C.R.E.A.M. #42 - Top 20 Altcoins stress test for the upcoming altseason (1/4)

🪙 SPECIAL ISSUE 1/4 🪙 TRX vs. TON vs. SOL - which is the upcoming meme coin champion 🪙 Altseason report 🪙

Dear Lizards,

We're very excited to announce that over the next four weeks, a very special 4-part series will be rolling out. Each issue is going in-depth on the top 20 altcoins by market cap and putting them through grueling stress tests to show how they stack up. We'll dive deep into their charts, fundamentals, and long-term outlook to help you make educated decisions in this rapidly changing market.

Today, a bombshell greets us: the top 3 meme coin chain champions. TRX and TON related meme coins have seen massive pumps, while SOL is still the undefeated champion. But now it is time to see how the coins really stack up against one another. We are going to take a close look at which one offers the most promising trajectory and where we believe the most potential lies.

Let's see who wins this battle of the meme coin related Chains.

Yours,
Stockmoney Lizards

TRON has finally reached the top 10 position in the ranking of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, beating Toncoin after several events that occurred since the arrest of Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram. The price of the TON closely connected with the platform and ecosystem of Telegram plummeted into free fall.

While TON operates independently, the integration of the coin into Telegram for features like revenue sharing and in-app transactions drove its adoption. The recent slide ceded that advantage to Tron, but nonetheless, considering the growing meme coin space. The launch of platforms like SunPump on the Tron network has fanned increased activity, much through new meme coins that have driven up TRX in value. SunPump is the new meme coin platform in town on Tron.

Despite being highly speculative and volatile, meme coins are always a hot favorite amongst traders to reap quick profits from the crypto market. Tron is fast evolving as a breeding ground for meme coins, pipetting even the likes of Solana and Toncoin on its way to the top. Its sudden boost has come from the successful launch of SunPump, which shot network activity right through the roof, bringing with it a flood of new users.

While Solana led the meme coin space with platforms such as Pump.fun, Tron is currently outcompeting it: SunPump alone now generates higher fees, while more than 31,600 new tokens are already launched on the platform. The first memecoin on SunPump, Sundog, managed to reach a market capitalization of over $170 million in less than two days, riding on highly-invested whales.

Meanwhile, Tron recently joined the ranks of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, pushing past Toncoin (TON). This followed the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, which saw the price of TON tumble; the coin is deeply connected to the Telegram ecosystem for revenue sharing and in-app transactions. Taking advantage of that fall, Tron has jumped ahead with growing meme coin activity and is continued to turn heads in the crypto space.

But enough of the pre-talk - let's see which of the three is the most promising in the upcoming Altseason.

Short Summary and Background

Solana is a high-speed blockchain platform that aims to provide a scalable and efficient infrastructure for decentralized applications. It uses a unique combination of proof-of-history and proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms to achieve high throughput and low transaction costs.

Key features of Solana include:

• High-speed transactions: Solana can process thousands of transactions per second, making it one of the fastest blockchains available.
• Low transaction fees: Solana's transaction fees are significantly lower than those of other popular blockchains like Ethereum.
• Scalability: Solana's architecture is designed to handle a large number of users and transactions.
• Security: Solana uses a secure consensus mechanism to ensure the integrity of the network. However, there has been a history of hacks, creating concerns about Solana's security

All these unique features make Solana one of the top players in the meme coin space. Let's get into the details:

Solana's meme coins by market cap

Every day, new meme coins are launched on the Solana chain; most of them are scams and honey pot schemes. However, Solana has brought up some really strong coins that range in the top 100 - like $BONK or $WIF. Other Coins like $BOME and $POPCAT are similarly strong.

These memes continue to be very popular within the community and create a strong adherence of the meme coin community to Solana as the top chain for meme coins.

Total Locked Volume - An underestimated metric

TLV is a measure of the sum of the assets locked into protocols or applications on the blockchain, typically in the native cryptocurrency of that chain, such as ETH on Ethereum and SOL on Solana.

Explanation of Key Points:

• Locked-up Assets: The base crypto assets will be locked up and may not be sold till the time certain requirements are met; examples include staking, lending, and participation in DeFi.
• Protocol-based: TLV is a metric for one protocol-be it a DeFi interface or even a DEX.
• Activity Indicator: High TLV depicts tremendous activity and user confidence in a blockchain or protocol.
• Market Sentiment: TLV changes can further mirror the psyche of the market, such as an increased TLV signaling confidence in bullish investors. Reasons Why TLV is Important:
• Protocol Health: High TLV can depict the security, health, and wellness of a protocol.
• Investment Avenue: High TLV can indicate investment and growth avenues that exist within a protocol.
• Risk Assessment: A dramatic drop in the value of TLV would therefore be symptomatic of security breaches or a loss of user confidence.

Summary: TLV is one of the key metrics in order to evaluate health, activity, and potential of any blockchain protocol. Change of TLV over time may suggest something about market psychology and can assist investors in identifying opportunities or risks.

Solana's TVL is almost $5 Bn, after a surge in the first two quarters of 2024. Note, SOL's TVL is currently ranging at around 50% of it's peak TVL in 2021

The Chart

Solana has made an impressive move up in 2023/2024. It failed to create a new All time high though, and is now (similar to BTC) correcting between $120 and $160.

From a technical analysis point of view, we believe there is more room for a correction - maybe even a correction below $100.

However, Long term, there is a lot of upside. If the Altseason is what we believe it will be like, another 2 - 5x from here are more than realistic.

Momentum

While Tron’s meme tokens, like SUNDOG and SUNCAT, are gaining popularity, critics question whether this growth is organic or bot-driven. Tron’s network remains strong with over $23B in total value locked (TVL), far surpassing Solana's $5.4B. Increased traffic on Tron, particularly from its DeFi ecosystem, has pushed TRX’s price to $0.16. Despite skepticism, Tron's meme token ecosystem is thriving and gaining momentum in the crypto space.

Summary

Solana has unique technological features and is still the big platform for meme coins. Fast transaction speed, adoption and easy-to-use protocol make it attractive for developers.