Greyscale has revamped the top 20 crypto assets for the third quarter of 2025, naming Avalanche (Avax) and Morpho as newcomers, dropping optimism and Lido Dao, according to a report on July 26th.
The company emphasized that the change reflects a research-driven selection process that favors on-chain traction over popularity or market capitalization.
Following these additions, the top 20 list includes established name combinations such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, SUI, and chain links, as well as Defi protocols such as newcomers such as Aave, Uniswap, Hyperliquid, Bittensor, Ethena, Story Protocol, Aerodrome, and Geodnet.
Why Avax and Morpho were added
Grayscale said the avalanches have made cuts following a marked increase in activity across its ecosystem.
The investment company explained that the avalanche has seen meaningful growth in the volume of transactions. This may be related to blockchain-driven game title integration and the use of Stablecoin.
The long-term sustainability of this growth remains uncertain, but companies see it as a promising signal for traction within their networks.
Meanwhile, Grayscale said it has added Defi Lending Protocol Morpho due to the rapid growth over the past year.
According to the company, Morpho has doubled its total to more than $4 billion, generating annual fee revenues that approach $100 million over the past year.
Additionally, the newly launched second version is intended to attract players in the institution and further strengthen its position in the decentralized finance space.
With this in mind, Grayscale writes:
“Grayscale research is optimistic about the future of chain lending activities, and it appears that Morpho can potentially capture a meaningful share of its growth (other lending-related protocols in the top 20 list, Aave and Maple Finance).”
XRP is missing from Grayscale’s list
In particular, Grayscale’s revised list does not include some high-profile digital assets such as XRP, Cardano, BNB, and Tron.
While these assets remain the largest by market capitalization, Grayscale has revealed that its top 20 list focuses on assets with strong foundations, future catalysts and sustainable network activity.
Meanwhile, these assets have seen key ecosystem development and institutional adoption this year.
Because of the context, XRP has been gaining attention in recent months. This is partly due to Ripple’s enterprise partnership and the continued expansion of XRP ledger.
The same can be said about Cardano. Cardano plans to advance on its scaling roadmap and incorporate Bitcoin into its defi ecosystem.
However, both assets have slowed performance in the broader market despite current bullish sentiment in the industry.
Cryptoslate data shows that XRP has fallen by more than 4% since the start of the year, maintaining its record high of around 45%. At the same time, Cardano’s ADA declined by more than 35% over the same period, falling above 80% below the peak level.
Therefore, this lack of momentum in price may be one of the reasons for their continued exclusion.
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