The crypto market has a familiar temptation: find the altcoins that have fallen the hardest and call the wreckage a bargain. But popular analyst Kyle Doops is using a very different filter, one based on relative strength rather than spectacular losses.
BeInCrypto applied that test to the 20 largest non-stablecoin assets. Just three altcoins currently make the cut: Hyperliquid, TRON and Monero.
Bitcoin does not qualify either. The discussion came during a podcast in which Doops was asked about a screen for altcoins trading less than 36% below their all-time highs. The premise was simple: instead of searching for the biggest casualties, look for assets that have managed to hold up.
That changes the shopping list considerably.
The altcoins that refused to get wrecked
Doops argues that newcomers often gravitate toward coins that have suffered the steepest declines, assuming the damage creates an opportunity.
“They look at, hey, what’s down 99.99% that’s at a massive discount. Let’s buy it. But instead, it’s better to look at what hasn’t been completely wrecked.”
Under that test, HYPE, TRX and Monero are the only three altcoins still standing above the threshold. Further down the rankings, the gap becomes dramatic. Chainlink is 78% below its record, Cardano is down 93%, and Polkadot has fallen 98%.
Hyperliquid is the clearest example of the theory working in real time.
When the interview was recorded on August 28, Doops pointed to HYPE as his strongest case, noting that it was trading close to its all-time high even while Bitcoin remained well below its own peak.
Hyperliquid later pushed further. HYPE reached a record $89.60 on September 6 before retreating to $78.82.
TRON offers a different setup. Doops highlighted a cup-and-handle pattern and pointed to a 100% extension at $0.4359, just above TRX’s record high of $0.4313.
Then there is the awkward exception.
Altcoins have a blind spot — and Zcash found it
Zcash does not pass the relative-strength filter. ZEC was still 64% below its 2016 peak when Doops discussed the asset at $791.
Yet the coin subsequently climbed roughly 120% in a month and moved above $1,000 for the first time in nearly a decade.
That creates a problem for any strategy built around avoiding damaged assets: the biggest rebound can sometimes come from exactly the coins the screen rejects.
Privacy coins have since become the only sector trading above Bitcoin’s October 2025 high. Investor Dan Held also said Bitcoin whales had encouraged him to buy ZEC months before its move.
Solana presents the opposite case. Despite its strong narrative, Doops pointed to the numbers and described SOL as still 64% below its peak. The reference article lists Solana at 66% down.
“You have to call a spade a spade… as great as the narrative is, it’s still 64% down.”
For Doops, that distinction shapes the role altcoins should play. Rather than treating them as long-term holdings, he describes them as short-term instruments for rotating capital back into Bitcoin.
“History would suggest that it’s probably not a great idea to be an altcoin investor.”
His own previous analysis adds another wrinkle. He said one coin had historically beaten Bitcoin cycle after cycle. That coin was Dogecoin, which now sits 89% below its all-time high.
The result is an uncomfortable lesson for the altcoins debate. Relative strength can reveal which assets have resisted major declines, but it can also exclude coins that later produce outsized recoveries. The filter finds resilience; it does not guarantee what comes next.