the data speaks of short-lived peaks

In the last year, it seems that a true “altcoin season” has not yet occurred, which is that market trend where cryptos perform better than Bitcoin (BTC). Some analysts therefore speak of an elusive altcoin season, given that the data indicates short-lived peaks. Here’s what’s happening in the crypto market. 

Elusive Altcoin Season: cryptos register short-lived peaks

According to reports from Blockchain Center, it seems that in the last year there has been an elusive altcoin season with short-lived peaks. 

Specifically, the altcoin season should be a period in which 75% of the top 50 altcoins perform better than Bitcoin (BTC) over a 90-day timeframe. Generally, these are the 2-3 months following a Bitcoin (BTC) price rally, during which altcoins surpass BTC in cumulative returns. 

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In this regard, Blockchain Center has created its own Altseason Index which, in the last year, recorded bull runs in January 2024, then in March 2024 and again in December 2024. However, these peaks were of such short duration that none can truly be called a “season”.

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This pattern is very different from what happened in the past. In fact, the altcoin season occurred in the 2015-2018 and 2019-2022 cycles, while for the current 2023-2025 cycle it seems to be not yet clear. 

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Altcoin Season: the different trends of the crypto market

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Another aspect to consider when talking about altcoin season is that it refers to all the cryptos that are not Bitcoin (BTC) but are also among themselves of different categories. 

This means that with the word “altcoin”, today, the native coins of the blockchain, governance tokens, stablecoins, memecoins, DApp tokens, and real-world asset (RWA) protocol tokens are grouped together, each with distinct functions and investor profiles.

Compared to when this word was born, today there are different sub-categories to consider, each with its own evolutionary trend. 

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On CoinMarketCap, for example, you can see the trend of some crypto subgroupss. In the case of memecoins, in general, the market cap seems to have increased by +9.42% in the last 24 hours, with a total of over 58 billion dollars. Here, you can also find the RWA category with a current total market cap of almost 54 billion dollars.

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Other categories of altcoins are those that are part of blockchain ecosystems, such as the crypto of the Solana Ecosystem, or Polkadot Ecosystem or, again, BNB Chain Ecosystem. 

Altcoins are also mentioned today for traditional financial instruments. For example, as early as last July 2024, the first Ethereum spot ETF in the USA emerged, which has since recorded in general a modest net inflow of 565,000 dollars. 

Now, in the hands of the US SEC, there are the ETF applications for LTC, XRP, SOL, ADA, DOT and other altcoins. 

The performance of altcoins in a narrower sense

At the beginning of the month, the altcoin market was analyzed with another index, the Total3, which measured the overall market capitalization of crypto excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the main stablecoins.

Not by chance, Bitcoin alone is worth more than 60% of the entire crypto market cap. Adding Ethereum, USDT, and USDC, it already exceeds 75% of the crypto market. This means that now altcoins account for less than a quarter of the entire crypto market. 

Here too, in the last six months, the maximum peak of Total3 was reached in December 2024, above 1.160 billion dollars. This means that between November and December, altcoins returned to their previous all-time highs, but without significantly outperforming them. 

While on January 18, 2025, the Total3 was still above 1.100 billion dollars, at the beginning of February the index dropped to less than 750 billion dollars. 

Only at the beginning of March, Total3 recorded a new rebound, above 900 billion dollars. At the time of writing, Total3 is 850 billion dollars.