Altcoins continue to see declining volume and interest as crypto market volatility remains localized to a select few tokens.
Altcoin volume on other exchanges has plunged from between $63 and $91 billion to $18.8 billion, underscoring a similar bearish descent.
“Monetary conditions are meaningfully tighter than they were in previous cycles, and that shows in how conservatively people are positioned,” Justin d'Anethan, head of research at crypto research firm Arctic Digital, told Decrypt. “Add weak jobs data, oil spiking on Middle East tensions, stagflation noise, and traders just stay put or with the asset with the clearest narrative and deepest liquidity—Bitcoin.”
“Now the market is more segmented. Liquidity is more directional,” Sammi Li, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Ju.com, told Decrypt. “You’ll still get strong runs, but they’ll be tied to specific themes where capital can actually justify exposure, whether that’s infrastructure, real-world assets, or new consumer use cases.”
d'Anethan agreed, saying that a repeat of the broad 2021 alt season was “structurally unlikely” since the “conditions that made it work are largely gone.”
“The $120,000 to $130,000 range is likely the threshold where we’d see a meaningful risk-on shift into altcoins,” Aytunc Yildizli, chief growth officer of decentralized AI company 0G Labs, told Decrypt.
A move toward that level would trigger the “wealth effect,” Yildizli said. It is a level where Bitcoin holders would feel comfortable enough “to rotate a portion of gains into higher-beta assets.”
Even then, this rotation would be narrow and thesis-driven, according to the 0G Labs analyst.
