Ethereum Up 13% as Crypto Prices Explode: Altcoin Season Incoming?

Is altcoin season here? Bitcoin has gained 5% today, but altcoins are thriving, and Ethereum is leading the way with a 13% uptick.

The move has catapulted $ETH to $1,790, its highest price since 6 April.

Countless other large-cap altcoins have pulled stunning gains today. DeepBook Protocol is up 121%, ImmutableX is up 33%, and Bonk is up 28%.

It looks as though altcoin season has arrived – so what cryptos should you consider adding to your portfolio? Here are our top three picks:

Solaxy

While Ethereum has led the rally today, it has lost market share against Solana in recent months. This is not just in terms of price action but also users.

Solana has the most users of any blockchain, with over 80 million people interacting with the network in the last month. It has also seen increased institutional interest with Galaxy Digital swapping $105 million worth of $ETH for $SOL this week.

But some investors aren’t buying $SOL, they’re buying Solaxy, the world’s first Solana layer 2 blockchain.

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Solaxy cuts costs and improves speed compared to Solana. But at its core, its goal is to tackle Solana’s congestion issue.

It will use off-chain computation to handle some of Solana’s workload and process transactions in bundles to increase scalability.

Solaxy will be a massive boost for the Solana ecosystem. And right now, it’s undergoing a presale that has raised over $31 million.

With a use case set to revolutionise Solana and the token currently in its early stages, it appears that $SOLX has massive room for growth.

Dogecoin

As altcoin season unfolds, investors will increasingly gain confidence and thus dial up their risk exposure. There are three main ways to do this: buy more tokens, use leverage, or buy riskier assets.

And when it comes to everyday crypto traders, many choose the third option by purchasing meme coins.

While meme coins are riskier, thus presenting higher volatility and upside potential, they’re also easy to understand and less serious than most other crypto asset classes – this makes them a fan favorite. And within the meme coin space, Dogecoin is the go-to.

It’s the oldest and most established meme coin, and it also has the most notoriety among everyday people thanks to its support from Elon Musk and subsequent coverage on mainstream media platforms.

Dogecoin has gained 14% today, outpacing many other cryptocurrencies. This is a sign that it could continue to perform well in the months ahead.

Ethena

Ethena is a governance and staking token that powers the Ethena ecosystem, which is built around a yield-bearing stablecoin, USDe.

USDe provides a yield based on delta-neutral strategies, using a mix of tactics from hybrid and digital asset markets to produce profits.

Users can also earn more yield by staking the $ENA token.

While users must consider the additional risk that a yield-bearing stablecoin imposes, such as smart contract risk, Ethena continues expand its market share. The USDe market cap is currently at $4.9 billion, which is over 2x higher than one year ago.

Ethena is also an Ethereum-based project, so a bullish Ethereum performance in will benefit the $ENA price, but likely with more volatility. This is evident today with $ENA gaining 19% as $ETH rises by 13%.