A layer-1 token pays for transactions on its chain and usually secures it through staking. Demand is therefore tied to activity: more usage, more fees, more reason to hold.
Nearly none of them has an options book, so the derivatives read is the leverage layer for all of them — and the on-chain read is available for whichever ones NoVo maps.
The three shared properties
Staking removes float. Most are proof-of-stake, so a share of supply is committed rather than tradeable — the float argument in Cardano, which applies across the family and to different degrees.
The token is its own routing asset. On-chain, the L1 token is one leg of the chain’s primary pair, so it tops any turnover ranking for reasons that are infrastructural — routing pools versus real demand. Its own turnover partly measures everything else happening on the chain.
They correlate with each other tightly. Same driver, same holder base, same narrative cycle. Holding several is close to holding one in larger size — ten positions, one bet.
What actually distinguishes them
Not the technology, for trading purposes. What differs structurally is the size and character of the ecosystem on top: a chain hosting a large on-chain trading surface gives its token a genuine usage driver and gives you a second read — the split described in Solana. A chain with little activity has a token priced almost purely on expectation.
And the microstructure differs: fee levels and block times change which strategies are economic and make transaction counts non-comparable across chains, per Solana versus EVM.
How to read one
Leverage layer for positioning. On-chain depth for the exit. Ecosystem activity as the slow fundamental. And a hard scepticism about diversification — adding a second L1 to a portfolio that holds one adds size rather than variety.