Layer 1 and scaling networks: where each one sits in the cycle
This page ranks 12 base-layer blockchains and scaling networks, including Bitcoin, Solana and Arbitrum, by Bargain Score, and explains what has driven their cycles and what tends to go wrong for them.
Bull Market
6% confidence · UncertainSustained uptrend: greed rising, most coins well above their lows, momentum strong.
In past bull phases, traders have typically set price targets, raised stop-losses and planned their exits.
Cycle 4: BTC peaked at $126,080 on 6 Oct 2025, 534 days after the halving · Alts average 84% below their ATH
Five live readings drive this classification
- Fear & GreedGreed
- Avg ATH distance83% below ATH
- Avg RSIWeak
- Zone mix80% buy-side / 7% sell-side
- Bargain ScoreUndervalued
Phase from 5 live indicators across 54 coins. Halving-to-peak history: 371 / 526 / 548 / 534 days (mean 495). Estimates, not forecasts. Halving estimate from mempool.space block height.
The phase comes from five live readings: Fear & Greed, the average distance below ATH, average RSI, the mix of zones and the average Bargain Score. Each is scored from 0 (bull) to 100 (bear), then averaged. An average of 70 or more reads as Accumulation, 50 Early Recovery, 30 Bull Market, 15 Euphoria, and anything lower Distribution.
- Fear & Greed: Greed.
- Avg ATH distance: 83% below ATH.
- Avg RSI: Weak.
- Zone mix: 80% buy-side / 7% sell-side.
- Bargain Score: Undervalued.
Confidence is how far the average sits from the 50 midpoint, doubled. The countdowns use the block-height estimate for the next halving and the average halving-to-peak gap of past cycles. They are historical patterns, not forecasts. Next halving estimate plus the mean halving-to-peak gap over 4 cycles (371 / 526 / 548 / 534 days).
Read the full methodTop coins by market cap
BNB BNB
Uniswap UNI
Internet Computer ICP
Optimism OP
Filecoin FIL
Showing 12 coins · sorted by Zone score, high to low
- 1
NEAR Protocol
NEAR · Layer 1Price$5.1424h+3.48%Position23% of rangeMkt cap$6.7BVolume$1.1BRSI48Zone score69/100Discount, strength 4 of 5Zone score 60–79: Price is clearly below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $23.51 (+357%)Price 75% below ATH · greed highNEAR Protocol is 75% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 66/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level Low.
- 2
Conflux
CFX · Layer 1Price$0.057424h+2.88%Position2.1% of rangeMkt cap$301MVolume$14.1MRSI53Zone score66/100Discount, strength 4 of 5Zone score 60–79: Price is clearly below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $1.95 (+3,303%)Price 97% below ATH · greed high · structural collapse riskConflux is 97% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 66/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level High.
- 3
Arbitrum
ARB · Layer 2 / ScalingPrice$0.191424h+8.49%Position5.2% of rangeMkt cap$1.3BVolume$173MRSI45Zone score66/100Discount, strength 4 of 5Zone score 60–79: Price is clearly below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $2.75 (+1,336%)Price 92% below ATH · greed high · funding negative · shorts crowdedArbitrum is 92% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 66/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level Medium.
- 4
Polygon
POL · Layer 2 / ScalingPrice$0.101424h+4.26%Position2.8% of rangeMkt cap$1.1BVolume$100MRSI33Zone score64/100Discount, strength 4 of 5Zone score 60–79: Price is clearly below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $1.48 (+1,363%)Price 92% below ATH · greed highPolygon is 92% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 63/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level Low.
- 5
Avalanche
AVAX · Layer 1Price$10.3124h+4.14%Position5.3% of rangeMkt cap$4.6BVolume$320MRSI44Zone score56/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $166.70 (+1,517%)Price 93% below ATH · greed highAvalanche is 93% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 62/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level Medium.
- 6
Cardano
ADA · Layer 1Price$0.237524h+4.67%Position7.1% of rangeMkt cap$8.9BVolume$397MRSI47Zone score53/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $3.55 (+1,396%)Price 92% below ATH · greed high · longs crowdedCardano is 92% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 58/100 (Watch). Risk level Low.
- 7
Polkadot
DOT · Layer 1Price$1.1724h+3.70%Position0.8% of rangeMkt cap$2BVolume$188MRSI46Zone score51/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $63.23 (+5,309%)Price 98% below ATH · greed highPolkadot is 98% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it at a meaningful discount.
Bargain Score 63/100 (Meaningful discount). Risk level Low.
- 8
Sui
SUI · Layer 1Price$1.0624h+4.80%Position14% of rangeMkt cap$4.3BVolume$552MRSI40Zone score49/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $6.15 (+483%)Price 80% below ATH · greed high · longs crowdedSui is 80% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 47/100 (Watch). Risk level Medium.
- 9
Solana
SOL · Layer 1Price$107.4124h+4.32%Position37% of rangeMkt cap$63.3BVolume$3.4BRSI31Zone score48/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $337.31 (+214%)Price 63% below ATH · greed high · longs crowdedSolana is 63% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 51/100 (Watch). Risk level Low.
- 10
The Graph
GRT · InfrastructurePrice$0.026424h+6.38%Position0.5% of rangeMkt cap$289MVolume$10.4MRSI40Zone score42/100Mild discount, strength 3 of 5Zone score 40–59: Price is a little below its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $3.27 (+12,285%)Price 99.0% below ATH · greed high · funding negative · longs crowdedThe Graph is 99.0% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 57/100 (Watch). Risk level High.
- 11
Aptos
APT · Layer 1Price$0.840024h+8.79%Position1.7% of rangeMkt cap$742MVolume$93MRSI57Zone score39/100Fair value, strength 2 of 5Zone score 20–39: Price is close to its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $22.91 (+2,627%)Price 96% below ATH · greed high · funding negative · longs crowdedAptos is 96% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 52/100 (Watch). Risk level High.
