The broader cryptocurrency market began October with a downward trend, pulling Bitcoin (BTC) down to around $59,000. However, recent days have seen a solid rebound, with BTC climbing toward $68,422. As market sentiment turns cautiously optimistic, investors are asking: which altcoins could still break out in the second half of October and beyond?
Bankless, a respected crypto analysis collective, recently released price predictions for 10 major altcoins—five bullish and five bearish—spanning DeFi, Layer 1 blockchains, and cross-chain infrastructure. This article breaks down their latest outlook, evaluates their track record from previous forecasts, and identifies key catalysts that could drive price movements through early 2025.
October Forecast Accuracy: 70% Win Rate
Of the 10 tokens Bankless analyzed with predictions expiring in October, seven moved in the direction anticipated—delivering a strong 70% accuracy rate when excluding neutral calls.
Here’s a quick recap of how the expired predictions played out:
- Bullish calls that failed:
Instadapp (INST) dropped 43%, despite being predicted to rise. - Bearish calls that failed:
Maple Finance (MPL) surged 43.56%, and BNB Chain (BNB) gained 2%, contrary to expectations. - Correct bearish calls:
Ondo Finance (ONDO), Livepeer (LPT), ENS, Celestia (TIA), Polkadot (DOT), ether.fi (ETHFI), and Worldcoin (WLD) all declined as predicted—some by over 35%.
Notably, ether.fi delivered one of the most accurate downside calls, falling 40%. Meanwhile, the incorrect calls on INST and MPL highlight how unpredictable niche DeFi plays can be during volatile periods.
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Altcoins With Bullish Outlooks
dYdX (DYDX) – DeFi
Forecast Period: October 16, 2024 – January 16, 2025
Entry Price: $0.96
Current Performance: +1.28%
After a 26% drop following a prior bearish stance in July due to declining usage metrics, Bankless has turned bullish on dYdX thanks to a new catalyst: its U.S. election prediction market.
The platform launched a leveraged "TRUMPWIN-USD" futures market, allowing traders to go long or short on the presidential election outcome with up to 20x leverage. While such products carry liquidation risks, they attract significant speculative volume—evidenced by Polymarket’s doubled monthly activity amid rising political betting demand.
Crucially, DYDX staking rewards are tied to trading fees from perpetual markets. If election-related volume spikes persist, stakers could see higher yields—potentially boosting token demand and price.
Jupiter (JUP) – DeFi
Forecast Period: October 15, 2024 – January 15, 2025
Entry Price: $0.88
Current Performance: -3.66%
Despite a short-term dip, Bankless remains optimistic about Jupiter, a leading Solana-based DEX aggregator. A major endorsement came on October 10 when Grayscale added JUP to its “Assets Under Consideration” list—hinting at potential future ETF-style products.
Jupiter routes trades across multiple liquidity pools to secure optimal prices and currently handles hundreds of millions in daily swap volume—without charging fees. While monetization isn’t active yet, its order flow and high-leverage perpetuals (yielding up to 28% on $700M liquidity) offer clear revenue paths.
With a fully diluted valuation of $9 billion—15% above Uniswap—JUP’s premium reflects confidence in its ecosystem expansion, including token launch platforms and cross-chain ambitions.
👉 See how emerging DeFi platforms are reshaping decentralized trading.
Thala (THL) – DeFi
Forecast Period: October 7, 2024 – January 7, 2025
Entry Price: $0.51
Current Performance: +6.14%
Thala is emerging as a core DeFi hub on Aptos, offering token swaps, liquid staking, and an over-collateralized stablecoin. It ranks as the largest investable app and third-largest protocol by TVL on the network.
Built using Move—a language unique to Aptos and Sui—Thala avoids direct competition with EVM-based giants like Uniswap. Its architecture allows future deployment on other Move-compatible chains like Movement, expanding its interoperability potential.
As interest grows in Aptos as a high-throughput L1 contender, Thala is well-positioned to capture ecosystem growth—especially if developer activity accelerates in late 2024.
Aptos (APT) – Layer 1
Forecast Period: October 4, 2024 – January 4, 2025
Entry Price: $9.13
Current Performance: +9.97%
After underperforming since early 2023, APT found momentum in August and nearly doubled over two months. Though still facing criticism for immature dApp adoption and high valuation relative to Ethereum, its on-chain metrics are improving.
Daily active addresses are rising steadily, and TVL recently hit an all-time high. With a theoretical throughput of 160,000 TPS—one of the fastest in crypto—APT is ideal for high-performance applications like DePIN and real-time gaming.
Bankless sees APT as a potential beneficiary of the next wave of L1 rotation, especially if investor focus shifts from narrative-driven coins to technically robust chains.
Axelar (AXL) – Cross-Chain Infrastructure
Forecast Period: October 3, 2024 – January 3, 2025
Entry Price: $0.65
Current Performance: +23.15%
Axelar launched its Mobius Development Stack (MDS) on October 3—a new interoperability standard leveraging AXL tokens to enable seamless cross-chain communication. The Interchain Amplifier allows developers to connect new blockchains at the smart contract level without deep protocol changes.
