Forget Bitcoin and Ethereum. These altcoins could deliver outsized gains to crypto investors in 2026. Three cryptocurrencies I have my eye on in 2026 are XRP, Solana, and Chainlink, each with the potential to outperform BTC and ETH this year.
XRP is an obvious pick. It has surged in rallies in the recent past, including an epic rally from November 2024 to January 2025 that saw XRP explode in price from $0.50 to $3.40. Ripple sealed the deal on $2.5 billion in new blockchain acquisitions last year, and in November lined up $500 million in new financing at a lofty $40 billion valuation. If that capital is deployed to build an end-to-end financial infrastructure with XRP at the core, XRP could skyrocket in value.
Solana, launched in 2020, has long been touted as a potential Ethereum killer. Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood highlighted its disruptive potential in 2023 due to higher speeds, lower costs, and greater throughput. The Solana ecosystem generated $2.85 billion in revenue in the 12 months ending September 2025, with DeFi activity rivaling Ethereum in several metrics. Chainlink sits at the forefront of the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization trend and has pursued AI pivots, with multitrillion-dollar opportunities from both; it is trading around $12 after having reached $25 in August 2025 and December 2024, underscoring a meaningful risk-reward dynamic given these assets remain well below their all-time highs.
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