Plasma (XPL)

$XPL giving signs of life. https://t.co/iZxqHmRtVA

Top L1s are starting to show signs of a comeback 👀

While most of the market remains focused on Solana and Ethereum, several underrated Layer 1 ecosystems have quietly started building momentum again.

Projects like @Plasma, @injective, and @NEARProtocol spent months trading below the spotlight, yet recent onchain activity, trading volume, ecosystem growth, and price action all suggest that capital has slowly started rotating back.

Here are 3 L1s currently sitting on my watchlist.

1/ @Plasma - $XPL

Plasma was built from the ground up for stablecoin payments, offering near-zero fees, high throughput, and full EVM compatibility.

One of the biggest recent developments has been the launch of Plasma One, a neobank platform featuring both virtual and physical payment cards.

The product pushes Plasma beyond crypto-native users and brings the ecosystem one step closer to real-world payment adoption.

The market has already started reacting, with $XPL recovering strongly following the Plasma One launch.

2/ @injective - $INJ

Injective has long been recognized for its high-performance infrastructure built around derivatives and onchain finance.

Recent integrations such as native USDC and CCTP, alongside growing attention around regulated futures markets and AI-powered DeFi, have helped drive a steady recovery from the ~$4.5 lows.

Looking ahead, I think Injective remains well-positioned to benefit from the continued expansion of the RWA sector, where a significant amount of capital still has room to move onchain.

3/ @NEARProtocol - $NEAR

NEAR has quietly delivered one of the strongest recoveries among major L1s, climbing roughly 50-90% over the past month as AI infrastructure and cross-chain intents continue attracting attention.

The ecosystem keeps strengthening its developer experience through features like Account Abstraction, while simultaneously expanding its AI infrastructure and intent-based architecture.

One area that stands out in particular is NEAR Intents.

– Over $21B in cumulative volume
– More than 25 million transactions processed

Those numbers highlight growing user activity while reinforcing NEAR's position as one of the more active ecosystems in this cycle.

I think we're entering an interesting phase for undervalued L1s.

Market attention gradually appears to be rotating away from pure memecoin speculation and toward ecosystems delivering real utility through stablecoin payments, advanced DeFi infrastructure, AI, and RWAs.

That shift could create meaningful opportunities for Layer 1 projects that have spent months quietly building while the market looked elsewhere.