Supported chains include Solana, Sui, Stellar, Hedera, and XRP Ledger—expanding Axelar’s reach beyond traditional EVM ecosystems.
AXL retains utility as staking collateral while also supporting re-staking with ETH or BTC for enhanced security. With L1 activity heating up, Bankless believes AXL is poised to benefit from increased cross-chain exploration and bridging demand.
Altcoins Facing Downward Pressure
Uniswap (UNI) – DeFi
Forecast Period: October 10, 2024 – January 10, 2025
Entry Price: $8.35
Current Performance: -9.1%
Uniswap launched Unichain—an OP Stack-based rollup aimed at becoming a liquidity hub for Ethereum’s rollup-centric future. It introduces faster confirmations (200–250ms) and plans to use UNI as gas.
However, Bankless remains bearish due to persistent bridge dependency. Even with improved intra-OP Stack connectivity, cross-rollup swaps still require time-consuming bridging—leading to fragmented liquidity and suboptimal trade execution.
Given that profit-sensitive traders prioritize speed and efficiency, Unichain may struggle to attract organic volume unless bridging friction is significantly reduced.
Wormhole (W) – Cross-Chain Bridge
Forecast Period: October 2, 2024 – January 2, 2025
Entry Price: $0.36
Current Performance: -17.48%
Wormhole’s transaction volume fell 36% from August to September (down to $255M), despite high-profile partnerships—like Securitize using it for tokenized assets backed by BlackRock.
A listing on Upbit caused a brief 30% spike on October 2, but prices quickly reversed—suggesting FOMO was short-lived. Bankless doubts upcoming airdrop incentives will revive sustained adoption or absorb future token unlocks.
With declining usage and uncertain monetization, W faces headwinds in maintaining value amid growing competition from native bridges and modular interoperability protocols.
EigenLayer (EIGEN) – Restaking Infrastructure
Forecast Period: October 1, 2024 – January 1, 2025
Entry Price: $4.00
Current Performance: -16%
Despite being hailed as the future of cryptoeconomic security, EigenLayer faces skepticism over valuation. At a fully diluted valuation near $6.7 billion, its price assumes massive adoption of Actively Validated Services (AVS).
Yet early data suggests AVS yields may only reach single-digit percentages—even under optimistic scenarios. This raises concerns about sustainability: can token inflation be justified when real returns are low?
Bankless warns that unless high-yield use cases emerge quickly, EIGEN may face prolonged downward pressure as investors reassess its premium pricing.
ether.fi (ETHFI) – Liquid Staking Token (LST)
Forecast Period: September 30, 2024 – December 30, 2024
Entry Price: $1.82
Current Performance: -8.24%
ETHFI has grown its TVL through innovative restaking products and aggressive airdrop campaigns. However, its fully diluted valuation now exceeds Lido’s—despite lacking comparable decentralization or ecosystem depth.
A major unlock is scheduled for March 17, 2025, which could flood the market with new supply. Bankless believes the current price doesn’t adequately reflect this overhang, especially given reliance on token emissions to sustain growth.
Without stronger fundamentals or revenue-sharing mechanisms, ETHFI may struggle to retain value post-unlock.
Solana (SOL) – Layer 1
Forecast Period: September 26, 2024 – December 26, 2024
Entry Price: $156.15
Current Performance: -1.84%
Once a top performer, Solana’s ecosystem has stagnated since March’s market peak. TVL remains flat, fee revenue is declining, and meme coin hype (e.g., BONK, WIF) has cooled.
While SOL has outperformed its meme peers recently, this is seen more as risk-off behavior than strength—indicating capital may be rotating out of speculative plays toward safer assets within the chain.
Bankless maintains a bearish view, arguing that other L1s with stronger developer momentum (like Aptos or Sui) may draw attention away from Solana in the near term.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How reliable are Bankless token predictions?
A: Their October forecasts achieved a 70% accuracy rate for expired calls—above average for crypto analysis. However, unexpected catalysts like political betting markets or exchange listings can skew outcomes.
Q: What factors make a DeFi token a good investment?
A: Key indicators include growing TVL, sustainable revenue models, low token inflation, strong staking yields tied to usage, and product-market fit—as seen with Jupiter and dYdX.
Q: Why are some L1 tokens underperforming?
A: Many face challenges like stagnant ecosystems (Solana), unproven scalability (EigenLayer), or overvaluation relative to utility (ETHFI). Chains with rising developer activity and real-world use cases tend to outperform.
Q: Is cross-chain infrastructure still relevant?
A: Yes—protocols like Axelar are gaining traction by enabling seamless interconnectivity between non-EVM chains. As multi-chain portfolios become standard, interoperability layers will play a critical role.
Q: Can prediction markets influence crypto prices?
A: Absolutely. Platforms like dYdX’s election market drive speculative volume and staking demand. High-leverage contracts attract traders and can temporarily boost token utility and price momentum.
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