Market Crash: The Cryptocurrencies I'd Buy Without Hesitation

Key Points
Planning ahead is the best way to address any anxiety you might have about an upcoming market crash.
Pick out a few assets you would want to buy if they were a lot cheaper.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Zcash are what I'll be going with in crypto if the market dumps.
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The crypto market is down by around 13% since 12 months ago, and the sector's leader, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), is down by a nauseating 45% since its all-time high near $126,000 in early October 2025. Since the Oct. 10 flash crash that put a stop to Bitcoin's bull run, sentiment about crypto has been persistently terrible. If there's a real macro shock stemming from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, another crash is fully possible.
Nonetheless, the people who buy the right assets during market crashes tend to come out ahead in the years after the dust settles. With that in mind, here are three coins I'd load up on if prices collapse further.
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1. Bitcoin
I am nearly always a buyer of Bitcoin. I believe that because it's a neutral and increasingly scarce store of value, it'll appreciate over the long term as more people recognize the need for forms of money independent of government control. Only 21 million coins will ever exist, and over 95% have already been mined. The next halving in 2028 will further tighten new issuance, as will the halving after that.
Bitcoin is trading roughly where it was for much of 2024, before the Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved and a large rally took off. I was buying it then, too.
I don't try to time my Bitcoin purchases. I accumulate it constantly, regardless of what the price is doing. Crashes don't alter that equation.
A crash, economic recession, a liquidity crunch, or another leveraged-liquidation cascade like Oct. 10's could push the price below $60,000. But those oversold conditions are what historically create the best entries, so if the market crashes, I might make additional discretionary purchases of Bitcoin to load up while it's cheap.
2. Ethereum
When the Oct. 10 crash hit, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) dropped by about 12% in hours. It's now 56% off of its all-time high, set in August 2025.
It never occurred to me to buy it during the flash crash. Still, my opinion on the chain has shifted since that period, when I tended to be a bit on the fence or even bearish about its future.
A pair of network upgrades is slated for this year. Both of them will improve the chain's ability to inexpensively and quickly process transactions at scale, and both build on prior updates that have been largely successful. For instance, the chain's gas fees have fallen by 73% in the last 12 months alone.
If another sell-off or crash pushes the coin's price down even further, I plan to buy it. There's simply too much momentum with its tech to pass up.
3. Zcash
Zcash (CRYPTO: ZEC) is, in oversimplified terms, an asset that copies Bitcoin's supply policies and adds an optional privacy shield for transactions.
It shares Bitcoin's monetary design, with a 21-million-coin cap and a four-year halving schedule. It also adds a cryptographic layer called zk-SNARKs that can verify a transaction without revealing the sender, recipient, or amount.
What additionally separates Zcash is the somewhat self-funding development engine. The protocol dedicates 20% of every block reward to funding its ecosystem's future. A portion of that 20% flows to a community grants committee. That self-sustaining funding mechanism is an advantage most other coins lack, and it could pay off significantly over the long term.
Of course, privacy coins like Zcash carry plenty of regulatory risk. It's also true that the project's governance hit a patch of turbulence in early 2026, with the core development team dissolving its original organization and transitioning to a new structure. But if a crash drives the price of Zcash lower, the combination of its proven privacy tech, programmatic funding, and a decent development roadmap makes it a coin worth accumulating.
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Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Zcash. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.