Grayscale Reveals Top 20 Crypto Picks for Q2 2025

Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, has released its updated list of the top 20 potential crypto projects for the second quarter of 2025. This time, three new projects—Maple (SYRUP), Geodnet (GEOD), and Story Protocol (IP)—have been added, while Akash, Arweave, and Jupiter have been removed.

As the crypto market faces turbulence, Grayscale is focusing on emerging trends that could shape the industry’s future.

Grayscale’s Market Insights for 2025

According to Grayscale’s latest research, the first quarter of 2025 saw a decline across the cryptocurrency market, similar to the drop in tech stocks and other high-risk assets. While Bitcoin’s network activity remained steady, interest in meme coins, especially on Solana, has fallen.

Despite this, Web3 applications in decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain infrastructure generated over $2 billion in revenue, showing strong growth in these areas.

Sui (SUI) Gains Attention in Smart Contracts

The report highlights Sui (SUI) as one of the most promising smart contract platforms. It offers fast transactions and low fees without requiring extra scaling layers like Ethereum. However, Sui currently holds only 3% of Grayscale’s Smart Contract Platforms Index, meaning there is still plenty of room for growth.

Grayscale’s Key Investment Themes for Q2

For the second quarter of 2025, Grayscale is focusing on three major areas:

• Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN)
• Real World Assets (RWA)
• Intellectual Property Tokenization (IP)

With this shift in focus, three new projects have been added to Grayscale’s watchlist.

New Additions to Grayscale’s List

Maple (SYRUP)

Maple is a lending platform designed for institutional clients. It currently has over $600 million in total value locked (TVL) and generated $20 million in fees last month. The platform aims to surpass $2 billion in TVL by the end of 2025.

Geodnet (GEOD)

Geodnet is a decentralized infrastructure project that provides real-time, highly accurate positioning data. It now operates in more than 130 countries, has over 14,000 devices in use, and generates more than $3 million in monthly fee revenue.

Story Protocol (IP)

Story Protocol is working to tokenize the $70 trillion intellectual property market. The project is gaining attention by bringing well-known artists, including Justin Bieber and BTS, onto the blockchain.

Which Projects Were Removed?

While some projects made the list, others were removed. Arweave (AR), Akash (AKT), and Jupiter (JUP) have been dropped due to weak performance. However, Grayscale will continue to monitor them for future potential.

Grayscale warns that these new assets remain highly volatile and risky. Geodnet, in particular, does not have major exchange listings, making it an even riskier investment.

The report also notes a decline in overall market capitalization and a slowdown in the consumer and culture sector, driven by the fading popularity of meme coins and the weakening of Solana’s ecosystem.

As the second quarter of 2025 begins, investors will be watching closely to see how Grayscale’s latest picks perform in the ever-changing crypto market.