Last week I ran into Old Chen at a café. This guy was crying two years ago about losing his down payment for a house in 'hundred-fold new coins,' but now he is treating me to coffee with a freshly received million-dollar profit. His comeback was not due to luck; it was entirely based on holding onto the 'old chips' that no one dared to take during this wave of old coin rebound.
The cryptocurrency market in the fourth quarter of 2025 is incredibly magical: ZEC surged by 151% in a month, ICP more than doubled, and even FIL, which was criticized as 'unrevivable,' rose by 51.5%. But I dare say that 90% of people missed out on this wave of market, either complaining that these old coins 'have no story' or chasing high prices and getting cut halfway.
Here’s a heartbreaking truth: the crypto world is never short of new narratives, but what can truly make you money is often those old faces that the market has 'forgotten.' When I bottomed out ZEC in 2024, people around me laughed at me for 'picking up garbage,' saying privacy coins were outdated. But I calculated a number: after ZEC's halving in 2024, the new supply would drastically decrease, Grayscale would restart subscriptions, and the development team upgraded the privacy wallet. These are all solid good news, but no one is willing to wait.
Here, I would like to share my 'Three Principles for Picking Up Old Coins' with you, which have been tested to avoid 90% of traps: First, look at the 'survival cycle.' Only projects that have survived at least two rounds of bull and bear markets should be touched. New coins that have changed their white papers three times cannot withstand the impact of regulation and technological iteration; Second, focus on 'substantial upgrades,' like how ICP is binding AI to launch the DeAI platform, and how FIL is shifting from storage to on-chain cloud services. This kind of 'old bottle with new wine' is a signal for value reassessment; relying solely on calls for rebounds are bubbles; Third, calculate 'circulation value for money.' When the market cap drops below 10% of its historical peak, and there is recent institutional capital inflow (on-chain data can be checked), entering the market at this time is 10 times safer than chasing new coins.
Old Chen made a comeback based on these three points: he bought ZEC at a price of $80 by the end of 2024, and even when it dropped to $65, he didn't sell, waiting until it rose to over $200 this year to sell in batches. In contrast, the new coins he bought earlier were abandoned by the team when they ran off with the funds, and even the code updates stopped for three months.
Now there are still people asking me whether the old coin market is about to end? I think this is just the beginning of 'investing in old coins rather than new ones.' Institutional funds are currently looking for 'undervalued, high certainty' assets, and those old projects that have been tested through bull and bear markets are precisely their targets. Next, we can focus on XMR in the privacy sector (recently upgraded with anti-spy nodes), as well as ICP in the DeAI concept. As long as the technology doesn't fail, holding onto them patiently is more reliable than chasing hot spots.
To be honest: I have seen too many people make quick money in the crypto world, but I have never seen anyone make big money by chasing new coins. If you still have old coins that are stuck, don't rush to sell, check the recent technical upgrades and funding flow of the project. You might just be the next one to make a comeback.
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