The Evolution of Cryptocurrency: What’s Next After Bitcoin?

Cryptocurrency means a lot of things to a lot of people. Some think it’s the future of money; others think it’s a pump-and-dump scheme. Somewhere between these two extremes lies the truth, but when it comes to Bitcoin itself, the future is already here. Just look at the financial tickers at CNN and elsewhere if you’re not convinced.

Too many other things happened in 2024 to call it the Year of Bitcoin, but that’s when the world’s first viable decentralized cryptocurrency went mainstream – according to The Wall Street Journal, which credited the rise of Bitcoin ETFs and Donald Trump’s pivot towards digital assets. Will Ethereum and Solana follow in Bitcoin’s giant steps? Are other coins we don’t even know about yet going to take over? Let’s investigate.

Is Ethereum Next?

You could argue that Ethereum is already here too. Bitcoin (BTC) may be miles ahead of the pack at press time with a US$1.73-trillion market cap, roughly 7.5 times that of Ethereum (ETH) in second place, but in a way, we’re comparing apples and oranges here.

That’s because Ethereum does different things than Bitcoin. This blockchain was designed to support decentralized applications that use smart contracts to fulfill their missions, allowing users to engage in decentralized finance (DeFi). That means buying, selling and staking financial assets without the intervention of third parties like banks and brokers.

Ethereum also switched their consensus mechanism (the computational steps that verify transactions on the blockchain) in 2022 from “proof of work” to “proof of stake,” reducing the amount of energy consumed by upwards of 99%. This isn’t enough by itself for Ethereum to supplant Bitcoin – again, these are two different coins with different use cases – but that sustainability should keep Ethereum viable in the crypto markets for some time.

Is Solana Next?

The future does indeed look bright for Solana (SOL). It’s No. 6 on the CoinMarketCap charts at just over $67.2 billion, but Solana has stolen some of Ethereum’s thunder as a proof-of-stake alternative to Bitcoin, with its own emphasis on smart contracts and decentralized apps.

There’s some concern at the moment over both these DeFi tokens. Like pretty much every other digital coin, ETH and SOL have taken a hit in recent weeks; Solana appears to be bouncing back more quickly, thanks in large part to investments in decentralized AI by groups like Grayscale.

Being the newer kid on the block might also have something to do with it. Ethereum was launched in 2015, then Solana followed in 2020, giving it the chance to learn from its predecessor’s strengths and weaknesses. By using both a proof of stake and “proof of history” consensus mechanism, Solana can handle over 2,600 transactions per second, compared to just 15 or so for Ethereum. This means smoother DeFi operations and lower transaction costs.

Is Something Else Next?

Maybe. While Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana battle it out in the crypto headlines, other digital coins are entering the fray. Here are the six new tokens that Grayscale added to their Watch List for 2025:

• Hyperliquid (HYPE)
• Ethena (ENA)
• Virtuals (VIRTUAL)
• Grass (GRASS)
• Jupiter (JUP)
• Jito (JTO)

Things get a bit confusing at this point. Jupiter and Jito are DeFi apps that run on the Solana blockchain, while Hyperliquid is its own Layer-1 network, meaning it exists in the physical realm with computers and devices and such. It’s all too easy to get lost in these weeds when you’re trying to map out the future of cryptocurrency, especially on the DeFi side.

Which is why we’re going to wrap things up here by reminding you that investing in crypto is not the same as using crypto. We may indeed see Solana take over for Ethereum at No. 2 in market cap sometime in 2025; for now, investing in ETH offers more protection for your digital asset portfolio, and BTC far more protection than that. But it appears many DeFi developers have already made the switch to Solana. Maybe those tokens are where the proverbial gold is at.