38% of Altcoins hovering near all-time lows – analyst
According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, an estimated 38% of altcoins are currently hovering at all-time lows, which is worse than the FTX market crash.
The current market is “unfavorable” for risky assets, and the crypto market is the first to post this risk exposure, he said:
“For comparison, this metric reached 35% in April 2025 and 37.8% after the FTX crash. This chart shows the current state of altcoins very well. Investors are cautious and continue to lose interest in altcoins.”
Examples of altcoins, a cryptocurrency commonly used as an alternative to Bitcoin (BTC), include Cardano's ADA (ADA), which is at an all-time low of $0.17 at $0.10. Polkadot (DOT) hit an all-time low of $1.13 last month, but is now up 33% from that, and Polygon (POL) is trading at $0.02 off an all-time low of $0.08.
Liquidity is moving away from altcoins and into stocks and commodities, Darkfost said. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the daily trading volume on October 10, the day of the historic crypto market crash, reached more than $417 billion.
For comparison, daily trading volume in February and March 2026 ranged from $49.4 billion to $268 billion.
The altcoin drawdown represents the “biggest regression” recorded in the current market cycle, and could bring a buying opportunity for investors, he said.
Related: $209B Out of Altcoins in Last 13 Months: Are Traders Turning to Bitcoin?
Altcoin social movement drowned by Bitcoin
According to crypto market sentiment analysis platform Santiment, the analysis comes as mentions of altcoins on social media platforms dropped to a two-year low.
Google's global search volume for altcoins also dropped from 100 to a low of 4, according to Google Trends data.
“Altcoins are suffering from a ‘liquidity drain,' where even a small change in sentiment can cause them to oversell,” Jimmy Xu, co-founder of liquidity platform Axis, said in a message shared with Cointelegraph.
This is because altcoins don't have the same institutional support and lack the “digital gold” narrative enjoyed by Bitcoin, he said.
Analysts have cited several reasons for the decline of altcoins, including multiple tokens competing for a limited number of investors' capital, and the launch of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), changing market dynamics by capturing liquidity in traditional financial vehicles.
At the time of writing, there are more than 36.8 million crypto tokens listed on CoinMarketCap.
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