The firm emphasized that the changes reflect a research-driven selection process that favors on-chain traction over popularity or market capitalization.
Following these additions, the Top 20 list includes a mix of established names such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Sui, and Chainlink, along with DeFi protocols like Aave, Uniswap, Hyperliquid, and newer entrants like Bittensor, Ethena, Story Protocol, Aerodrome, and Geodnet.
Grayscale said Avalanche made the cut following a noticeable increase in activity across its ecosystem.
The investment firm explained that Avalanche has seen meaningful growth in transaction volumes, which may be linked to the integration of blockchain-powered gaming titles and stablecoin usage.
While the long-term sustainability of this growth remains uncertain, the firm sees it as a promising signal of traction within the network.
On the other hand, Grayscale stated that it added DeFi lending protocol Morpho due to its rapid growth in the past year.
According to the firm, Morpho doubled its total value to over $4 billion and generated an annualized fee income approaching $100 million during the past year.
In addition, its newly launched second version aims to attract institutional players and further strengthen its position in the decentralized finance space.
Considering this, Grayscale wrote:
“Grayscale Research is optimistic about the future of on-chain lending activity, and Morpho seems well positioned to potentially capture a meaningful share of that growth (along with the other lending-related protocols on the Top 20 list, Aave and Maple Finance).”
Notably, Grayscale’s revised list does not include several high-profile digital assets such as XRP, Cardano, BNB, and TRON.
While these assets remain among the largest by market cap, Grayscale clarified that its Top 20 list focuses on assets with strong fundamentals, upcoming catalysts, and sustainable network activity.
Meanwhile, those assets have seen significant ecosystem developments and institutional adoption this year.
For context, XRP has seen increased attention in recent months, partly due to Ripple’s enterprise partnerships and continued expansion of the XRP Ledger.
The same can be said for Cardano, which has made strides with its scaling roadmap and plans to incorporate Bitcoin within its DeFi ecosystem.
However, both assets have underperformed the broader market despite the current bullish sentiments in the industry.
CryptoSlate’s data shows that XRP has declined more than 4% since the start of the year and remains roughly 45% below its all-time high. At the same time, Cardano’s ADA has fallen over 35% in the same period and sits more than 80% below peak levels.
So, this lack of price momentum may be one reason for their continued exclusion.
