Bitcoin Started the Move - These Altcoins Could Deliver the REAL Returns | Ran Neuner

Ran Neuner argues that blockchain utility is expanding from payments into the on-chain representation of real-world assets, bonds, commodities, stocks, currencies, and stablecoins, with holder and transaction growth supporting that view. He also expects AI agents to create demand for trustless, immediate transactions, potentially producing an agent-driven economy 100 to 1,000 times larger than today's economy.

Neuner's framework for evaluating blockchain applications emphasizes user growth, network effects, sustainable revenue, and a mechanism for returning revenue to token holders. He applies that framework favorably to Hyperliquid, citing roughly $4 million to $5 million in daily fees and substantial buybacks and burns, while Athena's fee-switch announcement—which he says was followed by an approximate doubling in its token—illustrates how revenue sharing can change demand.

Ran Neuner believes the Layer 1 race has effectively been won by Solana and Ethereum and is skeptical of weaker alternatives such as Sui, which he says has gone nearly two cycles without a killer application. He similarly warns that familiar legacy protocols such as Cardano, Hashgraph, and IOTA may attract returning investors despite lacking revenue and revenue-sharing mechanisms.

Neuner expects regulatory and market-structure differences to shape the application landscape: he favors Lighter as a second perpetual-trading bet because Hyperliquid could face U.S. regulatory headwinds, and he sees Curve benefiting from many competing stablecoins because it enables low-slippage swaps among assets such as USDT, USDC, USD, USDP, and USDY. He also argues that liquid crypto assets offer more flexibility than venture investments subject to two- to three-year vesting and six- to seven-year seed-investment lockups.

Ran Neuner estimates that the Clarity Act has only a 1% to 5% chance of passing because he considers it politically unpalatable, while saying its failure is already priced in and the SEC and CFTC are advancing crypto rules independently. He nevertheless expects the current cycle to be led primarily by altcoins because Bitcoin is already regulated and the legislation is more relevant to altcoin markets.