The crypto markets are heating up. Today, the altcoin season index tapped into ‘Altcoin Season’ territory. That’s the first time since December 2024. On September 17th, there’s a widespread expectation of rate cuts. That’s when the Fed schedules its next policy meeting. According to Polymarket, 87% expect a 25-bps rate cut. 11% even expect a 50-bps decrease.
So, with this as a background, I have $1,367 at my disposal, to add to my portfolio. I have also found four altcoins I want to put this towards. This is a critical entry point to maximize your gains. There are also whales that are targeting some of these altcoins. So, stay tuned until the end.
Cardano ($ADA)
Cardano ($ADA) stays in the spotlight, and that’s why it keeps coming back here. So, what’s new with Cardano? Let’s take a closer look.
One negative out there on Cardano is its vouchers. So let’s take a closer look at that…….
Over the past few weeks, there have been many questions about the ada voucher redemption process run by @InputOutputHK after 2021.
Here’s what we know:
✅The effort to locate and support remaining voucher holders has been led by the IO team over the past four years, with no…
— Cardano Foundation (@Cardano_CF) May 19, 2025
There have been many questions about the $ADA voucher redemption process. The major issue was that Cardano insiders stole or otherwise misused $ADA. That’s $ADA that should have been allocated to Voucher Holders. Input Output ran this process after 2021. So, in May 2025, IOG started an Investigative Report and Forensic Audit. This audit took a closer look at the $ADA Voucher Program.
In early September, this audit came to completion. In the process, tens of thousands of documents were reviewed. However, the result was that none of the allegations had any basis. That’s an important moment in clearing any suspicion on the side of alleged insiders.
Dear Cardano Community,
As you know, in May 2025, IOG engaged McDermott Will & Schulte and BDO to conduct an Investigative Report and Forensic Audit concerning the ada Voucher Program, redemptions of Vouchers, Cardano blockchain upgrades, and the use of ada associated with…
— Joel Telpner (@JTelpner) September 3, 2025
Over the last two weeks, whales sold over 140 million $ADA. Nonetheless, the $ADA price remained stable and is currently at 89 cents. It shows that smaller buyers are absorbing supply and maintaining bullish momentum. The 85 cents level was a key support level.
Whales are booking profits, selling over 140 million Cardano $ADA in the last two weeks! pic.twitter.com/tpeGHmWb0O
— Ali (@ali_charts) September 11, 2025
This can signal a potential surge to an $ADA price between $1.13 to $3.13. The Grayscale ETF filing also gives good support here as well. Polymarket gives this an 82% chance of happening in 2025. According to Bitcoinsensus, a $1.86 price may be in the cards soon.
Source: Polymarket
I put 30% of my budget towards $ADA, which is $410.
Solana ($SOL)
Solana ($SOL) has been doing good during the last 30 days. It’s up 20% over that time frame, and this is for various reasons. It’s one of the more popular altcoins.
For starters, there’s the Alpenglow upgrade. This will be the network’s biggest overhaul in its history. It will bring transaction finality from 12.8 seconds back to 150 milliseconds. So, that’s a big deal. I mean, Solana was already fast, now it becomes even faster.
A community vote approved the upgrade. No less than 98.27% of all validators voted in favor of the upgrade. So, in other words, Alpenglow will completely replace Solana’s current consensus system.
#Solana has achieved a major milestone with its community voting overwhelmingly to approve the Alpenglow upgrade. The proposal passed with 98.27% approval from validators, marking the biggest technical change in the blockchain’s history.https://t.co/ceshs6sIqL pic.twitter.com/ym096gL7Rm
— Brave New Coin (@bravenewcoin) September 8, 2025
Solana’s ecosystem also has some great projects. Of course, there are the likes of Jupiter and Raydium. And not to forget the Pudgy Penguins.
However, there are also some smaller projects. For example, hidden gems, like Kamino Finance or Zeus Network. Today, they did a respective 14.1% and 13.3%. They also have small market caps, so plenty of growth potential during a bull run. Kamino has a $184.5 million market cap and Zeus hits $59 million.
Back to Solana, though. The current $SOL price is $238. Key resistance levels were between $230 and $235. So, now the psychological and important $250 mark is next. Like $ADA, I will dedicate 30% of my budget towards $SOL, which is another $410.
