Best small cap crypto by fundamentals
Every rated token valued $50M to $250M, scored on the same 25 variables and ranked against each other rather than against the whole market.
57 of 251 rated tokens (23%). Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026.
Tokens
57
Median score
98
of 250
Best
169
GEOD
Weakest
53
GALA
01
What this group has in common
Small enough that most of these are one failed quarter from irrelevance and one working product from a rerating. The distribution of scores inside this band is wider than in any band above it. Across the 57 tokens in this band the median composite is 98 of 250, running from 53 to 169. Size is the only thing every member has in common, which is what makes the spread of scores inside it worth looking at.
Inside this band, composite score and market capitalisation correlate 0.09. That is no relationship at all. Once the size bracket is fixed, being larger says nothing about scoring better, which means the ordering below disagrees with the ordering by market cap almost everywhere, and the disagreement is the reason to read it.
Collectively strongest on
- Circulating / FDV Ratio5.82
- Regulatory Safety5.61
- Vesting Schedule5.16
Collectively weakest on
- Buyback and Burn2.54
- BTC Alpha Potential3.05
- Protocol Revenue3.14
Figures are the mean 1-to-10 score across all 57 members of the group, so they describe the group as a whole rather than any single token.
02
Ranked members
Ordered by composite score. The rank column is the position across the whole 251-token universe, not within this group, so it shows where each member stands against everything else that was rated.
| Rank | Token | Score | Verdict | Market cap | Dilution | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | GEOD GEODNET | 169 | HOLD | $137.0M | 2.16x | Revenue not declining: Q2 2026 $2.59M (+48% QoQ). ARR $7.3-9.5M. 80% burn Foundation-controlled (governance, not smart contract). ATH $0.3746 not $0.43. 20K+ stations, 150+ countries. P/S 9.9-14.4x (expensive vs Helium 3.1x). Deflationary crossover approaching post-Jun 2026 halving. |
| 9 | COW CoW Protocol | 167 | HOLD | $82.3M | 1.74x | Intent-based batch auction DEX. $87B vol 2025. P/S 3.1x. Net deflationary. Vesting complete. |
| 25 | FLUID Fluid (Instadapp) | 145 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $158.2M | 1.19x | Unique Smart Collateral/Debt DeFi primitive (39x capital efficiency). $12.66M rev trailing but $5.6M current run rate (declining -63%). Buybacks halted post-Resolv ($21M bad debt). TVL -92% from peak. P/S 6.8x trailing / 15.4x current. Zero inflation, 78.7% circ. Top-tier VCs (Pantera, Naval, Coinbase). 55% stablecoin swap share. |
| 28 | GMX GMX | 143 | HOLD | $84.3M | 1.27x | Protocol revenue ~$14M (not $42M total fees). Commodity perps live ($1.18B week-1). $20.86M buybacks. |
| 35 | KMNO Kamino Finance | 138 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $214.9M | 1.75x | S38 validated: #1 Solana lending, $3.2B TVL, $14.3M rev, but zero value accrual to KMNO. Excellent protocol, worthless token. |
| 44 | SAFE Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) | 132 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $84.0M | 1.28x | Token for the dominant smart-contract wallet securing $100B+ in assets, but governance token with minimal direct value accrual so far |
| 45 | SNX Synthetix | 130 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $137.5M | 1x | Best tokenomics (zero inflation, 100% fee buyback, 99.7% circ) but losing perps war. sUSD at $0.74. |
| 46 | AKT Akash Network | 129 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $210.6M | 1.3x | Decentralized GPU cloud marketplace with real revenue; GPU demand tailwind but AKT P/S stretched vs actual compute revenue. |
| 51 | BERA Berachain | 127 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $76.8M | 1.61x | Novel Proof-of-Liquidity L1 with highest post-launch TVL in history, but BERA token down 97.5% and PoL is untested long-term |
| 56 | LPT Livepeer | 123 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $82.2M | 1x | Decentralized video transcoding network. Real compute demand from video platforms. |
