Will the山寨 season arrive? Bankless is bullish on these 6 tokens
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Will the山寨 season arrive? Bankless is bullish on these 6 tokens
PENGU has risen 220% since going bullish.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Bankless
Translation: Odaily Planet Daily Golem (@web3_golem)
Bitcoin broke through $120,000 on July 14, hitting a new high. Meanwhile, ETH, the so-called "King of Altcoins," surpassed $3,100 today with strong momentum. The general market consensus also believes that the altcoin season will likely begin within the next 1 to 2 months.
So, which altcoins are worth positioning in right now? Bankless' analyst team has been forecasting altcoin price movements based on fundamentals. This article by Odaily Planet Daily compiles Bankless analysts’ recent specific predictions and reasoning for 8 altcoins—6 bullish and 2 bearish—for readers’ reference.
Bullish Tokens
Euler (EUL)
-
Sector: DeFi
-
Reason: Attractive product, TVL growing steadily
-
Forecast period: July 10, 2025 – October 10, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $15.05
-
Price performance since forecast: Down 9.77%
Euler experienced rapid growth in 2025. On an annual cumulative basis, Euler's TVL increased tenfold, surpassing $1 billion last month. At the end of May, Euler launched EulerSwap, a “smarter DEX,” integrating Euler lending vaults with Uniswap V4 via hooks to address inefficiencies such as idle capital, underutilized collateral, and costly rebalancing. Capital-efficient AMM designs integrated with lending markets have become one of the latest trends in DeFi. With EulerSwap’s deployment, Euler now offers strong appeal in this space.
Therefore, the Bankless analyst team is bullish on EUL’s future performance, believing this rapidly growing lending market could perform well in the coming months, provided deposits continue to grow.
However, as a lending market, Euler's product usage heavily depends on demand for native crypto credit. Euler’s high-risk cross-market re-collateralization mechanism may expose depositors and token holders to additional risks during a market-wide crisis.
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)
-
Sector: Metaverse
-
Reason: Upcoming mobile game launch unlocks new token utilities
-
Forecast period: May 8, 2025 – August 8, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.01
-
Price performance since forecast: Up 220%
In April, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz announced an initiative rewarding passionate content creators with $2 for every 1,000 tweets and memes posted about the PENGU token. Additionally, Pudgy Penguins partnered last year with Mythical Games, creator of NFL Rivals, planning to launch its own mobile game in 2025, where PENGU could serve as the in-game transaction currency.
Based on these factors, the Bankless analyst team is bullish on PENGU’s future performance, believing the token has further upside potential as savvy speculators anticipate the upcoming Pudgy Penguin mobile game and the new functionalities it will unlock for PENGU.
However, this dynamic could also lead to a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” scenario, where the eventual game launch and PENGU payment announcement trigger a sell-off as early buyers take profits.
Spark (SPK)
-
Sector: DeFi
-
Reason: Favorable relative valuation, weakening post-airdrop selling pressure
-
Forecast period: June 18, 2025 – September 18, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.05
-
Price performance since forecast: Down 24.47%
SPK has seen significant declines since its airdrop on June 17, losing a quarter of its value within just one day after distribution. While TGE typically causes short-term selling pressure, the pullback may offer an attractive entry price.
SPK has a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $500 million, with active loans nearing $1.7 billion—making it relatively undervalued compared to other competitive lending markets. For example, Morpho has an FDV of $1.3 billion and $2.3 billion in active loans. Additionally, SPK holders can stake their tokens to earn Spark and Symbiotic points, expected to convert into liquid tokens at a future date.
However, due to subsidized points mining, SPK tokens will continue to be issued over the next 10 years. This ongoing future sell-side pressure could suppress SPK’s price.
Nonetheless, the Bankless analyst team still believes SPK may rise going forward, as its favorable relative valuation in the market could drive a rally once immediate post-airdrop selling pressure subsides.
Lido (LDO)
-
Sector: LST
-
Reason: Improving regulatory environment for staking and DeFi
-
Forecast period: June 11, 2025 – September 11, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.98
-
Price performance since forecast: Down 7.52%
On May 29, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance confirmed that certain staking activities—including “custodial arrangements” where third parties hold crypto assets and manage staking operations—may be exempt from registration under the Securities Act. Then, on June 9, during the Crypto Working Group’s “Decentralized Finance Roundtable,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that the commission is considering providing “innovation exemptions” for on-chain products and services to establish rules for blockchain-based financial markets.
Given the shifting regulatory landscape, the Bankless analyst team is bullish on LDO’s future performance, viewing it as a worthwhile Ethereum liquid staking token to hold amid positive sentiment around staking and DeFi regulation.
