Jason Redekopp | High-Conviction Crypto Asset Research
High-Conviction Asset Research — August 25, 2026

Eight assets. One bull-run ranking.

I’m ranking these assets on the combination I care about most: real use case, economic activity, token value capture, valuation, narrative strength and the possibility of asymmetric upside if the market enters a true risk-on phase.

VVV · LIT · SOL · PUMP · UNI · TAO · SUI · ZEC Bear / Base / Bull / Uber Bull Uber Bull = minimum 15× scenario
How I’m looking at it

Not just “which coin can pump?”

The ranking is intentionally broader than market cap or narrative alone. I want assets that have a reason to exist, a path to capture value and enough upside left that a strong bull market could matter.

The scenario prices below are illustrative multiples from the reference prices used on this page. They are not forecasts or promises.

Use caseIs there a real product, network or economic function?
Revenue / activityAre users actually paying, trading, staking or consuming the product?
Token value captureDoes activity create demand, burns, buybacks, staking value or network utility?
Valuation + asymmetryHow much upside may remain if adoption and sentiment accelerate?
My current ranking

Best combination of quality and upside.

No special treatment for any single asset here. This is simply the order I’d rank the eight based on the framework above.

9.4/10
1

VVV

Venice Token

AI product, actual usage, token-linked economics and a relatively small valuation create one of the strongest asymmetric setups in the group.

9.2/10
2

LIT

Lighter

Perpetual trading infrastructure with meaningful activity and a buyback/burn story. High upside, but low-float and unlock risk matter.

9.1/10
3

SOL

Solana

The most established network in this basket: fees, staking, ecosystem depth and real demand. Bigger valuation means a lower expected multiple.

9.0/10
4

PUMP

Pump.fun

A direct lever on speculative crypto activity. Strong revenue economics and massive retail beta, offset by regulatory and cycle risk.

8.8/10
5

UNI

Uniswap

Core DeFi infrastructure with deep usage and improved token economics. Less flashy, but a very credible rerating candidate.

8.6/10
6

TAO

Bittensor

One of the strongest decentralized-AI narratives. The upside is enormous if subnet economics mature, but external revenue remains less clean.

7.8/10
7

SUI

Sui

Fast L1 with real ecosystem growth and strong beta. The challenge is proving differentiated value capture versus larger competing chains.

7.1/10
8

ZEC

Zcash

A compelling privacy-money thesis, but its valuation has already rerated sharply. The use case is real; the asymmetry is simply less obvious.

Scenario framework

Bear, base, bull and uber bull.

The Uber Bull column is deliberately aggressive: every asset is modeled at a minimum 15× from the reference price. Think full retail return, narrative mania, liquidity expansion and major multiple expansion — not a normal market.

RankAssetReference Price*BearBaseBullUber Bull
1VVVVenice Token$18.030.55× · $9.923× · $54.098× · $144.2425× · $450.75
2LITLighter$3.340.50× · $1.673× · $10.028× · $26.7220× · $66.80
3SOLSolana$97.730.65× · $63.522.2× · $215.015× · $488.6515× · $1,465.95
4PUMPPump.fun$0.0045230.45× · $0.0020353× · $0.0135698× · $0.03618420× · $0.09046
5UNIUniswap$4.320.60× · $2.592.8× · $12.106× · $25.9215× · $64.80
6TAOBittensor$234.980.55× · $129.243× · $704.947× · $1,644.8618× · $4,229.64
7SUISui$0.78070.50× · $0.39042.5× · $1.956× · $4.6815× · $11.71
8ZECZcash$797.300.50× · $398.652× · $1,594.605× · $3,986.5015× · $11,959.50

*Reference prices are a fixed August 25, 2026 snapshot used for scenario math, not live quotes. SOL was approximately $97.73 on CoinMarketCap when this page was prepared; the other reference prices follow the watchlist snapshot used in this research. Multiples are hypothetical scenario tools.

Asset-by-asset research

Why each one is on the list.

Equal format, equal treatment: use case, economics, what can drive the upside and the biggest thing that can break the thesis.

01VVV

Venice Token

Thesis: Venice gives VVV exposure to private AI inference and a consumer-facing AI product rather than a purely speculative AI narrative. The token has staking utility and revenue-linked buy/burn mechanics, which makes the economic loop unusually easy to understand for a sub-$1B-style setup.

What could drive it: accelerating Venice usage, AI-credit demand, more token burns and a broad crypto-AI rerating.

Main risk: the current business is still small in absolute revenue terms and must keep growing fast enough to justify a much larger valuation.

