XRP, DOGE, and SOL Trigger Crypto Market Decline, Yet Altcoin Season Could Continue if Certain Conditions Are Met
Sure, here’s the rewritten content with promotional call-to-actions replaced:
<img src="https://cdn.sanity.io/images/s3y3vcno/production/c47d5fddb07b26ffd9dea1473e88b852fa72a1c7-1013x457.png?auto=format&w=1920&h=1080&crop=focalpoint&fit=clip" /><br>While bitcoin (BTC) slid only modestly, other major cryptocurrencies tumbled over the past few days, raising concerns about the stability of the so-called altcoin season. XRP (XRP), dogecoin (DOGE), and Solana's SOL (SOL) experienced the most significant declines among the top 10 cryptos on Friday, each slipping around 5% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. From the highs on Wednesday, XRP and DOGE fell approximately 18%, while SOL dropped 12% during the same period. The CoinDesk 80 Index, comprising mid-cap tokens outside of the CoinDesk 20, lost 10% from its weekly high.
Meanwhile, BTC was trading at around $116,000, which is slightly more than 3% lower than its mid-week peak of $120,000. Ethereum's ether (ETH) was 4% down from its weekly high, supported by steady accumulation by crypto treasury strategy firms.
When will the altcoin season occur? The sharp sell-off in recent days followed weeks of substantial capital rotation into smaller tokens, fueling discussions about a potential altcoin season. This phase occurs when riskier, smaller tokens outperform bitcoin, leading to sustained periods of growth.
The CoinGlass Altcoin Season Index, which measures the altcoin market's performance relative to BTC on a scale of 0 to 100, cooled to 41 on Friday from Monday's 59, the highest reading since the speculative frenzy in late January.
However, the overall altcoin market (excluding stablecoins) saw rapid appreciation, nearly doubling in value since April, as noted by David Duong, head of research at Coinbase, in a Friday report. The recent pullback was attributed to traders taking on excessive leverage on altcoin positions, according to the report.
The Altcoin Open-Interest Dominance metric, which compares investment in altcoin derivatives to that in bitcoin, soared to 1.6—a level historically associated with prior market shakeouts. A decrease in this ratio could indicate a healthy leverage reset for the altcoin market; otherwise, more volatility may be expected, Duong pointed out.
For an extended altcoin season, investors should monitor Bitcoin Dominance, which tracks BTC's share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. This metric has dipped below the 200-day moving average for the first time since a brief period in January 2025.
"A sustained move under the 200-DMA could validate the narrative of an 'alt season' and has historically preceded multi-week periods of altcoin outperformance (similar to 2021)," Duong stated. However, traders may find it prudent to wait for more consecutive sessions closing below this level before making significant altcoin investments.
