A prominent crypto analyst says the market has entered a distinct altcoin super cycle, backed by a nine-year technical breakout most traders have missed, and he’s naming the specific coins he’s personally holding through it.
Ran Neuer said the current cycle is being driven by altcoin excitement rather than Bitcoin strength, pointing to the ETH/BTC ratio chart as his evidence. He traced the pattern back to Ethereum’s earliest use case, moving digital value through smart contracts without human intervention, which triggered the 2017 ICO boom before entering a prolonged downtrend as the technology proved too slow to deliver on its promises.
“After a 9-year downtrend on the weekly, this is now breaking out,” Neuer said, arguing the move confirms a structural rotation into altcoins rather than a short-lived bounce.
Top Coin #1: Solana
Neuer named Solana as one of two winners of what he calls the finished “L1 war.” He holds it directly, calling it “the second winner” in his broader thesis, and argues Solana has effectively captured crypto-native onboarding as a category.
Top Coin #2: Ethereum
Alongside Solana, Neuer named Ethereum as the other L1 winner, crediting its integration with Base and Robinhood for capturing real-world asset onboarding, a different channel than Solana’s crypto-native user base. Together, he argues, the two networks have absorbed the majority of long-term L1 value, leaving him uninterested in any other Layer 1 token.
“I wouldn’t really invest in any other L1s because I just don’t think there’s any upside in the L1s,” Neuer said.
Top Coin #3: Hyperliquid
Neuer called Hyperliquid the strongest use case currently active in crypto and said he holds it directly, citing its tokenomics and function as an exchange. He confirmed he would buy it even at its current all-time high, arguing the market is mispricing the token by relying on fully diluted valuation (FDV) rather than accounting for staking-driven scarcity.
“Crypto is a function of scarcity times pressure,” Neuer said. “The buying pressure plus the staking pressure plus the actual buying pressure divided by the number of tokens in circulation creates insane pressure on the way up.”
Top Coin #4: Zcash
Neuer’s boldest individual call centers on Zcash, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that recently gained ETF backing. He argued Zcash could become a dominant form of “private money” and laid out a specific scaling scenario tied to Bitcoin’s market cap.
“I think the upside on Zcash from here is 10x, maybe 100x,” Neuer said.
Still Holding Bitcoin, Just Not Betting on It Alone
Neuer said his altcoin conviction doesn’t come at Bitcoin’s expense. He remains bullish on Bitcoin specifically due to ongoing currency debasement concerns, but frames it as one part of a broader portfolio rather than the primary growth trade this cycle.
What Comes Next in Neuer’s Thesis
Beyond his four named holdings, Neuer argues the market’s focus is shifting from blockchain infrastructure competition to application-layer projects that behave like businesses; specifically, assets with genuine user growth, sustainable revenue, and a mechanism for passing that revenue to token holders.