CryptoQuant CEO: Altseason Has Begun
25 Feb, 2025 ● Crypto people
The latest altseason is underway, driven primarily by stablecoin holders, according to Ki Young Ju, CEO of analytics platform CryptoQuant.
In a Feb. 20 post on the X platform, Young Ju noted that altcoin trading volume has surged to approximately 2.7 times that of Bitcoin.
He emphasized that “BTC Dominance no longer defines alt season — trading volume does.”
Traditionally, altcoin seasons emerge when traders shift profits from Bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies.
However, Young Ju pointed out that this time there is “[n]o direct BTC-to-alt rotation, but stablecoin holders are favoring alts.”
Despite the trend, he warned that this is “a very selective alt season” where “[o]nly a few coins are pumping” due to the absence of “fresh liquidity” entering the crypto market.
As of Feb. 21, Bitcoin dominance stands at 58%, an increase from its December low of 51.5%, according to CoinStats.
This figure has historically declined during altseasons.
Following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, stablecoin market capitalizations saw a sharp rise. As of Feb. 21, the total stablecoin market cap is approximately $232 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Citi, a leading investment bank, predicts that the growing adoption of stablecoins will further drive digital asset performance in 2025, particularly benefiting altcoins.
However, investor outflows and declining capital inflows on the Solana blockchain—largely due to rug pulls and insider schemes involving memecoins—pose potential challenges to an altcoin rally.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s increasing institutional adoption is causing it to diverge from the broader crypto market, according to Young Ju.
U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) surpassed $100 billion in Bitcoin holdings in November, while public companies have collectively acquired more than $60 billion worth of Bitcoin, primarily as a hedge against inflation, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET.
In a December X post, Young Ju explained:
“Bitcoin has built its own paper-based Layer 2 ecosystem through ETFs, MSTR, funds, and more. In this paper-based L2 Bitcoin, bridging to other altcoins is impossible.”
As a result, he noted that “[o]nly a few [altcoins] are starting to show independent trends as they attract new liquidity.”
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/alt-season-has-begun-crypto-quant-ceo
https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/1892785881158996173
https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/1892796633584206085
https://coinstats.app/btc-dominance/
https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/1863799907649507357
