.3 billion, making it the largest ecosystem token buyback in the crypto market.

US President Trump previously publicly named Hyperliquid, stating that the CFTC chairman is pushing for its compliance and entry into the US market. The Hyperliquid Policy Center and Hyperliquid official team are also steadily advancing activities related to entering the US stock market. Long-term, HYPE's institutional buying pressure will continue to expand.

For more on HYPE's rally logic, we recommend reading "HYPE Jumps 26.86%, Approaching New Highs: Who's Buying?".

LIT (Lighter): Current Price Approximately $5.2

As a rising star in the on-chain Perp DEX sector, Lighter, which positions itself as a "US-compliant trading platform," has gradually grown into the sector's number two.

Back in July, Odaily published "Already 3x from the Bottom, How Did Lighter Take Off?", clearly explaining LIT's rally logic. At that time, its price was only around $2.65, and it has now doubled.

As Lighter's platform token, LIT's price drivers are similarly diverse. Beyond a buyback mechanism similar to HYPE's, LIT's community allocation is also an important factor in its price appreciation. With a total supply of 1 billion tokens, the TGE airdrop accounted for as much as 25% (250 million tokens) with no lock-up. This deep alignment with the crypto community allowed Lighter to capture significant market share early on. Its deep integration with Robinhood also gave Lighter a certain advantage in the Robinhood Chain ecosystem's token-stock pairing Meme sector, with many packaged assets on related launch platforms originating from Lighter's derivatives contracts.

Additionally, the crypto market's pricing logic for LIT includes its identity as the "shadow asset benchmarked against Hyperliquid" — the number two player. As the on-chain derivatives contract sector continues to attract capital, supported by trading volume and fee revenue that are resilient across both bull and bear markets, LIT's upside potential may even be more promising than HYPE's.

As of now, LIT is trading just below $5.2.

UNI: Current Price Approximately $9

If the Robinhood Chain ecosystem's popularity allowed Uniswap to coast to victory, then the SEC's recent innovation exemption policy has directly thrust it into the market spotlight.

The window for stock tokenization is opening, and models such as permissioned AMMs and reviewed TSVs will directly benefit Uniswap's business growth. Previously, Uniswap v4 launched its Permissioned Pools feature in July of this year, with partners including Superstate, Securitize, and Dowgo. Its technical architecture updates are also hitting the adaptation points of the regulatory framework, which is why it has been rising recently.

Combined with the deflationary expectations from the restart of Uniswap's Fee Switch, UNI's current rally has dual support from policy and fundamentals.

As of now, UNI is trading at approximately $9.

PUMP: Current Price Approximately $0.004

As the leader in Solana ecosystem Meme coin launchpads, the PUMP token, like HYPE, is one of the representatives of "buyback tokens," and its token buyback scale is second only to HYPE.

In previous Meme seasons, Pump.fun has been the first stop for market capital inflows during altcoin seasons. It recently also launched a stock token issuance model (recommended reading: "Revitalizing the Solana Ecosystem: Pump.fun Enters Token-Stock Meme Pairing"), supporting token-stock pairing Memes. Combined with policy tailwinds from the SEC, platform trading volume and token issuance are expected to further explode.

As of now, PUMP's price still has some distance from last year's historic high, trading at around $0.004.

However, considering the boost that altcoin season sentiment provides to the Meme coin sector, and Solana ecosystem's otherwise weak development, PUMP can be described as "the Solana ecosystem's only money-absorbing platform token." For more analysis on PUMP, we recommend reading "10,000-Word Research Report Deconstructs PUMP: What Is a Reasonable Price?".

MORPHO: Current Price Approximately $2.7

As a mature lending protocol in the market, Morpho — positioned as the "on-chain lending infrastructure layer" — is also in a rapid development phase. Along with the recent hot on-chain activity in the Robinhood Chain ecosystem, Morpho is the only protocol that has provided strong support and deep integration for that ecosystem's lending sector. In terms of pioneering emerging ecosystems and expanding business boundaries, Morpho's proactiveness is rare in the industry.

Furthermore, unlike traditional lending protocols, Morpho employs a "peer-to-peer matching + pooling" hybrid model, achieving relatively higher capital utilization and more competitive lending rates.

Another implicit tailwind lies in regulators' strong support for stablecoins and on-chain finance. As the relevant regulatory framework gradually becomes clearer, Morpho, as a leading project in the DeFi lending sector, also has deep potential for institutional buying.

