Crypto faces a new altcoin season
The altcoins are back – once again: While much of the focus in recent months has centered around Bitcoin as the largest and most important cryptocurrency, signs are now mounting that a new so-called altcoin season has begun. Various alternative cryptocurrencies are recording above-average price gains and increasingly attracting investor capital.
This can be observed in crypto assets like XRP, BNB, TRX, or perhaps soon SOL: These cryptocurrencies have experienced new all-time highs in 2025 or are close to breaking the record values from previous years. Simultaneously – and logically – Bitcoin’s market dominance is declining due to strong altcoin growth: BTC’s market share was still around 65 percent in mid-2025, but today stands at only 57 percent.
Various indices currently show that the crypto market is already in an altcoin season or is about to enter this market phase. An altcoin season is typically defined as follows:
“When 75% of the top 50 coins have performed better than Bitcoin in the last season (90 days) – then it’s altcoin season. Stablecoins (Tether, DAI…) as well as asset-backed tokens like WBTC, stETH, cLINK etc. are excluded from the top 50 for this calculation.”
According to some indices, this threshold has already been reached in recent days. On the well-known portal CoinMarketCap, the counter currently stands at 71 – meaning only four more altcoins with better 90-day performance than Bitcoin are needed.
1. Altcoin Season Index at CoinMarketCap
2. Altcoin Season Index at Coinglass
3. Altcoin Season Index at Blockchaincenter
How long does this phase last?
As reported, many companies and crypto traders are betting on a strong fourth quarter of 2025 for cryptocurrencies – and an altcoin season with new all-time highs for many assets naturally fits this scenario. As reported, there are different assumptions in the crypto industry about how and why Q4 2025 could be strong. Now, about two weeks before the start of the fourth quarter, altcoins are showing strong momentum.
The last real altcoin seasons were many years ago. There were these hot phases for smaller cryptocurrencies in 2017 and then again in 2018, which temporarily managed to steal Bitcoin’s thunder. Most recently, a brief altcoin season was seen at the end of 2024, but it quickly collapsed when the coins and tokens ran out of steam again.
Particularly for the largest companies in the crypto business – the exchanges – altcoin seasons are naturally very important. Trading volume increases significantly because trading occurs more frequently and with more diverse assets – and exchanges always profit from these trades. This fits the picture that last week, the crypto exchange Gemini, owned by the Winklevoss twins, completed a successful public offering.
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