Is "altseason" dead? Just my thoughts

[Kelward]

I wouldn't say that alt season is dead the same way I won't say that Bitcoin bull run is dead but the problem is that while you're waiting for the peak season you won't know that it's already happening. Let me give Bitcoin bull season as an example, when we saw the last ATH most of us thought that it was a build up to see $150k ATH expectation but it's likely that we are already in bear run and won't see ATH for a long time. It could be that alt bull run happened immediately after then but wasn't very bullish and most people missed it. Whatever you do in this crypto market always give priority to Bitcoin and top altcoins, most of the rest are scams.

[fullfitlarry]

There have always been altseason but do not expect the altseason to be like how it was in 2014 and 2017. You have also posted already that there are more coins now. Some people said that there was no altseason in the last cycle but there was. Do not expect the altcoins to challenge bitcoin dominance as it was before. Also altseason is mostly more about gambling now. I am not saying it is not gambling before but it is more of gambling now than before.

Yeah, as much as we wanted to see altcoin having it's own bull run, every cycle is very different, just like what we have seen here. It's no longer that when Bitcoin hits all time high, almost all the altcoin will also have that kind of huge price increase.

So I don't know what's the reason behind, like what happen in ETH, didn't have that kind of huge run and it's expectations fell short of what others thought it will do in this 4 year cycle. I guess we can't do anything now but to wait for the next season again.

[Shinpako09]

It’s not dead, it just didn’t meet our expectations this time. We were expecting it last year, then moved that expectation to this year, but what we got instead was a crash. But it’s certainly not dead yet, just delayed, and it’s still possible it could happen this year. If not, then maybe in the next bull run, but definitely not dead. Just to be on the safe side, pick only the top alts. There are already a lot of altcoins, including memecoins, so maybe you won’t see that kind of run again even during altseason. Just look at CoinGecko’s report, over 50% of the crypto launched since 2021 is now categorized as dead or inactive.

[pooya87]

So I wouldn't say "alt-season is dead", because it is not something that can die due to its lack of independence. Whenever bitcoin starts rising back up again, the shitcoins will start pumping too.

Well, last year showed that this isn't the case. There were indeed some altcoins that performed well, but relative to the total mass, there weren't that many of them.
I think many expected to see a full-fledged alt season on the market, i.e., when all alts grow, while BTC dominance decreases significantly. This definitely didn't happen, and some shitcoins remained at the bottom, even when BTC reached its ATH.

Alt-season is generally known as the time when all altcoins or majority of them get pumped. But at any other time (even when the entire market is red) there will be coins that get pumped. That cannot be categorized as an alt-season.

That's an important distinction though. I've been telling people for years that they should not buy shitcoins and become bag-holders who keep on hoping for a pump that never comes. Instead they should learn to take advantage of the daily pumps that will always occur regardless of the general market direction.

Just visit your favorite altcoin CEX or a website like CMC and check out their "top gainers" to see these pumps. For example on https://coinmarketcap.com/gainers-losers/ if you change the Coins to "All" you will see the top pumps start from 3000% in the past 24 hours!

[Dunamisx]

If you're expecting for alts season, then maybe you can wait till next year for the market to rise more and better before you can see more of them rising and performing well even to all time high, but as for now, we maybe limited to the way the coins can perform this time around, but there is ore expectation over the end of this year or next year for the alt season to key start.

[fuguebtc]

I wouldn't say that alt season is dead the same way I won't say that Bitcoin bull run is dead but the problem is that while you're waiting for the peak season you won't know that it's already happening. Let me give Bitcoin bull season as an example, when we saw the last ATH most of us thought that it was a build up to see $150k ATH expectation but it's likely that we are already in bear run and won't see ATH for a long time. It could be that alt bull run happened immediately after then but wasn't very bullish and most people missed it. Whatever you do in this crypto market always give priority to Bitcoin and top altcoins, most of the rest are scams.

I think so too. The altcoin season has already happened, but it wasnt as strong and widespread as previous cycles. So, many people dont realize or acknowledge that its altcoin season.

If I remember correctly, that was the period when Bitcoin rose from $15k to $126k. There was a time when many altcoins experienced strong growth, especially meme coins on Solana. For example, Pepe, Wif, and Bonk have increased by millions of percent, or Sol, INJ, and many others have also increased by x5x-x20 during the same period.

If its not altcoin season, then what is it? But it seems that not many people hold these coins, and the coins they did hold have not increased. They thought the altcoin season hadnt arrived yet, but in reality, it has already happened alongside Bitcoin

[MAAManda]

That is because in a year like 2017 that you are thinking of, the bitcoin price was going on constantly and the massive rally of that year attracted a lot of newcomers with "fresh money". These newcomers were then caught by the altcoin advertisers and fooled into putting some of their money into shitcoins. That helped pump a lot of useless shitcoins. This is why what you said was correct ("anything you bought went up").

I can believe what you said even though there's no data considering your account has been registered for a long time on this forum, proving that you have been through & experienced many good & bad times in the crypto market. Referring to the sentence I bolded above, it draws a simple conclusion from my side.

You mean to say that those years were:

- Dark time for the newcomers.
- There were more stupid market players back then.
- We will never see another altseason like before because market players have become smarter (enthusiastic) now.

Is that all true?

[SirLancelot]

Back then, it was quite easy to make profits by holding a few hyped coins as you said but now things have changed. Not only the markets have matured but there are also strict rules and regulations in place which will not allow these altcoins to survive anymore. There are top altcoins and there are low cap or mid cap coins which have a huge differentiation. Not every altcoin is going to give you profits anymore. You should know which coin to invest and how long should you hold the coin. If your risk appetite is larger, you can surely go for mid cap or lower cap coins which risk will remain high but the chances of making profits too will be much higher.