ZEC: Current Price Approximately $1,536

As the only privacy coin to break through the $1,000 mark in this cycle, ZEC's recent rally can be described as the "most explosive altcoin," bar none.

Over the past year, ZEC has gained over 2,500%. Today's high was $1,595, approaching $1,600, and its market cap ranking has jumped to 8th in the crypto market.

In the "post-BTC era," despite frequent skepticism about privacy features, ZEC's "privacy coin" narrative is still highly sought after by the market, with institutional capital also endorsing it as a "compliant privacy coin" and placing heavy bets. It's worth noting that, based on current prices, ZEC treasury companies and HYPE treasury companies may be the only two "profitability models" remaining among altcoin treasuries.

It's worth mentioning that Fortitude, a mining company focused on Zcash mining, is also recently advancing its listing plans. It has appointed former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton as its CEO and plans to list on the Nasdaq. Additionally, recent ZEC-linked NFT ecosystem and Meme coin ecosystem projects have also shown standout performance. Long-term, privacy coins still have broad market potential. For more ecosystem insights, we recommend reading "Ultra-Early Stage: Which Projects in the Zcash Ecosystem Are Worth Watching?".

Finally, the "10/11 insider whale" Garret Jin, long regarded as "ZEC's biggest short," revealed today that he holds over $300 million worth of ZEC, approximately 202,100 tokens. The truth is now clear — his previously held tens of millions of dollars in ZEC shorts may have been hedge positions, leaving onlookers who wanted to watch the drama stunned. For more price analysis, we recommend reading our May article "Behind ZEC's Surge: A 'Coordinated Long' Is Taking Place".

NEAR: Current Price Approximately $3.7

As a veteran project, Near Protocol's conceptual positioning has always been somewhat confusing. When AI was booming, Near official highlighted its founder's identity as an "AI industry expert" to gild itself, and also followed up with explanations about the project appearing as a partner at Nvidia conferences. Now, with ZEC's surge and official product updates, NEAR has transformed into a "privacy concept token."

On September 18, NEAR Protocol officially announced that perpetual contract trading now enables privacy protection by default. Users can open positions directly with their existing accounts, and others cannot identify position ownership; this feature is powered by Hyperliquid.

According to Bankless co-founder David Hoffman's post, NEAR is a generalized version of ZEC. He believes ZEC encrypts funds, while NEAR encrypts business activities. ZEC cannot cover other privacy needs in daily life, whereas NEAR can extend privacy capabilities to broader scenarios.

Combined with the above factors, the crypto market's growth expectations for this public chain are rapidly recovering, and NEAR token's upside expectations are rising accordingly.

VVV: Current Price Approximately $27.5

As an AI privacy infrastructure project in the Base ecosystem, Venice AI is a rare crypto project that steadily focuses on building. Its VVV token's primary use cases include network staking, governance, and payment for privacy computing resources. The project focuses on data privacy and model invocation scenarios in the AI era, tapping into the hottest AI+Crypto sector.

As the first altcoin Bankless co-founder David Hoffman bought after liquidating ETH, VVV's AI narrative and privacy computing concept have high recognition in the current market environment. The rising valuations of AI giants like Anthropic and OpenAI have also, to some extent, driven VVV's application scenarios and market expectations.

Final Thoughts

Bankless founder calling altcoin season, BTC returning above $80,000, and the SEC's innovation exemption taking effect — these three signals combined are indeed making altcoin season sentiment in the crypto market increasingly palpable. Data analysis platform glassnode also recently posted that current altcoin leverage levels remain below risk thresholds. When the gap between altcoin open interest share and Bitcoin's narrows to within a few percentage points, the market is typically in an overheated state; this condition has not yet appeared.

From this perspective, the arrival of altcoin season is still worth anticipating. As a watchlist, the above 8热门 tokens cover multiple sectors including on-chain Perp DEX, DEX, privacy coins, lending, privacy+AI public chains, AI infrastructure, and Meme coin launchpads. Their narratives and risk profiles vary, but all have certain potential buying support long-term.

Of course, even if altcoin season arrives as expected, stories of overnight fortunes and wipeouts are playing out every moment in the market. Picking the right target is only the first step — position management and risk control are far more important than coin selection itself.