The cryptocurrency market is showing early signs of an altcoin season, following a sustained uptrend in top altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH), XRP, and Solana (SOL), over the past week, while Bitcoin (BTC) remained range-bound.
Altcoins get set for altseason as Bitcoin momentum drops
The crypto market maintained its bullish outlook over the past week, led by gains of over 20% across major altcoins, including Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, while Bitcoin saw a mild decline of 2%.
The rally led to a drop in Bitcoin's Dominance over the past week to 59%, a slight decline from its 66% cycle high. The decline suggests that investors may be rotating capital from Bitcoin into top altcoins, suggesting early signs of an altcoin rally.
"Historically, such sustained declines in Bitcoin dominance, especially without a sharp BTC correction, often signal the beginning of altcoin-led phases within broader bull markets," wrote Bitfinex analysts in a note to investors on Monday.
The drop in Bitcoin's dominance followed a rise in the altseason index, which went above 50 for the first time since December.
The recent surge in altcoins comes amid record inflows into US spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and progress in crypto regulation.
Ethereum ETFs saw a record inflow of $2.18 billion last week, beating their previous record of $908 million, according to SoSoValue data. Ethereum's futures Open Interest (OI) also spiked from around $40 billion to more than $57 billion in just a week, indicating a rise in optimism among futures traders, per Coinglass data.
