Injective (INJ), PEARL and Zcash (ZEC) Surge as Crypto Traders Return to Altcoins

Injective, PEARL and Zcash recently drew renewed trader attention as crypto investors moved back toward altcoins, with the tokens spanning decentralized finance, AI-linked computing and privacy. Injective runs on proof-of-stake and lets token holders assign tokens to validators for staking payouts. Pearl Research's PEARL uses a Proof-of-Useful-Work model for decentralized computing, while Zcash relies on proof-of-work and shielded transactions that conceal transaction details, so it does not offer native staking rewards like INJ. Bitcoin Hyper, a planned Bitcoin Layer 2 built with the Solana Virtual Machine, is offering HYPER tokens at $0.0136 in a presale ending Nov. 26, 2026, and has raised more than $33.2 million.