Best Crypto To Buy Now December 27: Zcash, Layer-2 Prices Soar, These Altcoins Will Be Next To Explode

The crypto market is widely expected to have a highly bullish 2026 as investors rotate profit from overheated stocks and metals to undervalued digital assets. 

However, even before Bitcoin breaks out, several altcoins are already front-running the bull market, posting strong bounces. Assets that do not typically show a strong correlation with BTC are stealing the headlines, with the top privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) leading the charge. 

The next crypto bull run is likely to be led by utility altcoins, and ZEC is making a strong case as one of the potential top performers. In fact, experts are backing several layer-1 coins as among the best crypto to buy now.

Layer-2 coins, new tokens and AI cryptos are in high demand. 

Best Crypto To Buy Now

Zcash (ZEC)

The privacy coin trade is back, and Zcash (ZEC) is back in the spotlight. 

While the Bitcoin price remains range-bound, ZEC has surged by nearly 14% on Saturday, trading at $508 at press time. 

It is now the fourth-best-performing asset over the past week among the top 100 on CoinMarketCap, showcasing significant relative strength against most top coins. 

Crucially, the Zcash price has breached the $440-$460 resistance zone, which makes it one of the few assets where buyers are in control. 

Prominent analyst Nebraskangooner projects that ZEC could rally to $600 in the short term, which is another key resistance level. A subsequent breakout would bring new all-time highs into play. 

Another top crypto influencer Wizz, who has over 800k X followers, is bullish on the privacy crypto sector in the long term, with Zcash the most obvious play. He predicts that the ZEC price could hit $5000 in 2026. 

Monero (XMR)

Monero (XMR) is another privacy coin that is being backed by experts as the best crypto to buy now. 

While Zcash has already breached the most important resistance level in its chart, Monero is still on the cusp, making it an even more attractive play. 

Top analyst Matthew Hyland highlights that XMR is on the verge of breaking out from a 10-year ascending triangle. Others are claiming that it has formed a multi-year cup-and-handle pattern in the monthly timeframe. 

Either way, the $517 all-time high is now a key resistance level. A breakout would pave the way for an explosive Monero bull run that could see the price surge past the $1000 mark quickly. 

Interestingly, XMR has created a price action very similar to Silver. A multi-year cup-and-handle breakout resulted in a 150% rally in Silver, despite its multitrillion-dollar market cap. A much smaller Monero could see even more explosive growth. 

Hyperliquid (HYPE)

Hyperliquid (HYPE) is making a strong case for being the best cryptocurrency to buy now, especially in its current undervalued state. 

Due to the broader market bearishness and recent token unlocks, HYPE is down 60% from its all-time high. 

Yet, the fundamentals continue to be strong. In 2025, Hyperliquid emerged as the most heavily used blockchain by activity, underscoring its growing dominance in on-chain trading infrastructure.

The network processed an average of 6,502 orders per second, roughly four times the throughput of Ethereum and its rollups combined, and about three times Solana’s average TPS, highlighting its exceptional performance at scale.

Hyperliquid has onboarded 609.7k users in 2025 and generated nearly $850 million in revenue. 

As the broader market outlook improves in 2026, HYPE could be the top-performing asset on the market. 

Chainlink (LINK)

Chainlink (LINK), one of the fundamentally strongest cryptocurrencies on the market, is in high demand. 

Following its superhit Oracle technology and the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, the new Automated Compliance Engine is finding significant traction among institutions like the multitrillion-dollar J.P. Morgan. 

Technical analysis is giving a strong “buy” signal for LINK. Real Vision’s James Easton highlights that the Chainlink price is at a key support level, while its Moving Average Convergence/Divergence is at its most oversold level since 2023. 

Whales continue to accumulate LINK aggressively. Onchain Lens finds that a wallet has purchased nearly $9 million worth of the crypto in the past 2 days alone. The strong conviction suggests that an explosive rally could be on the horizon. 

Starknet (STRK)

Layer-2 coins like Starknet are facing significant buying pressure, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum remain range-bound. The relative strength is an indicator of latent demand. 

Once the large caps join the fray, STRK could be among the top performers. 

The Starknet price is up by nearly 8% over the past 24 hours, trading at $0.083 with a market capitalization of $413 million. 

Interestingly, STRK is emerging as a beta play on Zcash, considering that both projects are powered by zero-knowledge technology and co-founded by Eli Ben-Sasson. 

Obviously, Starknet is a beta bet on Ethereum, being one of the biggest layer-2 projects on the network. It also remains highly undervalued, trading nearly 97% below its all-time high. 

Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER)

Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER), a low-cap gem in the Layer-2 ecosystem, rounds out our list of top crypto investments. 

Today, on Saturday, several L2 coins like Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet and Stacks are seeing strong bounces, right as the Bitcoin price is attempting a breakout. This shows the high upside potential of the Layer-2 project in next year’s bull market. 

While the aforementioned coins have high market capitalization, Bitcoin Hyper is a low-cap investment with high upside potential. 

The project is off to a strong start, raising nearly $30 million during its ongoing ICO. Whales are pouring in high six-figure investments into HYPER, with Etherscan flagging buys as high as $650k in a single transaction. 

Bitcoin Hyper is a BTC layer-2 token, one of the unicorns in the Layer-2 ecosystem. The last big Bitcoin layer-2 scaling solution, Stacks, saw its market capitalization explode to over $5 billion in 2023. This is an excellent benchmark for HYPER. 

With its transparent whitepaper, decentralized token supply, attractive staking yields and backing of top influencers, HYPER ticks all the boxes of being one of the most successful new coins on the market. 

Several experts are publicly calling Bitcoin Hyper the next 100x crypto. 

For a wider selection of high-conviction plays, see our updated guide on the best crypto to buy now.