I would personally recommend you not to run behind high profits anymore because you might end up losing everything you have. Instead look for stable profits which you can generate by investing in top rated coins like BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, etc. Your risk will be much lower here as these coins are in there for a long run. If you still want to go behind higher profits while increasing the risk, try to spend maximum time on research.

[Nahl]

In fact the market won't be same anymore although we were expecting altseason happened just like 2017 but seems we should be wait more patient to see the real altseason for upcoming year and actually we are pretty near to see altseason last year but unfortunately many investors still believe in bitcoin and unfortunately altcoin market still unable to beat bitcoin dominance for marketcap and the reason why altseason didn't happend could be various
But in my opiniion one of the main reason is because many investors didn't believe anymore to altcoin and we can see the proof that ICO projects are dead even airdrop program also cannot attract people to pay their attention to new altcoin the causes is many altcoin project turn to scam and this make the investors don't want to losing their money anymore from altcoin

[JeromeTash]

Back then, there were, for example, fewer than 1,000 tokens listed on CoinMarketCap. Today, there are probably tens of thousands, some of which do not even make it to CoinMarketCap.
Others are just created to rug pull; they don't even last more than two hours, and they are dead and gone.

The altcoin season this time round was a little different. It happened before BTC went to a new all-time high, and it mostly involved memecoins in the Solana blockchain. I don't remember anything else that was spectacular apart from that.

[gibrab16]

I remember back in 2014 and even 2017, altseason was easy. You just bought anything on bittrex and it went up. It didn't matter what the coin did. Now, it feels totally different and much harder. There are way too many coins now and most of them just seem to bleed against BTC forever.

From what I see, the big money only cares about a few things like ETH or SOL. The rest of the market feels like a trap because of all these new tokens unlocking every month. I think waiting for everything to pump at the same time might be a mistake. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think we get that 2014 feeling again where every random coin 10x in a week.

Personally, I've been moving back into BTC and the bigger alts. I'm tired of holding mid-caps that just go down even when BTC is doing okay. I’ve seen too many projects die since I joined this forum, so I'm playing it safe now. Are you guys still holding your small bags or did you give up on them?

the way things are going right now i can say it just might be. playing it safe for this moment is the best thing i think we can do and the best way to deal with things. you are right there are to many coins now and this is messing up coins that have been around a lot longer. going for the bigger alts can be just as risky its best for this moment to sit back and watch the way thing plan out first before making any drastic moves which can lead to you losing money.

[Rengga Jati]

Let's consider this definition, as briefly:

Altcoin season, or altseason, is a period in which altcoins experience stronger growth than Bitcoin.

Altseason

And let's compare it to the current situation, or the altcoin condition during the 2025 bull run.
Bitcoin's dominance remains significantly higher to date, while seasonal altcoins have never been more dominant during this bull run. Most altcoins haven't experienced greater growth than BTC, and the total index of the top coins hasn't shown an increase exceeding the previous ATH, which was much larger.

So, in other words, for this season, I think there hasn't been an altseason (it hasn't happened).

[Emitdama]

Altcoins season already came and gone but it was not the regular type of season which people already know so it became very difficult for people to catch them as they used to do the feeling that altcoins season is dead is quite understandable but it's not dead but instead the number of coins in the market is so large that it can't get much attention because no body knows what to buy this time instead everything is looking the same it's not something that should happen hence altseason will not come as usual instead just stick with what you know.

Mostly the altcoin season will come when bitcoins are on peak. That time, majority of people will be too busy investing in bitcoins itself so they would overlook altcoins because they can find much safer entry points there. It is when the bull rally ends when people tend to look towards altcoins to make profits while the markets are bleeding. This does not only make them enter at a riskier price point but also kills the profits they made from the bull run. In 2025, we saw all major coins along with a few altcoins pumping hard. Experienced traders were able to book profits that time while others were busy waiting for entry points.

I personally think that there is no altcoin season anymore. There is either bull run or bear run where the complete market will run in one direction. We should have enough knowledge about when to open and close positions in such markets. Regretting once the markets reverse does not help here.

[henry_of_skalitz]

Let's consider this definition, as briefly:

Altcoin season, or altseason, is a period in which altcoins experience stronger growth than Bitcoin.

Altseason

And let's compare it to the current situation, or the altcoin condition during the 2025 bull run.
Bitcoin's dominance remains significantly higher to date, while seasonal altcoins have never been more dominant during this bull run. Most altcoins haven't experienced greater growth than BTC, and the total index of the top coins hasn't shown an increase exceeding the previous ATH, which was much larger.

So, in other words, for this season, I think there hasn't been an altseason (it hasn't happened).

Clearly.

BTC dominated its way through every party, little and small, taking interest in it.

Once this hype will die down and the trend will shift its gears to big alts - we may talk about the real season for alts .

[dansus021]

since the memecoin boom everthing is different and look at the coingecko or coinmarketcap there are a ton of altcoin out there and you were right the liquidty(*real money) didnt big enough to spread out on any token or coin even tho there is a big company or institutional money flow.

Investor only focused on a big cap like ETH or SOL BNB Because they are have a real utility beside "token governance" they at least paid for gas etc. while the other token didnt work like it. Lets say there are new layer 2 and their mission is bring cheap fee and fast transaction, but every coin/token that I know is doing the exact same thing.

Altseason in my opinion is also dead maybe 2017 is the best year to remember :")