Select what genuinely interests you. Your picks feed directly into our editorial planning. Update (November 1, 2026): Parts of this article date from the 2022 bear market, others from 2024; since then the market has gone through a full cycle. After the halving in April 2024, Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of around $126,000 on October 6, 2025, Ethereum reached around $4,950 on August 24, 2025 and Solana around $293 on January 19, 2025 (CoinGecko). At 04:35 UTC on November 1, 2026, according to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin costs $77,683, around 38 percent below its record, Ethereum $2,264, Solana $95.45 in 7th place and Cardano $0.19 in 15th place. On the technical side, Ethereum has rolled out the Dencun, Pectra and Fusaka upgrades since the Merge, while Cardano has introduced voting by ADA holders on the protocol through the Chang, Plomin and Van Rossem hard forks. The timelines in the text have been brought up to this date; the assessments of the coins remain those of the authors and are not a price forecast.