Top Altcoins Showing Strength Ahead of Next Rally

The altcoins market remains under pressure, but several projects continue to develop their networks. These projects expand use cases and launch new products. Projects Solana, PUMP, BNB and SUI are among the altcoin drawing attention. Investors look for projects that continue building during the downturn.

Solana Upgrade Could Boost Network Activity

Solana is preparing its Agave 4.2 upgrade, with feature activations expected during the week of August 17. The first testnet step is expected to reduce slot times from about 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds. The longer-term target is 200 milliseconds.

Storage costs are also expected to fall by around 90% through several stages. This will give developers more room to build larger applications.

Solana’s payment activity is growing too. July reportedly became a record month for Solana crypto-card spending, reaching around $69.5 million. Meanwhile, Santiment also reported $8.8 million in daily net ETF inflows, the strongest since May 12. 

Michaël van de Poppe said SOL needs to hold the $73.5-$74 support area. With targets toward $120 remaining intact if that level holds.

PUMP Rally Comes With a Supply Risk

PUMP has gained more than 30% over the past week and nearly 90% over the past month. Pump.fun continues generating revenue, with 50% being used to buy back and burn PUMP tokens.

On August 7, the platform introduced callouts, social trading features, zero-fee trading and cross-chain USDC support. This aims to increase platform activity.

However, around 6.87 billion PUMP tokens were scheduled to unlock on August 12. The fresh supply could create selling pressure and offset some of the support from platform activity and token burns.

Michaël van de Poppe believes PUMP is starting a strong run similar to HYPE’s move last year. He expects altcoins on-chain activity and trading interest to grow further.

BNB Targets Faster Transactions

Next up on the list is, BNB Chain which reduced block time from around 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds during the first half of 2026. Additionally, benchmark throughput reached about 5,200 transactions per second.

Its next-generation Layer-1 roadmap targets more than 100,000 TPS. BNB Chain is also developing native privacy and researching quantum-resistant security. The new Layer-1 testnet is planned for late 2026, followed by mainnet potentially in early 2027.

BNB was also included in a digital-asset index launched by S&P Dow Jones Indices and Penta Capital. This index also includes ETH, SOL, TRX and HYPE. 

For price, One analyst said BNB is consolidating around $600, with $610–$612 as key resistance. A strong daily close above $612 could trigger a new move higher. Meanwhile, failure could lead to another test of $590.

SUI Expands Stablecoin Use

Last but not the least, SUI is expanding payments through gasless stablecoin transfers. This allows users to send supported stablecoins without holding SUI for transaction fees. 

Reports citing CertiK data put SUI stablecoin transfer activity at around $65 billion after activity surged from June 10. However, bots, trading systems and repeated transfers can contribute to this figure, so volume alone does not confirm new-user growth.

The system could also support payments made by AI agents. SUI remains below its $5.35 all-time high, while further price recovery would be needed before the bullish setup becomes clearer.

On price, van de Poppe sees a strong bullish divergence in SUI. If it continues development it could help drive the price higher. He expects SUI to move back above $1.