I've been rampantly gathering information about crypto altcoins.
So at current Ethereum is being massively restricted by it's "gas" prices. Many analysts consider it to be highly undervalued because of this in spite of the massive network that has been created around it. These prices are also affecting all the various other projects running on Ethereum. These issues are basically destined to disappear, and if I understand correctly no more ETH will be mined at that point as well. This is going to be a sort of flood gates being opened event for ETH.
This may just lead to an average pump in the market
or...
the idea behind ETH is to basically replace every function it can on the internet with a blockchain version of it. This system will leave a lot more of peoples finances and data security in their hands. Imagine for a second in 15 years blockchain is the defacto method of data transfer and handling on the internet. We are (potentially) in the very early stage of massive adoption of a new technology. Some analysts say ETH will hit a trillion dollar market cap.
There are several altcoin projects that I think will also massively benefit from this, and they fit into a couple catagories.
DEX coins
These are staking coins for decentralized exchanges. These run on the Ethereum network and adhere to a more purist principle of cryptocurrencies, that you maintain control over them. On Binance, Kucoin, and similar Centralized Exchanges they have complete control over your wallets and your cryptocurrency. You have to trust that they will have no issues that will affect your wallets. With DEXs you keep them in your wallet and contribute to liquidity pools. Right now the gas prices are a massive hindrance to using these. That will change when ETH upgrades.
DEX coins i'm watching are Uniswap, Sushiswap, Pancakeswap, 0x, Kyber Network, and 1Inch. Its only logical that trade volumes will skyrocket after the upgrade.
DeFi coins
These coins are governance coins for financial staking and lending programs. These are the projects that aim to muscle out the banks, and basically by definition will soak up huge amounts of money as they continue to grow. Because of this they may outpace any other cryptos growth in the coming years.
DeFi coins i'm watching are Chainlink, Compound, Aave, Maker, Yearn, Synthetix, Ankr, and Luna
The "Ethereum Killers"
This is an interesting an often hyped group. These projects are in some ways rivals to ethereum but many of them are addressing scalability issues that Ethereum faces that will essentially let them run along side with and integrate into Ethereum. These projects are are all creating large and hugely successful networks that are gaining a lot of traction.
ETH Killer coins i'm watching are Cardano, Cosmos, Polkadot, Ripple, Stellar, Tron, Solana, Neo, and EOS.
NFT Coins
I'll add this because I like the idea, but I am still shakey on how much potential is really there. These coins are all about online game and collectibles dApps/markets, and should similarly benefit from ETHs upgrade. I think the video game industry has been thirsty for new ways to monetize their games and blockchain has served them up an answer on a silver platter.
NFT coins i'm watching are Decentraland, Ecomi, Enjin, and Sandbox.
The actual Cryptocurrencies
I have to say when people think about the mass institutional adoption of cryptos they are usually thinking of the currency and associated payment methods aspect of blockchain. These are sort of your bluechip cryptos with approachable use cases and development of payment apps. I'm less into these at the moment because these do not run on Ethereum, and thats where I'll be focusing my attention on mostly this work season.
Currency coins to watch are Bitcoin (duh), Litecoin, Ripple, Stellar, Monero, Dash, Celo, and Electroneum.