- 12
Bitcoin
BTC · Layer 1Price$83,37124h+2.44%Position66% of rangeMkt cap$1.7TVolume$29.9BRSI50Zone score23/100Fair value, strength 2 of 5Zone score 20–39: Price is close to its usual range for this point in its cycle. How zones workCycle targetsBase $144,992 (+73.9%)Price 34% below ATH · greed high · funding negativeBitcoin is 34% below its all-time high while the market is greedy. The Bargain Score puts it interesting, but not yet at deep-discount levels.
Bargain Score 50/100 (Watch). Risk level Low.
End of the list
12 of 54 coins shown. Search above to add another coin, or see which coins changed zone today.
Today’s zone changes
About layer 1 and scaling
Key takeaways
- Layer 1s settle their own transactions; scaling networks such as Arbitrum settle theirs on a layer 1 underneath.
- In 2021 money rotated from Bitcoin into large networks, and most of that group later fell more than 90%.
- Supply matters here: tokens still to be released count as future selling pressure in the score.
A layer 1 is a blockchain that settles its own transactions, and a scaling network such as Arbitrum or Polygon processes transactions more cheaply and then settles them on a layer 1 underneath. The tokens pay for transactions and, on most of these networks, are staked to secure them, so in theory their value follows how much the network is used. In practice it has followed something else as well, which is the order in which money moves through the market in a bull run.
Bitcoin usually moves first, and in 2021 the money then rotated into large networks pitched as faster or cheaper alternatives to Ethereum, and the dates on our list show it happening: Cardano peaked in September 2021, Polkadot in early November, Avalanche on 21 November and NEAR in mid-January 2022.
Almost all of that group fell more than 90% afterwards, and most never came back. When we checked every coin against CoinGecko on 10 October 2026, Cardano was still 91.7% below its high, Avalanche 92.7% and Polkadot 97.7%, nearly five years on.
On the latest snapshot
As of 14 Oct, 02:00 BST, the median layer 1 and scaling coin on our list is 92% below its all-time high, 10 of the 12 are in a discount zone, and the highest Bargain Score in the group belongs to Conflux at 66.
Newer chains such as Aptos and Sui launched later with large allocations to their founders and early investors, so their prices have had to absorb a steady flow of newly released tokens as well as the market cycle. Aptos set its high in January 2023 and on the same October day was 95.9% below it.
For this group we think the bigger risk is crowding rather than any one project failing. Dozens of networks compete for the same developers and the same users, a chain that loses momentum rarely gets it back, and outages still happen (Solana was down for around 17 hours in September 2021). One quirk of our list is that Ethereum sits in the tokenisation theme rather than this one, because that is where most tokenised funds are issued.
How the scores work
Every formula and data source behind the Bargain Score and the zones, checked against the code.
Read the methodology How the screener reads these coins
Token supply makes a big difference in this group.
Token supply makes a big difference in this group. Bitcoin has around 95% of its 21 million cap in circulation, so its tokenomic quality score is close to 1, whereas a newer network with a third of its supply released scores nearer 0.35 on that measure and drops several Bargain Score points for it.
We think that is fair, since the model treats tokens still to be released as future selling pressure and that is roughly how a lot of newer networks have traded as their early investors' allocations came free.
FAQ
Questions about layer 1 and scaling
Why does Bitcoin rarely reach the Discount zone when smaller networks do?
Mostly because Bitcoin falls less: in the 2022 bear market it dropped about 77% from its November 2021 high, while Avalanche, Polkadot and NEAR all fell more than 90%, and the model gives its largest weight to distance below the high and closeness to the low. The Discount zone also counts a drawdown of more than 70% as one of its conditions, which Bitcoin has only met near the very bottom of past bear markets, whereas a smaller network can meet it for years at a time.
On 10 October 2026 Bitcoin was 34% below the $126,080 high CoinGecko records for 6 October 2025. We mention the exact figure because the old version of this screener was still telling people that Bitcoin had peaked at $109k in January 2025, a line typed into its code that was nine months and about $17,000 out of date by then. Here the high is read from data on every refresh.
What is the difference between a layer 1 and a layer 2?
A layer 1 runs its own consensus and keeps the final record of transactions, as Bitcoin, Solana and Cardano do. A layer 2, such as Arbitrum or Polygon, batches transactions together and posts the result to a layer 1, which makes them cheaper while relying on the layer 1 for security. We group them together because their tokens have tended to move with the same rotation of money between large networks, even though the technology underneath is different.
Why is The Graph in this theme?
The Graph is an indexing service that many applications use to query blockchain data, so it sits underneath a lot of other networks rather than being a chain itself, and the original app filed it under layer 1 and scaling as shared infrastructure. Its chart has not behaved like the rest of the group. It set its high in February 2021, months before most of them, and on 10 October 2026 it was 99% below that level, trading at under 3 cents against a high of $2.84.
Important information
Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.
Cryptoassets are largely unregulated in the UK, so you are unlikely to have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if something goes wrong. Educational information only, not financial advice. Read our disclaimer.
The crypto cycle in more depth
- Market mood Crypto Fear & Greed Index Today's reading and every daily value since 2018, with how fear and greed lined up with Bitcoin's cycles.
- Bitcoin cycle Bitcoin halving countdown The next halving estimated from block times, and every past halving beside the cycle peak that followed.
- Real returns Bitcoin real returns Bitcoin's highs and drawdowns restated after US and UK inflation and against money printing.
- Real returns Real returns for every asset Shares, gold and crypto measured against inflation in dollars and pounds, and against money printing.