| 56 | ORCA Orca | 123 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $167.2M | 1.64x | Concentrated liquidity DEX on Solana. Whirlpools with user-friendly UX. |
| 62 | HNT Helium | 122 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $97.6M | 1.15x | Pioneer decentralized wireless network with real Solana migration complete; MOBILE/IOT subDAOs growing but HNT value accrual thin |
| 68 | CHZ Chiliz | 120 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $165.6M | 1x | Sports fan token platform. Socios.com with 100+ sports teams. |
| 71 | COMP Compound | 119 | WATCH | $234.1M | 1x | OG DeFi lender with real protocol revenue but P/S ~112x makes valuation deeply stretched at current price. |
| 77 | IMX Immutable X | 117 | WATCH | $156.3M | 2.21x | Web3 gaming ZK-rollup with major game studio partnerships; gaming L2 narrative still alive but token vesting pressure is severe |
| 84 | S Sonic (prev. Fantom) | 115 | WATCH | $154.2M | 1x | Fantom rebranded to Sonic with 10,000 TPS EVM chain; Andre Cronje back driving DeFi revival with fee monetization |
| 91 | YFI Yearn Finance | 111 | WATCH | $86.4M | 1.02x | DeFi yield aggregator OG with real protocol revenue, but YFI buybacks alone cannot support a $91M market cap as yields compress and competition intensifies |
| 97 | DYDX dYdX | 109 | WATCH | $113.2M | 1.18x | Leading perp DEX migrated to its own Cosmos chain; real $380M TVL and daily volume but token accrual to stakers unclear and releases persist. |
| 100 | IO io.net | 108 | WATCH | $63.1M | 1.95x | Decentralized GPU compute marketplace down 98.3% from ATH; real compute demand but token economics designed for insiders |
| 106 | EIGEN EigenLayer | 107 | WATCH | $226.1M | 1.91x | Restaking pioneer with $5.8B TVL but 82% of tokens opening over 3 years creates extreme dilution headwind. |
| 110 | RUNE THORChain | 106 | PASS | $234.5M | 1.08x | Protocol halted 30 days. $10.8M exploit. $200M lending default. $1.2B Lazarus laundering. -98.2% ATH. Bug bounty killed. |
| 115 | THETA Theta Network | 105 | WATCH | $214.2M | 1x | Decentralized video CDN with Samsung and Google as validators. Real infrastructure but 93% below ATH reflects faded narrative and low token utility. |
| 118 | RSR Reserve Rights | 104 | WATCH | $100.3M | 1.6x | Stablecoin protocol with RSR governance/insurance. RToken framework. |
| 124 | CVX Convex Finance | 103 | WATCH | $193.9M | 1.07x | Curve vote-locking meta-protocol that captured the Curve Wars era but faces structural decline as veCRV yields compress and DeFi rotates away |
| 124 | KSM Kusama | 103 | WATCH | $90.6M | 1x | Polkadot canary network. Parachain auctions. Fast iteration testnet. |
| 129 | APE ApeCoin | 102 | WATCH | $146.9M | 1x | Bored Ape network token. ApeChain L3. Yuga Labs governance. |
| 135 | ATH Aethir | 101 | WATCH | $132.9M | 2.09x | Decentralized GPU cloud for AI/gaming. Enterprise-grade compute infrastructure. |
| 150 | MINA Mina Protocol | 98 | PASS | $121.4M | 1x | 22KB constant-size blockchain using ZK proofs; elegant tech with minimal network adoption and severe inflation from staking rewards. |
| 150 | NMR Numeraire | 98 | PASS | $105.4M | 1.53x | AI hedge fund data science tournament. Staking for ML model performance. |
| 161 | ORDI ORDI | 96 | PASS | $88.5M | 1x | First BRC-20 token on Bitcoin Ordinals; fully diluted meme with cultural value but zero protocol revenue or utility |
| 167 | ZK ZKsync | 95 | PASS | $129.1M | 1.94x | ZK rollup with strong tech but catastrophic tokenomics; airdrop dump destroyed community trust and TVL collapsed 90%+ |
| 167 | POLYX Polymesh | 95 | PASS | $52.9M | 1x | Purpose-built securities chain. Regulated security token issuance. |
| 173 | CELO Celo | 94 | PASS | $57.3M | 1.64x | Mobile-first L1 migrating to Ethereum L2 on OP Stack; migration complete but network traction and TVL extremely thin. |
| 173 | RLC iExec | 94 | PASS | $61.1M | 1x | Decentralized cloud computing marketplace. Off-chain compute for dApps. |
| 177 | CKB Nervos Network | 93 | PASS | $61.4M | 1.02x | Bitcoin-compatible UTXO Layer 1 with RGB++ protocol enabling BTC-native assets; technically sound but tiny network |
