Bitcoin has been grinding sideways with eerily muted daily candles, echoing the 2022 bear market’s slow bleed.
With 2022’s similarity, volatility is compressed, liquidity is patchy, and most traders are chopping themselves up trying to front-run the next big move. Yet history shows sentiment can flip violently into a year-end ‘Santa rally’ once flows return.
That combination of weak price action and optionality to the upside is exactly when narrative matters most. If Bitcoin catches a bid into late December, capital tends to rotate quickly into assets that solve real infrastructure problems, not just whatever pumped yesterday on social media.
Instead of panic-selling into boredom, it makes more sense to line up high-conviction plays with asymmetric upside: projects that either expand what Bitcoin can do, reimagine user engagement, or already sit at the heart of institutional rails.
That’s where the next leg of risk will likely flow if a rally ignites.
Below are three very different contenders for that spot on your watchlist: Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), PEPENODE ($PEPENODE), and XRP ($XRP) that just cleared a major regulatory overhang.
1. Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) — The First Ever Bitcoin Layer 2 With SVM
Bitcoin Hyper positions itself as the first Bitcoin Layer 2 to integrate the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), aiming to deliver execution that’s faster than Solana while anchoring security to Bitcoin.
The core idea: keep Bitcoin as the conservative settlement layer but offload smart contracts and high-throughput activity to a dedicated SVM-based chain.
Under the hood, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) uses a modular architecture: Bitcoin L1 for settlement, plus a real-time SVM L2 for execution with a single trusted sequencer periodically anchoring state to Bitcoin.
That lets it target extremely low-latency confirmations and low fees, while offering SPL-compatible tokens adapted for the L2 environment.
The design unlocks what Bitcoin has historically lacked: scalable programmability. Developers can deploy DeFi primitives like swaps, lending, and staking in Rust, build NFT platforms, or launch gaming dApps that need sub-second responsiveness and cheap interactions, all while settling economic finality back to Bitcoin’s battle-tested base layer.
From a market standpoint, the presale momentum is notable. The Bitcoin Hyper presale has raised $28.8, with tokens priced at $0.013355, putting it firmly in large-cap presale territory rather than a micro-cap punt.
Whale buys include major purchases of $500K and $396K. To join the crowd, learn how to buy $HYPER.
For yield-seekers, staking is central to the token design: high-APY rewards (exact rate undisclosed) are slated to go live immediately after TGE, with a 7-day vesting period for presale stakers and ongoing rewards tied to community and governance participation.
If a Santa rally drags liquidity into Bitcoin narratives, a functioning SVM Layer 2 expanding BTC’s utility is a clear beneficiary.
Join the $HYPER presale today
2. PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) — World’s First Mine-to-Earn Memecoin
If Bitcoin Hyper is the infrastructure bet, PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) is the speculative social-layer play. Branded as the world’s first mine-to-earn memecoin, it treats node participation like a gamified mining game rather than dry staking, aiming to turn retail engagement into an on-chain mini-economy.
The project centers on a Virtual Mining System and tiered node rewards. Instead of plugging in hardware, users interact with a gamified dashboard, level up virtual mining capabilities, and compete for yield.
It’s designed to tap into the psychology that made early mining farms and yield farms addictive, but with memecoin branding and simpler UX.
From a traction standpoint, the PEPENODE presale has already raised $2.2M, with tokens priced at $0.0011731. That pricing leaves more room for volatility both ways, which is exactly what traders often look for when risk appetite returns and memecoins start to outperform majors during late-cycle rallies. Don’t get left behind; learn how to buy PEPENODE in 5 easy steps.
While the current staking APY is 578%, the key thesis is less about concrete yield math and more about narrative and engagement: if mine-to-earn catches on as a meme and the dashboard experience is sticky, PEPENODE could take off.
Check out the PEPENODE presale.
3. Ripple (XRP) — Institutional Rail for Fast Cross-Border Payments
Ripple’s XRP takes a very different role in a potential Santa rally: not a new narrative, but a matured one that just got fresh regulatory clarity. XRP is designed as a digital asset for fast, low-cost cross-border payments and to provide on-demand liquidity for banks and payment providers.
The XRP Ledger routinely settles transactions in roughly 3–5 seconds with negligible fees, a speed profile that has underpinned more than 300 institutional partnerships globally.
Recent technical upgrades include an EVM sidechain and expanded smart-contract capabilities, giving developers a path to DeFi and tokenization atop the existing payments network.
Crucially, Ripple settled its long-running SEC case in 2025 and has since leaned into institutional expansion, including acquisitions such as Rail and partnerships like BNY Mellon custody for $RLUSD.
That combination of regulatory clarity and infrastructure deals has helped XRP achieve a top-three market-cap position (excluding stablecoins).
In a scenario where Bitcoin grinds higher and institutions re-engage, XRP offers exposure to the inner workings of global payments rather than pure speculation. It’s less about outsized multiple-X upside and more about capturing renewed flows as traditional finance experiments with tokenized value transfer rails.
Learn more on the official Ripple site.
Recap: With Bitcoin mirroring 2022’s lethargic tape but still primed for a potential Santa rally, Bitcoin Hyper, PEPENODE, and XRP each offer different exposure.
Bitcoin Hyper stands out as the direct bet on unlocking smart-contract scale for Bitcoin itself, while PEPENODE and XRP target, respectively, retail speculation and institutional payments rails.