Why hasn't this round of Bitcoin bull market in 2025 triggered the altcoin season? Have you noticed that this wave of Bitcoin reaching new highs seems a bit 'cold'?
In the past, every time Bitcoin $BTC soared, the entire cryptocurrency circle was like celebrating the New Year, with messages flooding the group, and everyone's circle of friends filled with screenshots of 'doubling wealth', various altcoins taking turns to surge, and air coins could rise tenfold or a hundredfold—this is the 'altcoin season' everyone yearned for. But in this round of bull market in 2025, while Bitcoin indeed broke previous highs and even once surged above $120,000, when you look back, most altcoins seem to be asleep, lying on the ground without moving.
Why is that? Has the 'altcoin season' really become a thing of the past?
In fact, it’s not that they haven’t risen, but that the 'play' has completely changed.
Let's start with a rather painful fact: this round of Bitcoin breaking new highs has actually happened twice already last year. In March and December last year, Bitcoin surged twice, and altcoins collectively celebrated, rising for a week or two, with many thinking 'spring has come'. And what was the outcome? When Bitcoin corrected, altcoins immediately crashed, with many coins falling even cheaper than before the rise. This wave of operation has been described by many as 'the market makers played both retail and altcoin market makers twice'—the main funds in Bitcoin raised the price to attract attention, then dumped their holdings, leaving chaos behind.
So by 2025, when this real breakthrough happens, many people have already been 'scared by being deceived'. The trading groups are no longer lively, search interest hasn’t picked up, and retail investors dare not act rashly. Can you say that market sentiment can heat up?
More crucially, the nature of funds in this bull market is completely different.
Previously, the main force in the cryptocurrency circle was 'hot money' and 'speculators'. They would buy Bitcoin, making a profit, and then transfer their profits into altcoins to seek higher yields, which formed the so-called 'capital overflow effect'—once Bitcoin rises, it's the altcoins' turn to take off.
But what about now? What’s coming in are institutions, the pension funds, hedge funds, and Wall Street giants behind ETFs. They buy Bitcoin not for short-term speculation, but to hold it long-term as 'digital gold', stockpiling it like gold bars, holding for years or even decades. They have no interest in touching those altcoins that lack consensus and liquidity.
The result is that money is only piling into mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and it simply can't overflow.
Analysts have pointed out that the liquidity in the market is actually very tight right now, and many so-called 'hot sectors' lack substantial support; they are more of a short-lived frenzy driven by emotion. Institutional investors seek certainty, assets that have strong consensus, are large in market capitalization, and can withstand risks. For them, the higher the Bitcoin price, the more it represents 'value'—this is not the thinking of retail investors but the logic of institutions.
Some have also proposed an interesting view: actually, the 'altcoin season' hasn't not come, but has moved to a different place.
From October last year to January this year, the primary market had already quietly heated up. For example, some early projects like A16Z and PUNT saw people turning a few hundred U into over a hundred thousand U; this kind of windfall has already been realized in advance. Moreover, the incident of 'Trump issuing coins' completely sucked away the last bit of liquidity from the market—when a hotspot arises, all the money rushes to chase new concepts, leaving old altcoins neglected.
So, stop fantasizing about the past glory of 'everything rising together'. That level of altcoin season requires a volume so large that it’s almost impossible to replicate.
The altcoins that can still rise in the future may only concentrate in two directions: one is coins that have passed ETF review, such as $SOL , LTC, $ADA , which have compliance backing and are recognized by institutions; the other is Meme coins, driven by emotion and community, which can still try for some short-term hype.
As for most other projects? The previous two bull markets have almost exhausted their credibility. After so many years of painting the big pie, there are very few real applications that have landed, and people no longer believe.
Ultimately, the narrative logic of the cryptocurrency circle has changed. It has shifted from 'speculative frenzy' to 'asset allocation', from 'everyone getting rich' to 'institutional dominance'. If you are still holding onto the old mindset waiting for 'my turn', you might truly miss this round.
Times have changed, and the play has changed. You either adapt or exit gracefully.
After all, the roots of leeks are almost dug up clean, and what remains may just be institutions 'cutting' each other.
