Solana, Zcash, and Near Protocol may be among crypto’s most underpriced assets, according to Helius co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz. In an interview with "When Shift Happened" on July 16, Mumtaz argued that traders often overlook long-term factors such as developer activity, infrastructure upgrades, and network economics in favor of short-term price action. He emphasized that focusing solely on price movements causes investors to miss the progress in businesses, products, and technical improvements occurring behind the scenes.

Solana as the Highest-Conviction Pick

Mumtaz described Solana as the "obvious choice" for developers building on-chain businesses, citing its combination of speed, liquidity, infrastructure, and a growing concentration of startups. He likened the network to a "global Silicon Valley" where developers can launch payments, trading platforms, tokenized assets, collectibles, and other financial applications. Despite recent price declines, Mumtaz pointed to improving fundamentals, including record transaction activity, faster block times, and higher network capacity. He noted that trading firms and applications require SOL to compete for limited block space, suggesting that demand for these scarce resources will rise as activity grows.

Zcash Looks Undervalued

Mumtaz identified Zcash as a high-conviction privacy asset, particularly when it traded near $18. He stated that the investment case for Zcash is simpler than Solana’s, focusing on its ability to offer private digital money while allowing users to keep transactions transparent when desired. Mumtaz argued that privacy becomes increasingly valuable as governments expand financial surveillance, asset monitoring, and restrictions on capital movement. He also highlighted Zcash’s work on formal verification, a method that mathematically tests whether critical software performs as designed.

Near Protocol Offers Higher Risk, Asymmetric Upside

While Mumtaz’s conviction in Near is lower than in Solana and Zcash, he views the project as significantly undervalued relative to many cryptocurrencies ranked above it. He pointed to Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin’s technical background, the network’s sharding architecture, and its positioning across artificial intelligence and cross-chain infrastructure. Mumtaz praised the Near team’s operational execution, describing it as highly organized and capable of turning plans into working products. However, he cautioned that Near still needs to attract more developers and businesses before reaching its potential.

Tokenized stock trading volume reached a record $6 billion in June across all blockchains, marking a 70% jump from the previous month, according to data from asset tokenization analytics platform rwa.xyz. Solana led the surge with a 66% share of the total volume, followed by BNB Chain and Ethereum. The milestone reflects growing investor appetite for tokenized real-world asset products, particularly equities like Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which became available on Solana through platforms such as Ondo Finance, xStocks, and Sunrise.

Solana drives cumulative volume growth

Solana's cumulative transfer volume for tokenized stocks crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time, representing a 180% surge over the last month. The total market value for all tokenized stocks stood at $1.54 billion as of this writing. Monthly active addresses increased nearly 30%, while the number of holders rose 37% month-over-month, indicating broader participation in the sector.

Market metrics and participation

The following table summarizes key performance indicators for the tokenized stock market:

Regulatory landscape and future outlook

The expansion of tokenized asset trading aligns with efforts by companies like Robinhood Markets Inc., which launched tokenized stocks for European customers last year. However, clearer regulatory frameworks in the U.S. remain pending. The passage of the Clarity Act, which would define when a token qualifies as a security, is seen as a critical step. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has also proposed an "innovation exemption" to create a regulatory sandbox for qualified firms to issue and trade tokenized securities under lighter-touch compliance conditions while maintaining SEC oversight.

At the time of writing, SOL was trading at $69.35, up 0.59% in the last 24 hours.