5 Altcoins Primed to Explode When Bitcoin Smashes $120K

Bitcoin's next parabolic move is coming—and these altcoins are ticking time bombs of upside potential.

Forget 'safe' plays. The real money floods into alts when BTC breaks key psychological barriers. Here's where smart money's positioning before the frenzy.

Ethereum: The Layer-1 Juggernaut

ETH isn't just riding Bitcoin's coattails—its deflationary burn and institutional ETF whispers make it a dual-threat contender.

Solana: The Speed Demon

400ms transaction finality and meme coin degeneracy? SOL's infrastructure handles retail mania better than legacy chains.

Chainlink: The Oracle King

LINK's cross-chain ambitions position it as critical middleware when $120K BTC brings institutional DeFi demand.

Avalanche: The Subnet Play

Custom blockchain deployments for TradFi giants? AVAX's enterprise pivot could pay off big during the next liquidity surge.

Polkadot: The Parachain Dark Horse

DOT's interoperability stack remains undervalued—especially with Polkadot 2.0's elastic scaling coming post-BTC halving.

Warning: Half these 'fundamentals' won't matter when leverage traders FOMO into any coin under $1. Enjoy the casino.

Bitcoin Hits $118K, Market Sentiment Signals Incoming Altseason

Several market catalysts are helping Bitcoin sustain its bull run. Institutional conviction is increasing day by day, including the UK’s Smarter Web Company pushing its BTC treasury holdings to four figures, while US-listed firms like Strategy (previously MicroStrategy) continue to treat every dip as a buying opportunity.

Even bearish macro headlines haven’t massively affected Bitcoin’s resilience. When new US tariffs on Asian imports affected equities last week, Bitcoin briefly fell – but a $200 million short squeeze pushed the price above $118,000 on Friday.

In the meantime, Donald Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, has filed for a “Crypto Blue Chip ETF” that WOULD bundle BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and CRO into a single investment product.

Each new ETF filing and policy win will act as a strong catalyst for Bitcoin’s bull run as we continue through the second half of 2025. If BTC does punch through $120,000, that psychological victory could spark another much-awaited altseason.

The popular crypto analyst Ted Pillows recently stated that Ethereum has already started outperforming Bitcoin, and traders are largely shrugging off tariff fears – an early indication of returning risk appetite.

Alts could take-off anytime soon.$ETH is outperforming $BTC, and the market isn't focusing on TRUMP tariffs.

This is an early sign of a risk-on environment and it feels like May 2025.

I wouldn't be surprised if alts go on an up-only mode for 3-4 weeks. pic.twitter.com/XaSEmp9S9w

— Ted (@TedPillows) July 9, 2025

Pillows also compared the current market sentiment to May’s bull run, predicting that alts could go into “up-only mode for 3 to 4 weeks” as investor confidence builds.

Keeping this in mind, we’ve highlighted three of the best altcoins to buy as the third quarter unfolds.

Bitcoin Hyper

One of our newest contenders is Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER), a presale project that aims to turbocharge Bitcoin’s ecosystem. Being tied to Bitcoin, the low cap HYPER token could offer huge upside as BTC continues to rally.

Bitcoin Hyper is a Layer 2 network for Bitcoin, designed to address the flagship crypto’s well-known limitations in speed and functionality. It will use the Solana VIRTUAL Machine (SVM) and a custom bridging mechanism to anchor its transaction outputs onto Bitcoin’s mainnet.

Users will be able to deposit BTC into a decentralized bridge, which locks the Bitcoin and mints a wrapped equivalent on the Bitcoin Hyper network. This allows Bitcoin’s value to flow into Bitcoin Hyper’s LAYER 2, where transactions can be processed at lightning speeds.

Developers familiar with solana can easily deploy dApps, DeFi protocols, NFTs, and even meme coins on Bitcoin Hyper without starting from scratch. Crucially, final settlement and security still rely on the Bitcoin blockchain, meaning the Layer 2’s outputs will be as tamper-resistant as a normal BTC transaction.

The Bitcoin Hyper presale has already raised over $2.2 million, reflecting strong investor appetite for a Bitcoin-linked altcoin that could unlock new utility.

The project’s native HYPER token will be used to pay transaction fees on the Bitcoin Hyper Layer 2, and potentially offer governance rights as the ecosystem grows. You can buy HYPER for just $0.0122 in the ongoing presale round, and stake the tokens for an annual reward of up to 360%. Visit Bitcoin Hyper.

Ethereum

Next on our list is Ethereum (ETH), the platform that remains the backbone of decentralized finance and NFTs to date. While Bitcoin recovered toward $112,000, ETH rallied about 7% to its monthly high of around $2,824.

Several corporate treasuries and funds are pivoting into Ethereum, tightening the supply of Ether (ETH). For example, the Nasdaq-listed GameSquare recently approved a $100 million Ethereum reserve strategy, and the tech firm SharpLink now holds over 205,000 ETH in its treasury.

Even crypto miners are rebalancing, as Bit Digital recently sold its Bitcoin to accumulate ETH – investing $172 million to switch its treasury into Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency and stake it.

At the same time, ETH ETFs are seeing steady inflows, and BlackRock’s Ethereum Trust alone holds about 1.81 million ETH after significant accumulation. This institutional trend is reducing exchange liquidity, which historically could set the stage for a price squeeze upward. Market commentators believe that ETH could soon reach $3,000 if network activity remains strong.

XRP

XRP is the native token of Ripple’s XRP Ledger, which was built to unlock instant, low-cost cross-border payments. After witnessing a near-term downtrend until June, XRP’s price has seen an impressive rebound from the $2 level over the last two-and-a-half weeks.

The altcoin’s price just hit a seven-week high above $2.40, a level not seen since late May.

On-chain data from Santiment shows that the number of large XRP holders is at an all-time high, with over 2,740 addresses holding a total of nearly 47.3 billion XRP. Such whale confidence often signals insider optimism, as big players appear to be positioning for a larger uptrend ahead.

Just in the past month, the XRP Ledger has welcomed new stablecoins and facilitated pilot programs for central bank digital currencies. Many banks (such as Santander, SBI Remit, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) are leveraging Ripple’s network and worldwide payment providers to settle transactions in seconds.

With momentum building behind the project and wider crypto markets, XRP still trades roughly 27% below its record high of $3.40 – leaving room for growth if a full-fledged altcoin rally materializes.