Most crypto tokens fail to generate value, and even fewer that actually do capture that value and deliver it to their holders. Hence the all-too-common situation in which a network succeeds in creating a piece of useful financial technology, but its native token keeps falling because nothing in the design ties the network’s utilization to benefits for holders.
There are a few emerging cryptocurrencies that don’t suffer from the same issue: Bittensor (TAO +5.15%), Zcash (ZEC +3.85%), and Hyperliquid (HYPE 1.75%) solve the problem from three different angles, and each is chasing a market that’s either new or newly interesting. Thanks to a combination of favorable tokenomics for holders and blockchains that are already in use for some pretty interesting purposes, these three coins might even appreciate massively in value. For the right kind of investor, they’re worth buying. Let’s take a beat and evaluate each.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bittensor brings a proven supply playbook to a hot use case
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency because its supply policies tend to create scarcity over time, enabling its price to continue rising even when demand is fairly stable. Bittensor copies that innovation, capping its total possible supply at 21 million TAO tokens, and it also halves its new issuance every four years, just like Bitcoin.
Supply aside, the point of the Bittensor network is that it’s an ecosystem of 129 specialized subnets that reward miners for delivering specific decentralized AI or computing-related services, like model inference or compute brokerage. In other words, if you need to rent some computing power to train an AI model, you can do that on the right subnet, provided that you’re able to pay in TAO.
Today’s Change
(5.15%) $9.94
Current Price
$202.87
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$1.9B
Day’s Range
$184.99 – $203.24
52wk Range
$144.32 – $535.12
Volume
173.9M
So there’s more than one mechanism creating scarcity for this coin. If its subnets create services or capabilities that people want, it’ll attract capital to the network, which will keep TAO’s price growing over time. Of course, many subnets compete directly with centralized computing services, which tend to be more efficient, and Bittensor’s entire model is far from having a proven product-market fit, so it’s quite a risky investment.
Zcash adds privacy to a Bitcoin-like supply curve
Zcash, like Bittensor, also shares Bitcoin’s 21 million cap and halving schedule. It adds the ability to perform private transactions, and about 30% of its circulating supply now rests in its shielded (private) pools, where coins tend to be held rather than churned back to the market.
The clearest way to think about what gives a token lasting value is durable scarcity plus a real use case. Zcash has the first by dint of its Bitcoin-inspired supply design, and it’s building the second. In the future, it might also build its own decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem and smart contract support, which could pave the way for an entirely private crypto economy.
Today’s Change
(3.85%) $14.08
Current Price
$379.59
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$6.3B
Day’s Range
$339.84 – $390.61
52wk Range
$34.50 – $734.96
Volume
1B
But it isn’t a new project, as it launched originally in 2016. Zcash is interesting now because investors are increasingly demanding financial privacy in light of government surveillance, not to mention the future possibility of government expropriation of assets amid soaring global wealth inequality.
Nonetheless, one of the big risks here is that privacy coins are facing regulatory pressure, and Zcash is no exception. Regulators tend to dislike financial privacy because it can get in the way of clamping down on illegal activity such as money laundering.
Hyperliquid routes revenue right back into the token
Hyperliquid runs the dominant venue for decentralized perpetual futures trading, which are contracts that let people take leveraged positions on an asset’s price with no expiration date. Around 99% of the platform’s trading fees are used to buy its native Hype token on the open market, much like a stock buyback. Cumulative buybacks crossed $1.5 billion in May 2026.
Today’s Change
(-1.75%) $-1.03
Current Price
$57.94
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$13B
Day’s Range
$55.66 – $60.73
52wk Range
$20.52 – $75.46
Volume
595.6M
Thanks to the success of its perpetual futures markets, it recently overtook Dogecoin to enter the top 10 cryptocurrencies, with a $16 billion market cap as of June 3. Now, to keep the network’s activity growing and its buybacks humming, it’s offering decentralized prediction markets.
The catch is that Hyperliquid has no real moat to defend its business. Therefore, its many competitors present a formidable barrier to Hyperliquid’s continued growth. Plus, it doesn’t yet operate in the U.S. due to its wariness regarding accidentally violating regulations there, so its addressable market isn’t yet as large as it might be.
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