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Altcoins

Best Crypto to Buy in 2026: Arthur Hayes Spends $888K on Altcoins, as Analysts Put a 1000x Call on Pepeto

Picking the best crypto to buy in 2026 feels hardest in a red week, when every chart looks like a warning. Yet some of the biggest wallets did not wait. Arthur Hayes bought about $888,000 of

AnonymousCryptoCompass newsroom
October 16, 2026
5 min read
NEWS
Best Crypto to Buy in 2026: Arthur Hayes Spends $888K on Altcoins, as Analysts Put a 1000x Call on Pepeto
CryptoCompass editorial visual for altcoins coverage.

Picking the best crypto to buy in 2026 feels hardest in a red week, when every chart looks like a warning. Yet some of the biggest wallets did not wait.

Arthur Hayes bought about $888,000 of AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA as prices fell, Bloomingbit reported on October 15. The same day, a single whale bought 6,010 ETH for $14.23 million, per Bitcoin Sistemi.

Big wallets often buy while others sell, because that is when prices sit lowest. Their bets went into known names. The same idea, getting in before the crowd, explains why Pepeto, a meme coin not yet listed, has raised over $11.1 million.

Arthur Hayes Buys About $888K of AERO, PENDLE and ZAMA in a Red Week

Hayes, who runs the fund Maelstrom, made the buys through FalconX and Flowdesk, TechFlow reported on October 15. He took about 546,600 AERO worth $460,000, 120,000 PENDLE worth $232,000, and 3 million ZAMA worth about $197,000.

Each pick has a working product, and each was bought on a down day. That simple filter is worth copying.

Best Crypto to Buy in 2026 After Hayes's Dip Buys: Pepeto, AERO and PENDLE

1. Pepeto: A $0 Bridge Across Five Chains Before Its Listing

Following a big wallet often means moving money onto another chain first, and Aero's own merger spans seven chains. Pepeto already runs a bridge built for that move, so it passes the Hayes filter too, with a working product priced before the crowd shows up.

Most bridges charge $15 to $50 a move and can take hours. Worse, a failed move on some bridges can lock funds for good. Pepeto's bridge charges $0 in bridge fees, so you pay network gas only. Five paid moves a month at $15 each come to $900 a year, money that stays in your wallet here.

Your tokens lock in an audited contract on the first chain, the lock is proven on chain, and the same tokens appear on the second chain. No wrapped IOU is made, so the total supply stays the same on every chain.

It links Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, Base and Arbitrum, and a move takes under 60 seconds. If a move fails, the lock reverses by itself, and no person ever holds your funds.

Buyers have noticed, and Pepeto has pulled in over $11.1 million while still in presale. The price climbs as each stage closes, and a Binance listing is expected. Analysts see room for 1000x once it lists, and if that call lands, $50 today becomes $50,000.

Hayes bought coins with working products. Pepeto has working products too, at a price no exchange has set yet, which is the same setup Hayes paid for this week, only earlier.

2. Aerodrome (AERO): A Big Merger Lands on October 21

AERO trades at $0.8471 on CoinMarketCap, down 2.86% in a day but up 10.4% this week. Aerodrome and Velodrome merge into one "Aero" across seven chains on October 21, CoinMarketCap reported.

AMBCrypto sees the next wall at $1.30, about 53% higher. Its $2.33 record from December 2024 is about 2.75 times away, a solid climb, but a long one.

3. Pendle (PENDLE): Fixed Yield on Tokenized Nvidia and Tesla

PENDLE trades at $2.06 on CoinMarketCap, down 7.1% this week. On October 14, Pendle launched fixed yield products on tokenized Nvidia and Tesla shares, CoinMarketCap noted. That is real use, the kind of product Hayes looks for.

Still, its $7.52 record from April 2024 sits about 3.6 times higher, and for a coin ranked near 100th, that kind of climb takes time.

Conclusion: Big Wallets Bought This Week, and Pepeto's Presale Price Has Not Moved

Hayes bought in a red week, and a whale took $14.23 million of ETH. AERO and PENDLE are fair picks, but both face long climbs back to their records.

Early wallets have made this pay before. One took 365.96 billion PEPE worth about $494,000 in December 2023, and the stack was worth $5.3 million within six months, per Benzinga.

Pepeto offers that kind of early seat with checks behind it, from a SolidProof audit to a live bridge and over $11.1 million already in. That mix makes Pepeto the best crypto to buy in 2026 on a small budget.

Every round on the Pepeto official website costs more than the last, so a small stake goes furthest in this stage, before it closes.

Take part in the Pepeto presale at today's stage

FAQs

What is the best crypto to buy in 2026 after Hayes's dip buys?

The best crypto to buy in 2026 is Pepeto, because it has what Hayes bought, a working product, before listing. AERO and PENDLE need 2.75x and 3.6x to reclaim records.

Will AERO or PENDLE outrun Pepeto in 2026?

No, because analysts see 1000x for Pepeto once it lists. One early whale turned $494,000 of PEPE into $5.3 million, and stages on the Pepeto official website keep climbing.