Altseason is coming – or at least the data suggests it is closing

Shortly after hitting a new all-time high of $69,324 on March 5, Bitcoin (BTC) price has seen a sharp correction.

Meanwhile, led by altcoins, memecoins and AI-themed cryptocurrencies, the altcoin season (altseason) has surpassed BTC last week, sparking a debate on whether it is here.

The total capitalization of the crypto market has reached 2.5 trillion dollars

Bitcoin's brief breakout above $69,000 on March 5 saw the global crypto market cross the $2.5 million mark, indicating current bullish momentum. According to data from CoinMarketCap, this figure reached $2.52 trillion at the time of publication.

Altcoins showed similar strength, with their total market capitalization (see chart below) rising to more than $1.1 trillion on the same day. This metric measures the total market value of all crypto assets except Bitcoin.

In the last three months, this value increased by approximately 64% from $ 697 billion to $ 1.14 trillion on March 7. This is a slightly better performance than the 56% posted by Bitcoin.

This rise confirms the growing interest of investors in altcoins and the recent impressive performance of this segment of crypto assets.

Large-cap altcoins outperform Bitcoin

The great rally seen by memecoins and AI last week could be a sign that the market is at the beginning of an altseason.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows memecoins posting double and triple-digit gains over the past seven days.

In particular, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) posted gains of 20% and 130% respectively this week. New tokens such as Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK) and Dowwifhat (WIF) saw double to triple digit gains during the same period.

Other notable performances came from tokens in the AI ​​ecosystem led by Fetch.ai (FET), Synesis One (SNS), SingularityNET (AGIX) and Theta Network (THETA), which saw double- to triple-digit gains in 7 days.

Bitcoin is up just 8.5% over the same period.

Not yet altseason

The performance of altcoins seems to coincide with the improvement of the altcoin season index, indicating that the altcoin season is near. With this index at Blockchain Center:

“If 75% of the top 50 coins have outperformed Bitcoin over the past season (90 days), then this is Altcoin season.”

This indicator basically shows that only 69% of 50 altcoins have outperformed Bitcoin in the last 90 days. Although this index has increased in the past few days, it is still not enough to declare altcoin season.

However, according to a recent market report by K33 Research, this may soon change. The report sees Bitcoin rally to a new all-time high since the November 2022 bottom, doubling market cap with the exception of BTC and Ether (ETH).

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According to K33 research analysts, the setup mirrors the 2020 altcoin bull before it catches up with Bitcoin's growth.

“Historically, altcoins are starting to perform better than we are now.”

Independent analyst CrediBULL delved into the relationship between the performance of Bitcoin at the beginning of the altseason. In a March 4 post in X, CrediBULL outlines two possible scenarios:

When Bitcoin breaks the previous ATH and quickly doubles in a few weeks and “Alts won't get much love until BTC stops after this particular leg” and Bitcoin re-visits the previous ATH but then declines, it strengthens significantly for a few weeks. In the latter case, altcoins “start collecting immediately after BTC accounts before ATH. “

CrediBull says:

“The common theme here and the main starting point is that once BTC reaches the ATH, alts will start rallying at BTC's first major stop/consolidation, either before the ATH or well above it.”

However, Michael Van de Pop, founder and CEO of MN Trading Consulting, believes that the altcoin era is just beginning, pointing out that they still have “40-60% market capitalization” before reaching a peak of more than $1.1 trillion in 2021.

For his part, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes that the altcoin era will begin when DOGE overtakes ADA in terms of market capitalization. In a March 5 post on the X social media platform, Hoskinson said,

“That moment DOGE overturned Cardano. It's officially kids of the alt-period.”

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and business activity involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision.