Multicoin Capital singles out SOL, HYPE, and ZEC as top picks! Partners reveal the 2026 must-buy list and valuation model

According to the latest Podcast aired on the YouTube program “When Shift Happens,” Tushar Jain, Managing Partner of the well-known crypto venture capital firm Multicoin Capital, shared an optimistic take on the current market, saying that the market has already bottomed out. He specifically named the three most promising crypto assets in this cycle: Solana (SOL), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Zcash (ZEC), and shared his unique investment psychology and valuation framework.
(Background: A death cross suddenly appeared on the Bitcoin weekly chart! Analysts: a bull run could erupt with a “surprise in September this year”)
(Additional context: The U.S. SEC releases a 2026 regulatory agenda: will revise rules for crypto exchanges and brokers, and ease corporate reporting)

Table of Contents

Toggle

• The market has bottomed out—contrarian thinking to find buy/sell points
• The heavyweights: Solana and Hyperliquid infrastructure
• The most obvious trade in 2026: Zcash gets a privacy narrative boost

After a long period of consolidation and an emotional cleansing in the crypto market, has the real turning point already arrived? Tushar Jain, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of the well-known crypto fund Multicoin Capital, gave an affirmative answer. In the latest episode of the “When Shift Happens” Podcast, he delved into the current market cycle and shared the fund’s three core holdings heavily bet on for this bull run.

The market has bottomed out—contrarian thinking to find buy/sell points

Tushar believes that the current crypto market has already bottomed out and is entering an entirely new phase. His view is based on the fact that market sentiment is extremely bearish; bad news is no longer causing prices to drop significantly; and the real-world adoption fundamentals have already decoupled from price performance.

When discussing psychological management for timing buys and sells, he shared a unique psychological framework: “When you feel like you’re still in this industry acting like an idiot, that’s when you should buy; and when you feel like you’re a genius, that’s when you should sell part of your assets.” He emphasized that Multicoin focuses on long-term management and concentrated bets on the best ideas, rather than doing micro-level trading.

The heavyweights: Solana and Hyperliquid infrastructure

On specific targets, Tushar first highlighted his long-term bullish stance on Solana (SOL). He believes Solana’s permissionless and open-source characteristics make it an ideal underlying infrastructure for spot trading, tokenized securities, and internet capital markets, while traditional finance (TradFi) issuers also tend to prefer its “trust-neutrality.”

On the other hand, he is also strongly bullish on the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE). He noted that a large amount of derivatives trading volume has already shifted to this platform. According to a report published by Multicoin, thanks to its advantage of vertically integrated L1 and DEX, HYPE’s fundamental expected target price could reach $319, implying around 5x potential upside. He said the fund holds both, so it won’t become a blind extremist (Maxi).

The most obvious trade in 2026: Zcash brings in the privacy narrative

What’s surprising is that Tushar described the old-school privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) as the “most obvious trade in 2026.” He views ZEC as “Private Bitcoin,” and emphasized that in an era where artificial intelligence (AI) and on-chain surveillance are becoming increasingly common, privacy features will become crucial in the crypto space.

Regarding Zcash’s recent panic-inducing shielded pool vulnerability incident, Tushar revealed that after the Multicoin team confirmed through on-chain data that the vulnerability was not exploited by hackers, they instead quickly chose to add positions at lower levels. He stressed that when evaluating Zcash, one should not use traditional revenue models, but instead look at whether its strong community momentum and real-world use cases can bring it back to the top five by market cap.