Altcoins & The Long Slow Fade

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People keep asking about Bitcoin and Ethereum. Fine. They’re the big dogs. Seventy percent of the whole crypto circus, they own. But there are, oh, hundreds of others. Little hopefuls. Each one a tiny prayer flung at the uncaring universe. They might, just might, do better. It’s a long shot, naturally. Most things are. So it goes.

I’ve been looking at three: XRP, Solana, and Chainlink. They’ve got a chance. A sliver, really. But a chance nonetheless. To outperform the giants. To make someone, somewhere, a little less miserable. That’s the best we can hope for, isn’t it?

XRP

XRP. It had a run, didn’t it? Back in ’24 and ’25. A glorious, improbable spike. From fifty cents to three forty. Five hundred eighty percent. Like a dandelion pushing through concrete. Then it settled back down, of course. Everything does.

The SEC case is over now. That’s something. Ripple spent years fighting it. Now they’re buying things. Two and a half billion worth of blockchain companies. They’ve got half a billion more coming in. They’re building an infrastructure. A financial plumbing system. With XRP at the center. If it works, XRP will go up. Probably. It’s just money, after all. And money likes to move.

Solana

They call Solana an “Ethereum killer.” As if blockchains have feelings. Cathie Wood pointed at it. Said it was faster, cheaper. More efficient. Like a slightly better mousetrap. It’s been generating revenue, too. Two point eight five billion in the last year. That’s a lot of zeroes.

Solana is narrowing the gap with Ethereum. It might, in five years, surpass it. It’s possible. The world is full of surprises. Mostly unpleasant, if you look closely. More trading happens on Solana’s exchanges now than Ethereum’s. A small victory, perhaps. But a victory nonetheless. It traded at two ninety four recently. Doubling that isn’t an impossible dream.

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Chainlink

Chainlink had its moment. Back in twenty-twenty-one. From two dollars to fifty-two. A beautiful, unsustainable arc. It’s been drifting down ever since. Seventy-seven percent below its peak. Like a forgotten balloon.

But they’re working on real-world assets. Tokenizing things. And artificial intelligence. Big markets. Trillions of dollars. If Chainlink gets a tiny piece, it could do well. I’m not expecting another twenty-five-bagger. That would be greedy. But doubling from twelve dollars? Reasonable. It hit twenty-five last year. A flicker of hope in the darkness. So it goes.

Risk and Reward

It’s simple, really. More risk, more reward. Less risk, less reward. These altcoins are riskier than Bitcoin or Ethereum. They’re all trading below their highs. A warning sign, maybe.

I’m optimistic. Or foolish. Probably both. They seem undervalued. And if Bitcoin just sits there, these might have a chance. A small chance. But enough to take a flier. There’s always potential upside. Even in a world determined to disappoint.

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2026-01-27 05:14