1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Right Now (Hint: It’s Not Bitcoin)

It’s less than a month into the new year, and already a number of major altcoins are starting to pull away from the market benchmark Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). While Bitcoin is up 15% for the year, other cryptocurrencies are up 30%, 40% and even 50%.

The only cryptocurrency on my radar right now is solana (CRYPT: SUN)which increased more than 50% between January 12 and 17. There are several catalysts for solana in 2025, and all of them are setting this cryptocurrency up for rapid growth in the coming years.

First, and most importantly, Solana has become the main challenger to blockchain Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). Solana is a smart contract blockchain platform, and that means it can do anything Ethereum can do. It also means that Solana has a thriving blockchain ecosystem in areas ranging from decentralized finance (DeFi) to blockchain gaming.

But here’s the thing: Solana is faster, cheaper and easier to use than Ethereum. This is something Cathie Wood of Ark Invest pointed out nearly a year ago, when she emphasized Solana’s potential to take market share away from Ethereum. Faster speeds and lower costs are key to winning new customers and attracting new users. For good reason, Solana has been labeled as a potential Ethereum killer.

There’s another big factor in Solana’s favor: the relatively high probability that Solana’s new spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will arrive by 2025. Consider the arrival of locate Bitcoin ETFs last January, and how they resulted in tens of billions of dollars flowing into Bitcoin, driving its price higher. In total, more than $100 billion has now flowed into local Bitcoin ETFs.

That doesn’t mean $100 billion will flow to Solana. After all, Bitcoin is on a completely different scale and size to Solana. But JP Morgan recently suggested that as much as $6 billion of new investor money could flow into Solana’s ETFs.

Solana also has something that no other top layer 1 blockchain network has: a mobile crypto strategy. Solana launched the crypto-enabled Saga smartphone in 2023 and is following it up with a lower-cost Seeker smartphone in 2025. Some people want to take their crypto wherever they go, and the easiest way to – it is with a mobile phone. device optimized for cryptography.

Investor with yellow smartphone. — Image source: Getty Images.

According to Solana’s founders, a crypto-optimized mobile device is the easiest way to onboard new users. Once you purchase a new Solana mobile device, you are more likely to use the Solana blockchain and interact with all the different applications in the Solana blockchain ecosystem.

Solana has emerged as the blockchain of choice for launching, buying and selling meme coins. Thousands of new meme coins are being created every day, and Solana is arguably the easiest, lowest cost, and most efficient blockchain platform to do so.

Just think of the new meme currency released by President Donald Trump the weekend before his inauguration. The meme coin was launched on the Solana blockchain and immediately skyrocketed to a $10 billion valuation. On the news of the meme coin launch, the price of Solana increased by 12%.

While I don’t support the idea of buying meme coins as part of a long-term investment strategy, I think it can be argued that buying Solana is a smart way to profit from the coin’s trend meme. This is because you need to buy Solana tokens to buy Solana meme coins (just like you need dollars to buy dollar-denominated assets).

Therefore, any increase in the trading of meme coins increases the overall demand for Solana. That’s why Solana’s price went up after the Trump meme coin was launched. Total trading volume on the Solana blockchain more than doubled, while overall transaction activity exploded.

There are several different ways to think about how much higher Solana could go in the long run. If you accept the idea that Solana is the next Ethereum, one methodology is to simply compare the market caps of Solana and Ethereum, and then make some basic assumptions about how quickly Solana could close the gap.

Ethereum currently has a market cap of $400 billion, while Solana has a market cap of $125 billion. So if Solana finally closes the gap with Ethereum, we’re talking about a potential $275 billion market cap gain. Based on Solana’s current price of approximately $250, this would suggest a price target of $550.

Just be aware: it takes a lot for Solana to reach this goal. It needs to continue to take market share in Ethereum. Needs regulatory approval for new spot ETFs. And you must continue to execute your mobile crypto strategy. That’s a lot to ask. But if all this happens, then Solana, and not Bitcoin, is the cryptocurrency you need to buy right now.

Before you buy shares in Solana, keep this in mind:

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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, JPMorgan Chase and Solana. The Motley Fool has one disclosure policy.

1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Right Now (Hint: It’s Not Bitcoin) was originally published by The Motley Fool

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