Chainlink is used to provide data for a much larger pool of capital than before.
Bittensor is selling AI training services during a massive AI boom.
Arbitrum's deal with Robinhood is already revitalizing its network.
Now's a smart time to be shopping for beaten-down cryptocurrencies that have good odds of making a comeback in the coming market cycle.
In particular, Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK) and Bittensor (CRYPTO: TAO) are worth buying despite their deep drawdowns, and Arbitrum (CRYPTO: ARB) could be worth buying for investors with a high tolerance for risk; as of Sept. 18, Bittensor is 67% below its 2024 high, Arbitrum is 91% below its 2024 peak, and Chainlink is 77% lower than its peak in 2021. Let's assess the case for each.
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Chainlink is a data oracle, which means that it's a network that takes data like asset prices and economic data and imports it into a format that smart contracts and crypto-trading algorithms can easily use. As of September 2026, its data feeds touch $38.2 billion in value, up from $11.4 billion in the same month of 2023, giving it a 61% share of the oracle market by touched value.
It's also the preferred partner for some high-profile data providers. For instance, in August 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department began publishing gross domestic product (GDP) data on-chain through Chainlink.
In August, it brought in $4.8 million in data access fees, up from $4.6 million a year prior. Of this sum, $4.5 million was spent on buying back its own token on the open market. So nearly all of its fee revenue is used to buy its token.
But due in large part to the crypto bear market that started in October 2025, its coin is down by 52% over the last 12 months. The discrepancy between its steady fee revenue and its declining coin price can't last forever, especially not when holders get most of the upside, so I expect this coin to rerate upwards. Given that its data-provision business model isn't going stale anytime soon, it's worth buying.
Bittensor is a blockchain that's really more like a marketplace for artificial intelligence (AI) training services and computational work, where its mini-networks called subnets, each with a specific job, compete to earn its native token, TAO. If a subnet is successful, investors tend to stake more TAO into it, so it attracts capital to the network.
The coin is worth buying because its subnets are hitting significant technical milestones, like the decentralized training of a 72-billion-parameter large language model (LLM) in March 2026. The next technical accomplishment in that vein is a planned 110-billion-parameter training run announced on Aug. 24. If that's successful, it'll prove that Bittensor is offering a real alternative to the capital-intensive and highly centralized AI training processes that usually take place in a data center, funded by leading AI companies.
But the bigger appeal of Bittensor is its ecosystem, which responds to incentives to create the services in demand.
If a subnet can't profitably offer those services, it can stop operations, and another one can take its place. In the long run, that'll likely be a big tailwind for the coin's price, as the coin itself gains from the subnets' competitive activities without actually risking anything if individual players fail.
Arbitrum has been a tertiary player in crypto for years now, with its main claim to fame being its status as a layer-2 (L2) chain operating on top of Ethereum. That relationship is still in force today, but Arbitrum long needed new avenues for growth, which it has just recently found.
Robinhood Markets launched the Robinhood Chain on July 1, and that chain licenses some of Arbitrum's technology, entitling Arbitrum to fees. The Robinhood Chain returns 10% of its net revenue to Arbitrum, with 8% of the net revenue going to a treasury that Arbitrum's coinholders govern by vote.
The license paid $360,000 to the treasury in July, thanks to the rapid uptake of the new network and its promotion by Robinhood. On an annualized basis, that amounts to just a sliver of Arbitrum's $1.4 billion market cap, but it's an income stream that hasn't existed before.
Robinhood is going to spend a lot of money and effort to market its blockchain and attract new users and capital to that part of its ecosystem. Arbitrum will benefit from that process for free, and likely more so over time. With the additional income, it'll be positioned to find new areas to invest in for growth, perhaps with similar arrangements as it has with Robinhood.
So, Arbitrum is a potential buy only for investors with a high risk tolerance, as none of these opportunities were part of Arbitrum's story until recently, and they might not be around forever.
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Alex Carchidi has positions in Bittensor and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bittensor, Chainlink, and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.