Multicoin Capital, a prominent crypto venture firm, has declared that the market has bottomed and identified Solana (SOL), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Zcash (ZEC) as its top three picks for the current cycle. Managing partner Tushar Jain shared the firm's investment psychology and valuation framework in a recent episode of the podcast "When Shift Happens."
Market Bottom and Contrarian Psychology
Jain argued that the crypto market has already hit a bottom, citing extreme bearish sentiment where bad news no longer triggers sharp price drops, and fundamentals have decoupled from price action. He offered a unique psychological guide: "When you feel like an idiot for staying in this industry, that's the time to buy; when you feel like a genius, sell some assets." Multicoin focuses on long-term concentrated bets rather than micro-trading, he emphasized.
Solana and Hyperliquid as Core Infrastructure
Jain highlighted Solana as a long-term winner, praising its permissionless and open-source nature as ideal for spot trading, tokenized securities, and internet capital markets. He noted that traditional finance issuers value Solana's "credible neutrality." On Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange, he pointed to a massive migration of trading volume to the platform. Based on its vertically integrated Layer 1 and DEX model, Multicoin's report sets a base case target of $319 for HYPE, implying roughly 5x upside. The fund holds both assets and avoids becoming a "maxi."
Zcash: The 'Most Obvious Trade' for 2026
Surprisingly, Jain called Zcash the "most obvious trade" for 2026, framing it as "private Bitcoin." He stressed that privacy features will become critical as AI and on-chain surveillance expand. Regarding the recent panic over a shielded pool vulnerability, Multicoin verified on-chain that the flaw was never exploited and instead bought the dip. Jain argued that ZEC should not be valued by traditional revenue models but by its community momentum and use case potential to re-enter the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap.
The firm's strategy underscores a bet on infrastructure and privacy narratives as the market cycles into a new phase.