AIRevenue-linkedBuy & burnAsymmetric

Scenario profile

Base
Bull
Uber Bull25×
Score9.4 / 10
Official site
02LIT

Lighter

Thesis: Lighter is a perpetual DEX with genuine trading activity, protocol-fee economics and a buyback/burn narrative. Its relatively small circulating valuation makes the upside compelling if decentralized derivatives keep taking market share.

What could drive it: sustained perp volume, exchange distribution, buybacks and a rerating toward larger derivatives protocols.

Main risk: low float and future token unlocks can create major dilution pressure even when the protocol itself performs well.

PerpsTrading revenueBuyback / burnLow float

Scenario profile

Base
Bull
Uber Bull20×
Score9.2 / 10
Official site
03SOL

Solana

Thesis: Solana is the quality anchor in the basket: real network fees, staking demand, stablecoin activity, DeFi, trading, payments and one of crypto’s deepest consumer ecosystems. It does not need a new use case to be invented.

What could drive it: institutional access, stablecoin/payment growth, continued app adoption and a full retail cycle flowing through Solana-native products.

Main risk: its larger market cap means extreme multiples require enormous new capital, and L1 competition remains intense.

L1FeesStakingLarge ecosystem

Scenario profile

Base2.2×
Bull
Uber Bull15×
Score9.1 / 10
Official site
04PUMP

Pump.fun

Thesis: PUMP is a direct bet on crypto speculation itself. Pump.fun has generated substantial protocol revenue from token creation and trading, so a retail-led bull market can translate into a powerful operating leverage story.

What could drive it: renewed memecoin mania, increasing platform share, buyback support and broader retail participation.

Main risk: revenue is highly cyclical, regulatory scrutiny is material and token-holder value capture is less contractual than a true equity claim.

Retail betaHigh revenueMemesCycle-sensitive

Scenario profile

Base
Bull
Uber Bull20×
Score9.0 / 10
Official site
05UNI

Uniswap

Thesis: Uniswap is one of DeFi’s most battle-tested pieces of infrastructure. The attractive part now is not merely protocol usage; it is the possibility that improved token value capture allows UNI to be valued more like an economic asset instead of a governance wrapper.

What could drive it: DEX volume growth, broader protocol-fee activation, burns and institutional recognition of Uniswap as core financial infrastructure.

Main risk: governance can move slowly, competition is relentless and value capture may not scale as quickly as protocol usage.

DeFiDEXProtocol feesBlue-chip

Scenario profile

Base2.8×
Bull
Uber Bull15×
Score8.8 / 10
Official site
06TAO

Bittensor

Thesis: TAO is the most ambitious decentralized-AI network in the group. Its subnet structure attempts to create open markets for machine intelligence, and the market can place an enormous premium on that idea if decentralized AI becomes a dominant narrative.

What could drive it: commercially useful subnets, external demand for intelligence, broader exchange/institutional access and continued AI narrative strength.

Main risk: much of the current economic activity is still incentive-driven, so the network must prove that outside customers will pay at scale.

Decentralized AISubnetsNetwork economyHigh optionality

Scenario profile

Base
Bull
Uber Bull18×
Score8.6 / 10
Official site
07SUI

Sui

Thesis: Sui offers a high-performance smart-contract platform with genuine DeFi, gaming and consumer-app potential. It is a clean high-beta L1 trade if capital broadens beyond the largest networks.

What could drive it: TVL/stablecoin growth, breakout consumer applications and a broad L1 rotation.

Main risk: token supply expansion and a crowded L1 market make it harder to prove that network growth will translate into superior token returns.

L1DeFiGamingHigh beta

Scenario profile

Base2.5×
Bull
Uber Bull15×
Score7.8 / 10
Official site
08ZEC

Zcash

Thesis: Zcash has one of the clearest non-DeFi use cases in crypto: optional financial privacy. If privacy becomes a major macro narrative, ZEC can behave more like a scarce monetary asset than a software token.

What could drive it: privacy demand, regulatory clarity that preserves lawful privacy technology, institutional access and a monetary-premium rerating.

Main risk: the market cap has already expanded dramatically, and privacy assets face unique exchange, policy and adoption constraints.

PrivacyMonetary assetScarcityMacro narrative

Scenario profile

Base
Bull
Uber Bull15×
Score7.1 / 10
Official site
The point of the Uber Bull column

It is supposed to look aggressive.

A 15×–25× outcome requires a market environment where fundamentals, narrative and liquidity all line up at once. It is not the expected outcome. It is the upside boundary I want to understand before deciding whether the risk/reward is interesting enough to own the asset in the first place.

Educational research only.

This page reflects personal research and hypothetical scenario analysis. It is not financial advice, a solicitation to buy or sell any asset, or a prediction that any price target will be reached. Crypto assets can lose most or all of their value. Market caps, supply schedules, protocol economics and regulations can change quickly. Always do your own research.