Crypto Market Discount: Ethereum, Cardano and XRP Added to September Altcoin List

The crypto market has taken a breather after a sharp but short-lived rally. Bitcoin and Ethereum both gave back some gains, while Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted at possible interest rate cuts in September.

Bitcoin is trading around $110,000 and Ethereum has dropped 5%. With prices pulling back across the market, choosing the right altcoins to stack before September could be important. has listed five strong picks.

Ethereum remains the clear frontrunner when it comes to altcoins. Often described as the “gateway to altcoin season,” ETH has historically been the asset that rallies just before smaller tokens take off.

ETF activity is the biggest driver right now. Spot ETH ETFs are shattering records, with inflows topping $1 billion in a single day on August 12 and surpassing $2.9 billion across a single week.

Veteran strategist Tom Lee has accumulated over 1 million ETH. Whale wallets are piling in as well, reinforcing the belief that new all-time highs may be closer than many expect.

Cardano has surged, powered by strong development funding and growing community. Its treasury recently unlocked $71 million for new projects focused on scalability, interoperability, and developer adoption. On the accumulation side, whales bought over 150 million ADA in two weeks.

Market confidence is also building around the possibility of a Cardano ETF. Prediction markets currently assign an 81% chance of approval, while the Genius Act has created favorable conditions.

From a price perspective, ADA has already rallied fourfold from its bear-market bottom of $0.25, with projections stretching as high as $1.50.

Ripple’s XRP is back in the headlines after achieving long-awaited clarity in its legal battle with the SEC. With the case closed and appeals dropped, institutional participation has surged. Daily trading volumes from institutions hit $122 billion shortly after the settlement, while whales accumulated 320 million XRP in just a few days.

Beyond the courtroom, Ripple has been driving adoption. From tokenized real estate in Dubai to new custody offerings in South Korea, the use cases are stacking up quickly. The analyst said that technical setups could push XRP to $12.60, with ultra-bullish scenarios going even higher.

Stellar (XLM) is growing fast as a payments network, now following global banking standards and upgrading with cheaper, faster smart contracts. Its DeFi activity has passed $150 million, showing steady adoption.

Chainlink (LINK) secures nearly $100 billion in DeFi and is partnering with players like ICE to bring real-world data on-chain. With a token buyback boosting confidence and tokenization set to explode, LINK is seen as an important project for the future.