'Altcoin season' may be coming soon... "Selective gains expected"

Growing anticipation for an 'altcoin season'

Major coins like Ethereum showing an uptrend

Institutional buying and the GENIUS Act's influence

"Selective gains expected"

Recently, anticipation for an 'altcoin season' has been mounting as major altcoins, centered around Ethereum (ETH), show strong performance.

On the 25th, CoinMarketCap reported Bitcoin dominance at 60%, a decline of 4% from the previous month. This marks the lowest level in the past four months. Usually, a drop in Bitcoin dominance means that capital is flowing into altcoins, often signaling a strong altcoin market. Market attention is also sharply increasing. On this day, the 'Altcoin Search Index' on Google Trends scored a perfect 100 points, hitting the highest level in four years.

The period from the 16th to the 23rd saw particularly impressive gains among major altcoins. According to CoinMarketCap data for this period, Ethereum surged 19.75% to surpass $3,700, marking a new yearly high. XRP also rose by 20.32% to break through $3.5 and set a new all-time high, while Solana (SOL) gained 23.95%, recovering to the $200 level—the first time since February. In contrast, Bitcoin only rose by 1.02% during the same period.

Influence of institutional buying and the GENIUS Act

A key factor behind the altcoin strength has been strong institutional buying. Recently, capital inflow from institutions has been active for Ethereum, XRP, and Solana alike.

According to Glassnode, "Ethereum is seeing buying driven by whales and institutional investors with a long-term holding purpose," adding, "Since early July, 681,000 ETH (worth $2.5 billion) has moved to long-term holding wallets, while exchange reserves dropped by 317,000 ETH (about $1.1 billion)."

According to WhaleTrace, large investors have bought over 2.2 billion XRPs in the past two weeks. Solana also saw its staking ETF asset size exceed $100 million within just 12 days of launch, demonstrating continued institutional capital inflow.

The passing of the U.S. stablecoin regulation bill, the GENIUS Act, is also said to have fueled the altcoin bull market. For Ethereum, the blockchain with the largest stablecoin issuance, and for XRP, anticipation around Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD is cited as a major reason for market optimism.

'Altcoin season' may be near... "Selective gains expected"

Experts believe the chances are high that an altcoin season is approaching. Cryptocurrency data analytics firm Swissblock commented, "A strong altcoin season occurs when Bitcoin dominance drops and capital moves broadly to altcoins," and added, "With Bitcoin's momentum slowing and capital rotation now ongoing, if this trend continues, a full-fledged altcoin season could begin."

Bitfinex's recent report analyzed the current market as potentially the start of an altcoin season. The report stated, "Investors are shifting capital from Bitcoin to altcoins to capture additional upside potential," suggesting that an altcoin-led phase is beginning within an overall bull market.

However, some analysts believe that even if an altcoin season arrives, it may be hard to see the explosive gains of previous cycles. Jang Kyung-pil, research center head at Xangle, noted, "As Ethereum begins to rise, there's a high chance that liquidity will flow broadly into altcoins," but added, "It's unlikely we'll see dramatic increases of more than 100x like before." He further remarked, "We are likely to see gains primarily in tokens with strong fundamentals, such as those with actual users or generating meaningful performance and revenue."