There’s probably nothing more reliable in crypto than traders yelling “ALTSEASON IS HERE” every time Bitcoin stumbles against altcoins.
Heck, they’ve been saying it religiously since mid-2024, and they’re starting to do it again now after Bitcoin dominance fell under 60% over the weekend, its lowest level since February.
Except this time, they may be onto something; ETH is within sight of new all-time highs, and other altcoins are looking ready to pounce.
“We may be in the middle of the Bitcoin cycle and in the early stage of an altcoin cycle,” Martin Burgherr, Sygnum Bank’s chief client officer, tells Magazine.
“Bitcoin dominance remains high but has started to slip, signaling early rotation into altcoins.”
There’s some data to back this up. Worldwide interest in the word “altcoin” on Google search is at its highest point since the end of last year. In the US, it’s the highest it’s been in about seven years. Meanwhile, Ether is up over 60% in the last 12 months — which usually heralds a rotation into alts.
Altcoin summer could have cold spots
But this altseason looks set to play out very differently from usual. Analysts tell Magazine that only certain altcoins will pump and that timing the peak will be a lot more difficult than before.
“This cycle’s [altseason…] is likely to be more selective and will see narrative-driven runs (e.g., AI, RWAs) rather than all altcoins rising together,” says Jag Kooner, head of derivatives at Bitfinex.
Kooner said a big factor is a massive oversupply of tokens, which at one point involved 50,000 new tokens per day in the market diluting gains, driven by memecoin dominance.
“I don’t think it will be ‘the rising tide raises all ships,’” agrees crypto trader and technical analyst Craig Cobb of Altseason 2025.
“There’s just too much dilution. You know, back then, we might have had 5,000 coins. Now we’re probably getting about 5,000 a freaking day because the devil entered our space.”
“The devil is Pump.Fun, a liquidity extraction device for the get-rich-quick era.”
Pump.Fun launched in January 2024, allowing anyone with a basic understanding of crypto to create their own memecoin. At its peak, users of the platform launched more than 70,000 tokens in a single day, and the platform is responsible for adding 12 million useless tokens to our ecosystem to date.
Institutional bid fuels different kind of altseason
At the other end of the spectrum, Wall Street money is also being directed toward a select group of cryptocurrencies in a way that didn’t exist before.
Spot Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds, which launched in 2024, have provided a regulated vehicle for massive pension funds and big banks to invest in cryptocurrency, funneling over $62 billion of total net inflows into these ETFs since their launch. (The vast majority into Bitcoin.)
Crypto treasury firms that sell shares or issue debt to raise funds to amass their chosen cryptocurrency have popped up like wildflowers to throw money at the likes of Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, BNB, Toncoin, Tron and Sui.
“Institutions are taking a more measured approach, favoring compliance‑ready assets with deeper liquidity rather than chasing every speculative token,” Burgherr says.
“Macro conditions and the rise of crypto ETFs are also shaping flows, meaning we should expect a more mature, less euphoric pattern compared to past cycles. The focus is on quality and long‑term utility, not just momentum,” he adds.
Altseason bull run could be shorter and softer
The concentration of TradFi capital into Bitcoin and Ether could also mean that altcoin market peaks and troughs will be far more difficult to spot.
“We see fewer retail-fuelled rallies and shallower corrections (20%-30% vs. 50%+) and sector rotations, driven by regulatory clarity and maturing market depth,” says Kooner, adding that the push into Bitcoin and Ether ETFs will prolong Bitcoin’s lead and reduce volatility.
Burgherr says he expects this altseason to last around two to three months and that the rotation will happen once Bitcoin consolidates after strong gains and risk appetite shifts outward.
“The peak will be driven by a mix of macro sentiment, institutional inflows into select altcoins and retail enthusiasm, but the window is finite, and timing is critical for capturing outsized returns.”
Kooner expects the next altseason to last a bit longer, at four to five months, potentially starting this year and peaking in the fourth quarter of 2025 or early…
cointelegraph.com