For a variety of reasons I had to take a day off from posting yesterday, but wanted to pick up again today. My intention today is to be short and sweet and to the point.
Moving quickly on, I did something a bit different today. I thought I would ask the internet which coins to watch out for in 2026 and I was somewhat surprised by the answer. I will openly admit that this article, while my own, has been shaped to some extent by Bing Co-Pilot, not something that I am particularly a fan of and something I might post on in the coming days.
Co-Pilot heavily supports the potential for growth in 2026 of Solana (SOL), XRP, Cardano (ADA), VeChain (VET), and emerging tokens like BONK and Little Pepe (LILPEPE). It's assertion is based on "current market trends and institutional interest".
Starting with Solana, a high-speed, low-cost blockchain ideal for DeFi and NFTs there has been an uptake in institutional interest mainly because it's seen as a scalable Ethereum alternative. This seems to make sense as Solana has generally moved positively since its launch and its ecosystem is thriving. The surprise for me was the selection of XRP (Ripple). I used to hodl a lot of it, but when Coinbase delisted it in the period from late December 2020 to January 2021 my worry was that it was too embroiled in regulatory issues to ever make a comeback.
What has helped is that, after such problems, XRP's legal clarity and ETF success (REX-Osprey XRP ETF > $100M AUM) have sent clear signals which has resulted in a growth of trust. It’s positioned for cross-border payments and banking integration.
Cardano (ADA), is a coin that has always been at the back of my consciousness but has never really caught my eye but with its focus on academic rigor and sustainability, built on a smart contract ecosystem it's not likely to stay under the radar as is it gains traction in developing markets.
Co-Pilot has also shown interest in VeChain (VET) and TRON (TRX).
