The altseason, translated as “altcoin season,” is captivating the interest of crypto investors and everyone is talking about it again. Let's see what it is about and what the analysts' perspectives are for this season.
When the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), cryptocurrency largest on the market, stagnate and those of the altcoins, all those cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin, begin to grow, experts speak of “altseason”.
The term was coined at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, when the price of BTC fell abruptly and that of other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum (ETH), began to gain ground. Recall that by then, BTC reached a maximum of $20.000 per unit, driven by interest and demand from retail investors, who later began collecting their profits and selling their cryptocurrencies. This collapsed the price of BTC in the markets, falling to $7.000 by the end of January. The fall took Bitcoin to the same levels it had months before.
In the case of ETH, for example, its price also rose by the end of 2017 and fell by January 2018, but, despite the fall, ETH recorded gains compared to previous months.
Source: Coin Gecko.
The price of ether and other altcoins in the market was sustained when investors and users began to look for alternatives in other cryptocurrencies and digital assets, many of them being carried away by the misconception that Bitcoin was a bubble that had burst.
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Bitcoin vs Altcoins in the markets
Almost 4 years later, altseason continues to mean the same thing. Currently, the price of Bitcoin has been lagging behind other cryptocurrencies whose prices have risen to new all-time highs; new values that a few months ago were unsuspected.
Bitcoin has lost much of its dominance in the markets, meaning that volume of investor money is flowing into altcoins. The most notable is Ethereum, whose market capitalization jumped from $88.000 billion at the beginning of January to more than 400.000 million currently.
Likewise, many altcoins, such as Cardano (ADA), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE) and, especially, Ethereum Classic (ETC) y Polygon (MATIC), are leading the growth of the crypto industry week after week, with increases that exceed 30% and up to 150% weekly. The opposite is true for Bitcoin today, whose weekly increase is between 2% and 6%.
Why does the altseason occur?
First of all, Bitcoin was born as an alternative to the traditional financial system. One that allows users to have their own money, without depending on banks or third parties or intermediaries. Also, Bitcoin offers an efficient and secure way to transfer money globally with low commission costs, and in recent years, it has become a store of future value.
However, it is worth remembering that Bitcoin is an open source cryptocurrency, so other developers began to copy the idea; and although many of the assets created from Bitcoin have no use, or are mere copies of the original cryptocurrency; others were designed to add value to society. And even projects like Ethereum or Cardano introduce innovative solutions that are not easily present in Bitcoin. Hence, the interest and adoption of altcoins.
Also, the interest that many investors see in these alternative currencies is because of the possibility that they become a new bitcoin, and thus take advantage of the opportunities that the first BTC holders had, who bought the currency when it was worth just a few dollars.
On the other hand, what begins an altseason, in truth, is that 75% of the 50 most important cryptocurrencies on the market surpass Bitcoin, in terms of growth and revaluation, in the last 3 months.
So has the altcoin season started?
According to analysts, and as the portal shows Blockchain center, which precisely analyzes the behavior of Bitcoin against the Top 50 cryptocurrencies, yes, We are in altcoin season!.
Source: Blockchain Center Index
The highest performing alternative cryptocurrencies in the last 3 months are: ETC, whose performance exceeds 1.300%; MATIC, which driven by the adoption of Ethereum layer 2 solutions and its integration with various protocols that seek scalability within this network, has grown by 1.115%; and CAKE, the native token of the DeFi protocol PancakeSwap, which briefly surpassed Uniswap as the DEX with the highest daily trading volume. CAKE has appreciated by 810% in the last 3 months.
On the other hand, the same source shows that in the last month, the highest performing cryptocurrency has been DOGE, with 900% growth, followed by ETC y MKR, with 540% and 150%, respectively. Likewise, other altcoins with significant growth that exceeds the current performance of Bitcoin are: AAVE, THETA, VET, BNB, ENJ, QTUM, ZIL, CHZ, EOS, BCH, LINK, DASH, and several others.
altseason history
As said at the beginning, the first time the term “altseason” was used was in 2017, and since then, it has had to be used several times. the last of these was in August 2020, when a season of altcoins hit the crypto industry. By that time, Blockchain Center data shows that 89% of Top 50 cryptocurrencies outperformed Bitcoin.
However, the altcoin fever subsided and Bitcoin once again regained its status, leading the crypto space with a dominance of more than 55%, until now, as a new altseason arrives. BTC's current dominance in the markets is 45%, according to Coin Market Cap.
Despite the extraordinary performance that altcoins are currently providing, and that are capturing the attention of thousands of investors around the world, analysts remember that the crypto market is variable and always in constant motion, so changes may occur. important from one moment to the next, leading Bitcoin to be the center of attention again.
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