Altcoin volume hits 51%: But a rising BTC Dominance means alts face THIS risk

Key Takeaways

Is an altcoin season incoming?

Not likely in the coming weeks. Rising Bitcoin Dominance shows that higher Altcoin Volume alone doesn’t reflect strong market confidence.

How should investors and traders navigate the rest of 2025?

For BTC and alts, a bearish phase is ongoing, so participants must reassess their biases accordingly.

In a recent report, AMBCrypto reported how a rebound in demand for Bitcoin [BTC] could catch the bears unawares. Long-term holders were selling Bitcoin, as shown by the increased long-term holder spending in recent weeks.

Onchain BTC movements supported the idea of selling pressure.

Yet, BTC continued to trade above $100k. The convergence of rising network activity, strong miner participation, and low MVRV meant Bitcoin could be forming a strong base ahead of its next move upward.

If this is not the beginning of a bear market, but instead was a bull market reset, what does it mean for altcoins?

Tackling the altcoin season mirage

Source: CryptoQuant

In a post on X, analyst Maartun observed that the Altcoin Volume was 51% of all trading volume.

For the uninitiated, this was a sign of market participation, but not necessarily indicative of an altseason. Altcoin volume of over 50% happened in the final week of September, and for most of February as well.

Source: TOTAL3 on TradingView

In these periods, the trend of altcoins was mainly downward, with brief bounces.

Therefore, the trading volume was likely a heap of selling pressure, with some respite in between. This alone is not an indicator of an altseason.

Market cap faces a heavy ceiling

Also, another point worth mentioning is that the Altcoin Market Cap is struggling to breach and stay above the $1.13 trillion mark. This was the market top in the 2021 cycle, and hasn’t convincingly been breached yet.

It is time to turn to one of the strongest indicators of an altseason.

Source: BTC.D on TradingView

On the 1-day chart, the Bitcoin Dominance was trending higher over the past two months. It was challenging the resistance zone at 60.5%.

This left traders focused on the likelihood that Bitcoin could outperform most altcoins in the short term.

Moreover, the swing points from the weekly timeframe (orange) showed that the higher timeframe outlook was bullish for BTC.D. This meant that Bitcoin is likely to outperform the majority of the altcoin market in the coming weeks.

Investors and altcoin traders should be prepared for further price drops.

Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice and is solely the writer’s opinion