Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) and Near Protocol (CRYPTO: NEAR) may be among crypto’s most underpriced assets, according to Helius co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz.

Overlooking Long-Term Factors

In an interview with "When Shift Happened" on July 16, Mumtaz explained that the traders are overlooking developer activity, infrastructure upgrades and long-term network economics.

She added that crypto traders often judge projects through short-term price action while missing the businesses, products and technical improvements developing behind the scenes.

Solana as the Highest-Conviction Pick

Mumtaz called Solana the "obvious choice" for developers building on-chain businesses because it combines speed, liquidity, infrastructure and a growing concentration of startups.

He described Solana as a "global Silicon Valley" where developers can launch payments, trading platforms, tokenized assets, collectibles and other financial applications.

Mumtaz said the network’s price decline has distracted traders from improving fundamentals, including record transaction activity, faster block times, higher network capacity and many more.

Trading firms, market makers and applications need SOL to compete for limited block space, execute time-sensitive trades, store data and open accounts across the network.

As activity grows, demand for those scarce network resources should also increase, he said.

Zcash Looks Undervalued

Mumtaz described Zcash as a high-conviction privacy asset that investors overlooked when it traded near $18.

Its core investment case is simpler than Solana’s, he said. Zcash offers private digital money while allowing users to keep transactions transparent when desired.

Mumtaz argued privacy becomes increasingly valuable as governments expand financial surveillance, asset monitoring and restrictions on capital movement.

He also highlighted Zcash’s work on formal verification, which mathematically tests whether critical software performs as designed.

Near Protocol Offers Higher Risk, Asymmetric Upside

Mumtaz said his conviction in Near remains lower than in Solana and Zcash, but he views the project as significantly undervalued relative to many cryptocurrencies ranked above it.

He pointed to Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin’s technical background, the network’s sharding architecture and its positioning across artificial intelligence and cross-chain infrastructure.

Mumtaz also praised the Near team’s operational execution, describing it as highly organized and capable of turning plans into working products.

However, he cautioned that Near still needs to attract more developers and businesses before reaching its potential.

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