However, a key risk is that Lido’s market share is declining. Year-to-date, Lido’s share of ETH staked has dropped from 28.2% to 25.29%, a key metric that has been trending downward since early 2024. Moreover, Lido’s total ETH staked has declined 16% since peaking in March 2024.
Aave (AAVE)
-
Sector: DeFi
-
Reason: New highs in both TVL and active loans
-
Forecast period: May 28, 2025 – August 28, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $261.79
-
Price performance since forecast: Up 25.95%
Although Aave’s TVL showed a downward trend in Q1 2025, in April, both its TVL and active loan metrics grew over 50%, reaching new highs of $29.923 billion and $19.8 billion respectively. Meanwhile, Aave’s token buyback program began on April 9 and has since repurchased 61,000 AAVE tokens, spending over $13 million and generating more than $7 million in profit for the DAO.
Therefore, the Bankless analyst team is bullish on AAVE’s future performance, believing that as long as ETH prices continue rising, AAVE—as a leading Ethereum lending market token—will benefit from growing leveraged demand.
However, starting April 30, Aave began accepting Pendle Principal Tokens (PTs) as collateral for Ethena assets. On May 6, Aave expressed intent to provide credit to Uniswap LP positions via its GHO stablecoin. Introducing such specialized token types may bring new risks.
Maple Finance (SYRUP)
-
Sector: DeFi
-
Reason: TVL continues to rise, product yields rank among the highest
-
Forecast period: May 15, 2025 – August 15, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.31
-
Price performance since forecast: Up 48.15%
Maple Finance is one of the best-performing lending markets in the cryptocurrency space in 2025. Year-to-date, its deposits have grown parabolically by 677%, and its over-collateralized product has achieved notable success, ranking among the highest-yielding opportunities on-chain relative to its risk profile.
Since Binance listed SYRUP spot trading on May 6, the token’s price surged significantly, attracting a wave of new buyers. Furthermore, the listing appears to have brought publicity to Maple Finance itself, with deposit volume increasing 37% since the announcement.
Therefore, the Bankless analyst team is bullish on SYRUP’s future performance, believing the token has room to rise as long as Maple Finance maintains its strong growth trajectory and above-average yields.
However, a risk remains: while Maple Finance has shown strong growth prospects in recent months, SYRUP’s valuation remains relatively high compared to major competitors. Aave’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) is 15% of its total value locked (TVL), whereas SYRUP’s FDV/TVL ratio stands notably higher at 34%.
Bearish Tokens
Derive (DRV)
-
Sector: Exchange
-
Reason: Despite Pro upgrade, platform usage metrics remain poor
-
Forecast period: July 10, 2025 – October 10, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.05
-
Price performance since forecast: Down 1.76%
DRV’s token price more than doubled following the release of its “Pro” version. Derive’s “Pro” edition offers traders a customizable interface and reduces margin requirements by up to 60% for common multi-leg options strategies with defined risk, such as spreads and butterflies. Lower margin requirements can increase the number of options users can purchase and potentially boost the platform’s fee generation.
While DRV’s token price has continued to rise over the past month, key usage statistics have failed to support this rally. Since February, DRV’s total value locked has hovered around $100 million, while trading volume and platform fees have significantly declined during the same period.
Therefore, the Bankless analyst team is bearish on DRV’s future performance, arguing that despite improved capital efficiency from the Pro upgrade, Derive’s persistently weak performance across multiple key metrics fails to justify its price increase.
Movement (MOVE)
-
Sector: L2
-
Reason: Riddled with scandals, lost investor trust
-
Forecast period: May 1, 2025 – August 1, 2025
-
Price at forecast: $0.20
-
Price performance since forecast: Down 24.38%
At the beginning of 2025, the Bankless analyst team was already bearish on MOVE, citing concerns that a $100 million Series B funding round valued Movement Network at $3 billion—two-thirds lower than MOVE’s then fully diluted valuation of $9 billion.
Previous reporting by CoinDesk revealed details of how insiders within the Movement Foundation used market makers to dump MOVE tokens at artificially inflated prices post-token generation, exposing a network involving co-founders and conflicted legal advisors. The embattled founder has since taken indefinite leave after being internally investigated over “abnormal behavior” by market makers.
Additionally, the highly anticipated early user “Movedrop” has been repeatedly delayed, further dampening ecosystem sentiment.
Therefore, the Bankless analyst team remains bearish on MOVE, believing existing token holders may abandon this scandal-plagued network in favor of alternative options.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
Bankless
