Author: Erik Lowe, Head of Content at Pantera Capital; Compiled by: Golden Finance
Bitcoin often leads bull market cycles, while altcoins tend to lag in the early stages. As the cycle progresses, altcoins often gain momentum and outpace Bitcoin towards the end of the cycle. We refer to this as the 'first phase' and 'second phase' of the bull market.
Importantly, during the past two cycles, altcoins contributed the majority of value creation. In the 2015-2018 cycle, altcoins accounted for 66% of the total market cap growth in cryptocurrency. In the 2018-2021 cycle, they contributed 55%.
So far, altcoins in this cycle account for 35% of the overall market growth.
For a long time, Bitcoin has benefited from regulatory clarity—this is evident not only in its classification as a commodity but also in its well-known role as 'digital gold.' This has been a key driver of Bitcoin's outperformance over altcoins in the early stages of this cycle. Altcoins have historically faced greater regulatory uncertainty, which has only recently begun to change. Under the leadership of the new U.S. government, this landscape is shifting, making significant progress in driving digital asset innovation.
Historically, the clarity and tailwinds favoring Bitcoin are now starting to extend to altcoins. The market is beginning to reflect this.
As victories on the regulatory front continue to accumulate, momentum is increasing. Last month, President Trump signed the GENIUS Act, creating conditions for the flourishing of U.S.-regulated stablecoins, which are expected to become engines of global financial transactions. The CLARITY Act passed by the House aims to establish clearer boundaries between digital commodities and securities, helping to address the long-standing jurisdictional uncertainty between the SEC and the CFTC. A transformation is underway, and we have reason to believe that non-Bitcoin tokens will be among the biggest beneficiaries.
Innovation and development are accelerating, especially in the field of tokenization. Robinhood recently launched stock tokens supported by Arbitrum, aimed at democratizing stock trading and creating more efficient markets. Major U.S. banks such as Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan are exploring the issuance of their own stablecoins. BlackRock's BUIDL fund has accumulated $2.3 billion in tokenized treasury bonds. Figure has processed over $50 billion in blockchain-native RWA transactions. In addition to the tokenized treasury bond fund, Ondo plans to list over 1,000 tokenized stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ through Ondo Global Markets. On-chain migration is underway.
Ethereum drives growth in non-Bitcoin market share
A significant portion of real-world assets is flowing into Ethereum. In the $260 billion stablecoin market, 54% of stablecoins are issued on Ethereum. 73% of on-chain treasury bonds are on Ethereum. DAT is accumulating ETH at an unprecedented rate. Wall Street is gradually realizing this, and demand for ETH is skyrocketing.
The price of Ethereum priced in BTC has risen 103% since its bottom in April 2025.
