The grayscale Q3 2025 candidate Token list is out: the number has sharply decreased to 31, AI becomes a new category, and many projects have been eliminated.

Grayscale Q3 2025 Candidate Asset List, Number Significantly Reduced

Grayscale, as one of the world's leading Bitcoin spot ETF issuers, has a diversified portfolio of crypto asset management products and business layout. Its research department regularly publishes lists of potential altcoins and investment recommendations for specific blockchain tracks.

The organization has recently released the "Candidate Asset List" for the third quarter (Q3) of 2025. This list shows a significant change compared to the previous quarter (Q2 2025): the number of candidate tokens has decreased from 40 to 31. This number is not only lower than Q2 but also less than the lists for Q1 2025 and Q4 2024, indicating that Grayscale's screening of cryptocurrency investment targets is clearly narrowing.

Grayscale Candidate List: Significant Project Eliminations, AI Tokens Become the New Focus

So, which altcoins are considered more promising by Grayscale? This quarter, Grayscale has made significant cuts:

• Smart Contracts Platform Category: Decreased sharply from 12 projects last quarter to 7.
• Utilities & Services Category: Reduced significantly from 13 projects to only 4.

The complete list of excluded token projects is as follows:

Babylon, Berachain, Celestia (TIA), MOVE, TRON (TRX), VeChain (VET), Mantra (OM), ELIZA, Immutable (IMX), Akash Network (AKT), Fetch.ai (FET), Arweave (AR), EigenLayer (EIGEN), Geodnet, Helium (HNT), Sentient.

New Categories and Legacy Questions

As part of the adjustments, Grayscale has newly established the category of "AI Tokens", with some projects from the previous list being classified into this new category. Nevertheless, the number of truly new projects included is relatively small.

It should be noted that Grayscale has not explained the specific reasons for the significant adjustments to this list. Additionally, the status of several projects on the list, such as MegaETH, Monad, Lombard, Playtron, Prime Intellect, Story (IP), is relatively special, as Grayscale has pointed out that they cannot be clearly classified into existing major asset categories, adding uncertainty to the future direction of Grayscale fund products.

Grayscale Research Depth and Transparency Although Grayscale provides detailed analysis in its reports such as "Top 20 Crypto Sectors", the "candidate asset list" has traditionally only provided basic data. This has made it difficult for the cryptocurrency community and professional analysts to fully understand the complete token evaluation logic and insights into the crypto market behind Grayscale's massive removal and adjustments.