Stellar ($XLM)
Stellar ($XLM) is in the top 20 of altcoins, measured by market cap. There are also lots of positive developments going on with Stellar. That’s why you see more about Stellar here. So, one of the reasons why Stellar is doing so well is institutional interest. That’s not that strange, since Stellar, in a way, tries to do a similar thing to Ripple and $XRP. It offers fast and low-cost cross-border payments. And, of course, everything that goes hand in hand with this.
There is no blockchain future without institutional adoption. There is no real impact without serving the 1.4B unbanked. Building rails for both isn’t optional; it’s exactly what Stellar is made for, says @DenelleDixon (@CoinDesk) https://t.co/4QytyuVmmo
— Stellar (@StellarOrg) September 9, 2025
For instance, Paxos is a stablecoin issuer. You may know it from PayPal’s $PYUSD or Binance’s $BUSD. It scaled these to respective market caps of $1 billion and $25 billion. Now it plans to launch the $USDH stablecoin on Stellar. Noteworthy is that Paxos is one of the first issuers that can legally issue stablecoins in Europe. $USDH, is a stablecoin meant for the Hyperliquid DEX ecosystem. Paxos is one of the competing firms that tries to get the issuing rights to $USDH.
Paxos just flexed a partnership with PayPal and Venmo to integrate USDH in all forms of payment
Yeah this is the one
— aaalex.hl (@aaalexhl) September 10, 2025
To make a long story short, this brings in more institutional interest in Stellar. Combine this with the upcoming GENIUS Act and MiCA rules in Europe, and you see where this is going. For instance, it reinforces regulatory credibility.
Proposal submitted: USDH powered by Paxos
USDH issued by Paxos would mean:
❏ Global issuance that is GENIUS compliant
❏ Revenue sharing that fuels HYPE, protocols and validators
❏ Regulatory clarity + global scale to match @HyperliquidX‘s explosive growthHyperliquid. pic.twitter.com/iKIFUOT0bQ
— Paxos (@Paxos) September 6, 2025
I will add 20% of my budget to Stellar, which is $275. $XLM or Lumen is a bit stale at the current 39 cents price. However, there’s more upside possible into the 40-45 cent range during this month. However, over the last year, $XLM is up by 323%.
Ethena Labs ($ENA)
I just talked about Paxos. Well, here’s another stablecoin issuer for you, Ethena ($ENA). However, it’s active in DeFi, and it issues a synthetic dollar stablecoin, the $USDe. It also offers a crypto-native dollar savings instrument, the Internet Bond.
This is a dollar-denominated digital savings instrument. It offers yield to users. This combines crypto staking rewards with funding rates from derivatives markets. You can see this as a decentralized savings account. It not only stores value, but it also generates returns. Sounds familiar? Take a look at your traditional savings account.
Whales are interested in $ENA. That’s the governance token for Ethena. It allows you to vote on governance proposals and earn rewards. One whale has been selling off lots of $PEPE and $PENDLE in return for $ENA. To the extent that he now owns more $ENA than $PEPE. He has now 21.82 million $ENA in his wallet, that’s around $17.5 million.
The $PEPE continues to buy $ENA.
In Sept, the whale bought 9.08M $ENA for $6.68M at a price of 0.735 by selling $PEPE and $PENDLE.
Currently, the whale holds 21.82M $ENA worth $17.53M and now has more $ENA than $PEPE in its wallet.
Address:… pic.twitter.com/vzXBKAQ3tY
— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) September 10, 2025
The $ENA price is down 2.4% on the day, however, over the last 14 days, $ENA is up by 15.2%. Over the last year, $ENA is up by 264%. So, 76 cents looks like a good entry to me. That’s a 2x away from its ATH. Once altcoin season starts in all earnest, it should fly past this ATH. That’s why I added my last 20% or $275 to $ENA.
So, what do you make of these 4 altcoins? Which is your favorite, or did I not mention your fave altcoins? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to join our social media channels on X and Discord.
Disclaimer
The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.
We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.
Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.
The post $1,367 Crypto Portfolio, Fav Altcoins Whales Buy Before Sep 17 appeared first on Altcoin Buzz.
