What was driving all this on a broad level? The Fed’s expected dovish trajectory, along with their December decision to both hold interest rates steady and signal three potential rate cuts in 2024, breathed life into risk assets. U.S. stocks, for instance, performed well in the wake of the Fed meeting. In the opinion of OANDA’s Craig Erlam, however, the more prominent force elevating token prices was building anticipation of SEC approval for spot bitcoin ETFs.

The interesting thing about many altcoins is the fact that, while they seem to offer little more than a makeover of the well-known dog token theme, they benefit from their family relationship with the other assets on their home blockchains. Ryan Watkins of Syncracy Capital explains how this digital nepotism works: “A blockchain’s base asset rises and creates a wealth effect [and] that wealth is funneled into a handful of assets in the ecosystem”. Indeed, several blockchains have lately acquired their own meme coins. One can’t help but wonder, though, how far mere family ties will get these new tokens in months and years to come. Today we ask: Which are the altcoins that have what it takes to keep thriving into 2024 and beyond?

Solana

The special talents of Solana’s blockchain in facilitating quick, cheap transactions were forgotten after FTX (whose founder was associated with Solana) went belly up late in 2022. The token closed off that year nursing devastating losses of 94%. But 2023 changed all that: As of the third week of December, SOL had recorded a high performance of 800% for the year.

One of the unique factors driving Solana’s success, was called Firedancer. According to Van Eck Associates, this software upgrade is powerful enough to increase Solana’s capacity ten-fold. “We think Solana is undervalued”, suggests Van Eck’s Matthew Siegel, “based on the probability we ascribe to SOL being the first blockchain to host an application with 100 million users”.

Solana has apparently dealt with the technical problems that used to cause outages on the network. February 2023 was the last time such an incident occurred. They have also generated new excitement by setting up an NFT marketplace called Tensor, which has eclipsed other such marketplaces on Solana, most conspicuously Magic Eden. On Tensor, users relate to NFTs, not as collectibles – the way these assets are traditionally treated – but as trading assets, whose price fluctuations can be exploited for the sake of monetary gain.

Bonk

Bonk is the prodigal son of the Solana family. Between mid-November and mid-December 2023, Bonk recorded 1,000% in cryptocurrency trading, clocking 50% in a single day. What are the solid fundamentals and special use cases behind Bonk to warrant this sort of price activity? Well… “It’s the dog coin of Solana and Solana has been the darling of 2023”, explains Zaheer Ebtikar of Split Capital.

When the Binance and Coinbase exchanges recently voiced their support for Bonk, the young token’s network of high-profile associates expanded further. This helped “[create] a compelling narrative around Bonk’s future trajectory”, in the view of Nansen’s Jake Kennis. A compelling narrative is one thing, but intrinsic value is quite another. According to Strahinja Savic of FRNT Financial Inc., “It’s more akin to gambling and some sort of game than it is to investing”.

Helium

Helium’s HNT had a wonderful December but also a wonderful 2023, which brought it a high performance of 500%. Their deft move into the mobile space had a lot to do with it. Nova Labs (formerly known as Helium Inc.) drew attention in early December by offering people all around the U.S. the use of their blockchain technology to make limitless calls and texts at the cost of $20 per month. Pleasing results began to manifest when thousands of new customers knocked at Helium’s door.

The Helium network hosts other tokens too. One of them, for instance, is a stablecoin, and another one is called MOBILE. Customers who give a home to Helium hotspots, which allow the network to function, earn MOBILE whenever customers make use of the network. The price of MOBILE was recorded at 2,000% in the first 18 days of December, which itself acted as a pull factor for new Helium Mobile subscribers.

The Landscape Ahead

The terrain ahead for Solana might be a little rockier than it has been until now. “In the upcoming bull cycle, Solana will encounter stiffer competition than it experienced in the prior cycle”, suggests Messari’s Kunal Goel. Goel is referring to other super-speedy blockchains recently laid out by industry participants. Still, one big thing Solana have going for them as we roll into 2024 is institutional backing. In October, for instance, they received $67 million through ETF flows.

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