As Bitcoin continues to move above the $90,000 mark, Altcoins began to reach new highs. The sector has recently reclaimed a key two-year level that could set the stage for a retest of 2021’s highs. Some analysts consider that Altcoins’ recent performance could kickstart the long-awaited Altseason.
Altcoins Market Cap Reclaims 2022 Levels
The total crypto market has seen a remarkable performance for the past 21 days, jumping to a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion. This surge, fueled by the US elections on November 5, has led Bitcoin’s price to a 40% increase to its latest all-time high (ATH) of $99,645.
Similarly, Altcoins have started to record their best performance in years, with tokens like Cardano (ADA) and XRP (XRP) surpassing the long-awaited $1 mark. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies like Solana (SOL) and SUI (SUI) hit new ATHs recently, igniting investors’ bullishness for the cycle’s second leg up.
The community has also expressed optimism for the ‘King of Altcoins’ recent performance after Ethereum (ETH) recovered the key $3,300 support zone last week. The crypto market’s performance has led the Altcoins’ market capitalization to hit a two-year high and reclaim key levels.
Notably, the total cryptocurrency market cap, excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, surpassed the Q1 2024 high of $788 billion as BTC soared past the $90,000 resistance. The momentum led the Altcoins market cap to break above the $840 billion mark last week, a level not seen since April 2022.
Since then, Alts have held above this range despite the market retraces, turning this horizontal level into support. Additionally, it neared May 2021’s high of $984 billion, a crucial resistance level ahead of the Altcoins market cap ATH of $1.13 trillion.
Altseason To Start Soon?
According to Bitfinex’s Alpha report, this marks Altcoins’ “largest through-to-peak move” since April 2021. The 23.2% increase hints at an increasing investor appetite, leaving behind the previous “start of the bear market” levels.
This movement “indicates a rotation of speculative capital and interest from Bitcoin into Altcoins as retail market participation increases,” the Bitfinex analysts explained, which tends to mark “the onset of the final stage of the bull market where altcoins begin to outperform Bitcoin on an aggregate basis.”
Crypto analyst MikyBull pointed out that Alts dominance “just climbed above the trend ribbon” on Tuesday. The analyst’s chart, which excludes the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, displayed Altcoin’s dominance at 10.37%, breaking above the multi-month downtrend line.
Per the post, this has indicated before that “Alts are about to outperform in the next coming weeks.” Similarly, he highlighted a breakout from a multi-year cup and handle pattern in the Altcoins’ chart.
To him, the Alts have started running after breaking out from the pattern’s neckline, and investors will see the “full potential of the Altseason” from December to March 2025.
Meanwhile, Bitfinex forecasted that “lower timeframe upside seems to be limited for altcoins” due to its resistance at May 2021 levels. Nonetheless, the report noted that breaking above the $984 billion resistance would signal a continuation of altcoins ascend.
Ultimately, Bitfinex’s analysts consider that a larger Bitcoin correction could have a “magnified” effect on altcoins, and they expect, “at minimum, a period of ranging after a week full of consistently high liquidation numbers for both longs as well as shorts for altcoins.”
