Although the collapse of Terra (LUNA) burst the cryptocurrency bubble in May 2022, the FTX exchange disaster was not entirely resolved by the end of the year. Since then, the buzz around artificial intelligence has replaced the blockchain narrative. Moreover, during the Biden administration, the cryptocurrency sector entered a state of vulnerability due to ongoing harassment and the withdrawal of banking services.

This was at a time when digital assets needed support, development, and recovery from a series of excessive collapses in 2022. Fortunately, the pro-crypto Trump administration is now offering a true recovery path—towards blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi). This is already evident through rising capital across decentralized applications (dApps).

The total value locked (TVL) in the decentralized finance sector reached $156 billion, representing a return to the first half of 2022. Similarly, Ethereum's (ETH) price significantly outperformed Bitcoin's (BTC) price over the past month, at +53% versus -1%, respectively. This is a clear signal of increasing activity in alternative coins - but which core layer one chains should cryptocurrency enthusiasts consider for long-term investment?

Ethereum (ETH)

As the second-largest blockchain network and a leader in decentralized finance (DeFi), Ethereum is an intuitive choice. However, it shouldn't be overlooked for this reason alone, albeit with some caveats. There are two main aspects of Ethereum that attract it as the primary platform for the decentralized finance narrative.

Ethereum has a leadership advantage, generating the highest developer activity, momentum in the ecosystem, and expansion across layer two networks such as Base, Polygon, Unichain, Optimism, Arbitrum, and others.

After the introduction of the token burn mechanism with EIP 1559, Ethereum's inflation rate became equivalent to Bitcoin's rate (after the fourth halving) at around 0.75%. While Bitcoin's inflation rate will continue to decline with more successive halvings, Ethereum can be considered a stable currency compared to the U.S. dollar with a targeted inflation rate of 2%.

In other words, despite the flexibility of token supply—resulting from storage—compared to Bitcoin's fixed supply, it automatically adapts. As activity in decentralized applications (dApps) on the main network increases, more Ethereum is consumed. After the Pectra upgrade, which increased the efficiency of layer two (L2) networks using Blob Space, the depletion rate doubled.

Alongside account abstraction and increased Ethereum expansion through sharding, Ethereum is preparing itself for the future to handle decentralized finance (DeFi) traffic while keeping transaction fees low. This is in turn linked to the ongoing push for stablecoins with the GENIUS Act.

Ethereum enjoys the most diverse stablecoin systems, holding $138.6 billion in stablecoins. This represents half of the total market value of stablecoins, which is $272.6 billion, according to DeFiLlama. As the bridge currency that gives a symbolic nod to the U.S. dollar, stablecoins represent the first interaction for most people, leading to a wider spread of decentralized finance.

Moreover, when Circle announced the launch of its ARC blockchain for stablecoin traffic, it is noteworthy that it is an EVM-compatible L1 network.

On the surface, this may seem negative for Ethereum, as stablecoin transactions could shift away from it. In fact, this is positive as it indicates Ethereum's integration into liquidity allocated to enterprises through cross-chains and the L2 Ethereum ecosystem.

All of these factors now contribute to the accumulation of Ether through treasury bonds. According to the strategic Ether reserve tracker, 3.57 million Ether has accumulated, valued at approximately $16.58 billion. In fact, Ether bonds are likely to have the same effect on Ether's price as exchange-traded Bitcoin funds had on Bitcoin's price.

But does this mean that investors should invest fully in Ether? For current Ether holders, they should consider taking profits in the coming months. Historically, when Ethereum's market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio is above 3.0, it indicates a peak before a sell-off wave.

Following a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September, the MVRV ratio for Ethereum is expected to begin rising to this level. After the market correction, this is the right time for new investors to invest in Ethereum. According to recent forecasts from FundStrat, Ethereum's price is likely to reach $10,000 by the end of the year.

Avalanche (AVAX)

Since its launch in 2020, this L1 network has attracted attention with its innovative approach to blockchain architecture design. Avalanche distributes the workload across the X-Chain for asset exchanges, the C-Chain for executing EVM-compatible smart contracts, and the P-Chain for managing subnets, validators, and collection.

This design enables easy exporting of decentralized Ethereum applications, as well as dedicated subnets. If an institution values financial privacy, it can set unique governance and compliance rules for its subnet. This opens the door to a wide range of use cases in banking, healthcare, supply chains, and private funds.

For example, FIFA chose the Avalanche network in May to launch its non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Recently, the Avalanche Foundation launched a $50 million accelerator program to fund blockchain gaming.

In terms of token economics, 90% of the AVAX token supply has been released from a total of 458.1 million, from an initial mining of 360 million AVAX tokens. In the second quarter of 2025, the annual inflation rate remained at 3.8%, following a dynamic schedule driven by the amount of AVAX tokens deposited and the deposit duration.

Although this makes AVAX inflationary compared to Ethereum or Bitcoin, the AVAX token still has a fixed maximum of 720 million.

The price of the AVAX token is likely to rise with the launch of more services, including but not limited to: Euler Finance lending service, Nexpace (MapleStory N), VanEck's VBILL treasury fund, commodity trading from Watr, and tokenized securities from Dinari.

This increased activity led to a 210% increase in the average number of active addresses daily on a quarterly basis, according to Messari data. Over the past month, the value of AVAX increased by 18%, and its current price is $25 per token. The potential for significant gains exists, as AVAX reached several peaks at $50 during 2024. Reminder: this was during the Biden administration, which was hostile to cryptocurrencies.

Cardano (ADA)

By taking an academic approach to blockchain technology development, Cardano is closely associated with Ethereum assets, having been founded by Charles Hoskinson due to differences in how Ethereum is structured organizationally. Over the years, Cardano has gained a poor reputation as a 'lagging' chain, with Solana (SOL) emerging as a competitor to Ethereum.

However, Cardano's roadmap is progressing, and its ecosystem is evolving slowly. In early 2024, Cardano acquired its own USDM stablecoin, issued by the fully compliant Moneta, having even met the strict European MiCA standard. Similarly, the Norwegian Blockchain Exchange (NBX) has joined USDM.

In the expansion field, Cardano has developed the Hydra Layer-2 expansion for off-chain transactions and launched Mithril for lightweight contract synchronization. By the end of the year, Ouroboros Peras is set to significantly reduce transaction settlement times. In collaboration with Ouroboros Leios, Cardano is likely to achieve performance on par with Solana in transaction processing.

Zero-knowledge (ZK) smart contracts are also set to launch on the main network in late 2025, adding privacy, scalability, and interoperability to the Cardano platform. In addition to the privacy-focused Midnight project, Cardano is surrounded by positive discussions.

From a sound financial perspective, it indicates that Cardano's inflation rate is equivalent to Ethereum's rate. In the first quarter, it was 0.7% annually, while it was trending downwards due to the interaction between expansion periods at 0.3% over 5 days, the maximum of 45 billion ADA, transaction fees, and staking participation.

As of today, the price of ADA has risen by 2.5%, still below the dollar price per token. In September 2021, ADA reached its all-time high of $3.10. This makes it one of the cheapest blockchain investments. Because Cardano has been rejected many times, its chances of success will increase if its plan goes as scheduled. In the stock market, investing in growth follows a similar principle of patience and compound returns.