| 177 | 1INCH 1inch Network | 93 | PASS | $138.1M | 1.07x | DEX aggregator that pioneered intent-based routing but now faces commoditization from 0x, Paraswap, and native DEX aggregation within wallets |
| 184 | W Wormhole | 92 | PASS | $93.6M | 1.52x | Cross-chain messaging with $45B+ cumulative bridge volume; only 18% circulating with devastating vesting schedule and no protocol revenue to token. |
| 192 | TRB Tellor | 90 | PASS | $56.4M | 1.03x | Decentralized oracle. PoW-style dispute mechanism for price feeds. |
| 199 | WIF dogwifhat | 88 | PASS | $227.9M | 1x | Solana's top dog meme with fully diluted supply and $200M market cap; pure meme energy with no utility, revenue, or roadmap. |
| 199 | PEAQ peaq | 88 | PASS | $102.2M | 2.21x | DePIN-focused L1 on Polkadot. Machine economy infrastructure. |
| 208 | NOS Nosana | 86 | PASS | $52.5M | 1x | Solana-native GPU inference network. CI/CD pipelines on decentralized compute. |
| 212 | EGLD MultiversX (prev. Elrond) | 85 | PASS | $123.2M | 1x | Sharded Romanian L1 that rebranded to MultiversX; narrative exhausted with no meaningful DeFi or developer traction |
| 213 | ROSE Oasis Network | 84 | PASS | $62.0M | 1.24x | Privacy-focused L1 targeting confidential DeFi and data tokenization; thesis valid but adoption never arrived |
| 213 | BLUR Blur | 84 | PASS | $55.8M | 1.03x | NFT marketplace token that temporarily dominated OpenSea via airdrop-fueled volume incentives, but NFT market collapse and massive releases destroy the setup |
| 219 | KAVA Kava | 80 | PASS | $71.7M | 1x | EVM+Cosmos hybrid chain that failed to differentiate; stagnant TVL and minimal protocol revenue |
| 221 | FLOW Flow | 78 | PASS | $53.4M | 1x | Dapper Labs chain built for NFTs (NBA TopShot); NFT market collapse destroyed its primary use case |
| 221 | IOTA IOTA | 78 | PASS | $248.2M | 1.07x | DAG-based IoT ledger that spent 6 years rebuilding its coordinator; fully diluted with no DeFi network |
| 225 | AXS Axie Infinity | 76 | PASS | $207.3M | 1.54x | Pioneer play-to-earn NFT game that spawned an entire sector but collapsed under its own Ponzi tokenomics; $625M Ronin bridge hack accelerated the death spiral |
| 229 | SUSHI SushiSwap | 74 | PASS | $66.7M | 1.02x | Once-prominent fork DEX that lost its narrative, its developers, and its users; no credible recovery path for the token |
| 236 | NEO Neo | 68 | PASS | $166.5M | 1.42x | Chinese Ethereum from 2017 with dual-token model (NEO+GAS); the 'smart economy' never materialized |
| 238 | SUPER SuperVerse | 67 | PASS | $144.5M | 1.54x | Rebranded SuperFarm gaming/NFT network with celebrity associations that never translated to user adoption; token structurally impaired |
| 238 | JASMY JasmyCoin | 67 | PASS | $243.3M | 1.01x | Japanese IoT data sovereignty project with Sony/NTT connections but zero DeFi integration, minimal real-world adoption, and 99.9% ATH drawdown |
| 241 | MANA Decentraland | 66 | PASS | $197.1M | 1.12x | Pioneer decentralized metaverse with DAO governance that peaked in 2021 hype; now averages under 1,000 concurrent users despite $165M market cap |
| 242 | ZIL Zilliqa | 63 | PASS | $64.9M | 1.08x | 2018-era sharding chain that lost the scalability race; GameFi pivot failed to gain traction |
| 245 | QTUM Qtum | 61 | PASS | $97.7M | 1.02x | 2017-era Bitcoin UTXO + Ethereum EVM hybrid; technically obsolete and network is a ghost town |
| 246 | SAND The Sandbox | 58 | PASS | $219.2M | 1.02x | -99.4% ATH. 4,500 DAU. Founders ousted. 50% layoffs. Staking dead. $312K daily vol. Metaverse narrative buried. |
| 249 | GALA Gala Games | 53 | PASS | $114.2M | 1x | Gaming platform token down 99.6% from ATH; wracked by internal fraud allegations, token supply manipulation, and a gaming sector with no mass-market hits |
Dilution is eventual supply divided by circulating supply, derived from supply counts rather than from a fully diluted valuation, so it does not move with price. A 1x reading means the float is already complete.
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Market caps from CoinGecko, fetched 7 Oct 2026. Scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026. Research and analysis, not investment advice. Early Thunder scores are one framework applied consistently across 251 tokens, not a prediction of price.