Key Factors
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Each Ethereum and Solana are down greater than 34% for the yr, and the sell-off seems to be intensifying.
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Traders are actually questioning the worth of Layer-1 blockchain networks, which had been as soon as seen as constructing blocks of the crypto economic system.
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Shopping for the dip is usually a profitable technique for traders who imagine in the long-term progress enchantment of Layer-1 blockchain networks.
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For the yr, each main cryptocurrency is getting hit exhausting. However some cryptocurrencies are getting hit more durable than others. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), for instance, is down 35%, whereas Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is down 34%.
So is it value buying the dip on these beaten-down cryptocurrencies? Or has one thing basically modified in the manner traders view these cryptocurrencies?
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When to purchase the dip
Typically talking, a method of shopping for the dip solely works if a cryptocurrency is in the midst of a long-term uptrend. There shall be pullbacks of 10% or extra alongside the manner, and that is when it might probably make sense to purchase at a lower cost. Consider every dip as a possibility to purchase your favourite cryptocurrency at a short lived 10% low cost earlier than it goes again to its common worth.

Picture supply: Getty Pictures.
This technique has labored splendidly with cryptocurrencies similar to Ethereum and Solana in the previous, so it is no shock that some crypto traders are actually salivating at the likelihood to purchase these cryptocurrencies at a whopping 35% low cost.
Has one thing modified in the funding thesis?
However here is the factor: Traders are beginning to change the manner they view Layer-1 blockchain networks similar to Ethereum and Solana. Beforehand, they had been seen as constructing blocks of the crypto economic system.
Every thing being constructed with blockchain expertise — together with decentralized apps and decentralized exchanges — was being constructed on high of those networks. That is what made them so worthwhile, particularly in the minds of Silicon Valley traders used to speaking about network effects.
More and more, nonetheless, traders are beginning to view these cryptocurrencies as nothing greater than open-source software. And certainly, if you consider what Ethereum and Solana actually are, they are often seen as decentralized, public, and extremely clear codebases. Anybody can construct on high of them, and they aren’t owned by any central entity.
Provided that software program shares are getting completely crushed proper now, that helps to clarify why Ethereum and Solana are getting clobbered worse than different cryptocurrencies. In the minds of many traders, they’re nothing greater than dangerous bets on the way forward for software program.
Concern and greed in the crypto market
It is turn into trendy to query the objective of every and each cryptocurrency, together with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). Fairly merely, traders are scared proper now, and they’re trying to de-risk and de-leverage. You possibly can see this in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index: it now stands at 5 out of 100. That is about as near full-on panic as you may get.
All of this leads me to assume that crypto traders are overreacting. In my opinion, Ethereum and Solana are nonetheless two key constructing blocks of the crypto economic system. For that cause, I am doing what crypto traders have been doing for years: shopping for the dip. Whereas these two cryptocurrencies could have but additional to fall in 2026, the basic uptrend will quickly proceed, simply because it has for the previous decade.
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Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the writer and don’t essentially replicate these of Nasdaq, Inc.










