Why Grayscale Says ETH, SOL And BNB Are Not A Consensus Trade

Crypto-native traders are chasing Zcash and Hyperliquid. Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl, says the bigger opportunity may be in the large smart contract networks those traders are overlooking. Pandl said Ethereum, Solana and BNB Chain “are not a consensus trade” among crypto natives right now. His advice to investors was “don’t sleep on the classics.”

Why Ethereum, Solana And BNB Chain Are Pandl’s Top Picks

Pandl’s case rests on where traditional finance is heading. He expects trillions of dollars in assets to move on-chain and said almost all of that activity will need a smart contract platform, including:

• Tokenized real-world assets
• Stablecoins
• Tokenized bank deposits

Pandl said many crypto-native investors are buying privacy tokens and revenue-generating projects while ignoring the core infrastructure. He described the three networks as having “an absolute key role to play in a crypto portfolio.”

Zcash: Privacy Moves Into The Mainstream

Pandl said he still has a positive view of Zcash, which Grayscale offers investment products for. He argued that crypto has spent years exporting innovations such as stablecoins and perpetual futures to Wall Street. Financial privacy, he said, is something crypto now needs to import from traditional finance, where people expect their salaries, debts and tax payments to stay confidential.

He expects Zcash to keep gaining market share among privacy-focused currencies. He also expects privacy tools to spread to smart contract platforms, stablecoins and perpetual futures markets, and called privacy “a huge part of the next cycle.”

Hyperliquid And The Spread Of Perpetual Futures

Pandl said perpetual futures will become a standard instrument for institutional and retail traders. He pointed to Grayscale’s own Hyperliquid ETF for US investors as a sign of demand. For firms like Grayscale, he said, the open questions are regulatory: whether they can use these platforms to hedge their balance sheets or run carry trades. He credited the CFTC with making progress on those rules.

Grayscale Thinks Bitcoin’s Bottom Is In

Pandl’s broader view of the market is constructive. Grayscale’s estimate is that Bitcoin bottomed near $58,000 at the end of June. He said prices have recovered even though recent news has been mixed:

• The Federal Reserve raised rates.
• Long-term bond yields climbed.
• The CLARITY Act failed to pass.

He took that resilience as a sign that crypto was oversold over the summer. He said institutional clients buying Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs still see them as long-term portfolio diversifiers.

Pandl also linked part of the summer sell-off to pressure on Stretch (STRC), the preferred product issued by Strategy. That pressure peaked around Bitcoin’s late-June low. As STRC has moved back toward its $100 target price, he said, concern about tail risks has eased.

What The Fed Means For Altcoins

Pandl does not expect another Fed rate hike this month. He said hiking just before the election would be “a bit bold,” though one more increase in December is possible. Even so, he said Bitcoin can absorb one to three small hikes, since nothing like the 500 basis points of tightening in 2022 and 2023 is expected. He blamed higher interest rates on heavy borrowing by both the government and private companies funding the AI buildout.

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