'Altcoin Season' May Arrive Soon... 'Selective Rise Expected'

Growing Expectations for 'Altcoin Season'

Major Coins Like Ethereum on the Rise

Institutional Buying Pressure and GENIUS Act Influence

'Selective Rise Expected'

Recently, as major altcoins led by Ethereum (ETH) have shown strength, anticipation for an 'altcoin season' has been rising.

On the 25th, CoinMarketCap reported Bitcoin dominance at 60%, down 4% from last month. This is the lowest figure in the past four months. Typically, when Bitcoin dominance decreases, it is interpreted that funds are moving into altcoins, signaling a bullish trend for altcoins. Market attention has also increased significantly. On this day, Google Trends' 'Altcoin search index' reached a perfect score of 100, marking its highest level in four years.

Especially noteworthy was the strong rally of major altcoins from the 16th to the 23rd. During this period, according to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum surged 19.75% to surpass the $3,700 level, setting a new yearly high. XRP likewise rose 20.32%, breaking above $3.5 and hitting an all-time high, while Solana (SOL) soared 23.95%, recovering the $200 level for the first time since last February. In contrast, Bitcoin only rose by 1.02% during the same period.

Influence of Institutional Buying and GENIUS Act

The strong performance of altcoins is attributed to robust institutional buying. Recently, it has been observed that all of Ethereum, XRP, and Solana have seen active inflows of institutional funds.

Glassnode analyzed, "Ethereum is seeing buying pressure for long-term holding mainly from whales and institutional investors," adding, "Since early July, 681,000 ETH (worth about $2.5 billion) has moved into long-term holding wallets, and exchange balances have decreased by 317,000 ETH (about $1.1 billion)."

According to WhaleTrace, large investors have purchased over 2.2 billion XRP in the past two weeks. Solana as well has continued to attract institutional funds, with the staking ETF exceeding $100 million in assets just 12 days after its launch.

The passage of the US stablecoin regulation bill 'GENIUS Act' is also cited as fueling the altcoin bull run. In Ethereum's case, it is the blockchain with the largest stablecoin issuance, while for XRP, the expectation for issuer Ripple's USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD is having a significant impact.

'Altcoin Season' May Arrive Soon... 'Selective Rise Expected'

Experts believe there is a high possibility that the altcoin season will imminently arrive. Swissblock, a digital asset data analytics firm, said, "A strong altcoin season happens when Bitcoin dominance falls and funds move broadly into altcoins," adding, "Currently, as Bitcoin's upward momentum slows, capital rotation has started, and if this trend continues, we could enter a full-fledged altcoin season."

Bitfinex, in a recent report, diagnosed that the current situation may mark the start of altcoin season. The report stated, "Investors are moving funds from Bitcoin to altcoins to capture further upside potential," and analyzed, "This suggests that a phase centered on altcoins has begun within the overall bullish market."

However, there are also views that even if altcoin season arrives, a dramatic rise like previous cycles will be difficult. Kyung-pil Jang, head of research at Xangle, said, "As Ethereum has started to rise, there is a high possibility that liquidity will flow into altcoins more broadly," but also projected, "It will be difficult to see sharp gains of more than 100x as in the past." He added, "The uptrend will likely continue mainly for tokens with solid fundamentals, such as a real user base, meaningful achievements, and revenue generation."