Altcoin season is when cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin outperform. Many have been predicting the arrival of altcoin season, but could recent price drops have put a halt to it?
September has always been a tepid, if not outright dangerous, month for crypto. It often faces losses before a return to form in the run-up to Christmas. Yet the dizzy heights of the last year have made this season more painful, and in the final week of September, huge amounts were wiped off the value of numerous cryptocurrencies. So, has this put an end to altcoin season?
The Current Altcoin Climate
On Monday, the 22nd of September, Bitcoin was trading at $115,326. Down from its all-time high, it still stood strong despite a range of questions over upcoming economic data. Many investors were anticipating rate cuts from the Fed, which came, but seemed to inspire more dread than confidence in the markets. Thus, crypto was wiped out over the weekend with Bitcoin falling to $112,204 by Monday, the 29th. Yet worse was to come, and further into the week, by Thursday 25th, the Bitcoin price USD had spiralled to $108,859.
Altcoin season had been on the cards for some time, and there were signs that it may have arrived. Binance noted in their weekly market commentary that just prior to this, the Fed’s 25bps cut had pushed the total crypto market cap up to US$4.1T, with BTC surpassing US$117,000 and BNB breaking above US$1,000 for the first time. It also noted that altcoins broadly outperformed, signalling renewed risk appetite. Gaming, Layer 2, and Memecoins each rose over 7%, while nearly every altcoin sector outpaced BTC’s 1.5% weekly gain.
Unfortunately, the weekend wipeout was not just restricted to Bitcoin, showing that the altcoins season may have been over before it even got started. As liquidations topped $1 billion over a 24-hour period, altcoins were hit just as hard. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, dropped to $3,887, a dip of 7%. Dogecoin, which fell by 7.6%, also joined suit. However, one of the biggest casualties was Solana, which fell by 7.7%. This capped off a torrid week for the pair, in which they have been down 21% over 7 days.
There have been some altcoins bucking this trend, particularly in the hostile cryptocurrency climate of September 2025. One of these is BNB, which, in a weekend of slumping crypto, managed to climb 10%. Binance noted that it became the second-best performing large-cap YTD, overtaking ETH. Growth in BNB Chain activity, token burns, and exchange-driven demand have strengthened its fundamentals, while treasury inflows highlight growing institutional interest beyond BTC. On-chain data shows expansion across DEXes, stablecoins, and RWAs, with higher transactions, protocol revenue, and user activity reinforcing BNB’s breakout.
An Overview of Altcoin Season
Altcoin season is a period when digital assets other than Bitcoin start to see growth. Usually, this occurs when the dominance of Bitcoin begins to recede. This generally occurs through high Bitcoin prices, as investors begin to look elsewhere for larger and quicker gains. This can also happen when the value of Bitcoin stagnates. To see if altcoin season has arrived, it helps to look at the data over the last few months, as opposed to the short-term dips of the last week.
In September, the market value of crypto dropped from $4 trillion to $3.82 trillion. However, the dominance rating of Bitcoin has fluctuated from 57.3% to 59% at times. This is a percentage of Bitcoin’s overall value in relation to the whole cryptomarket. As it goes down, altcoins become more valuable, and as it goes up, Bitcoin does.
As of September 26th, the Bitcoin dominance ratio is at 58.3%. Ethereum stands at $12.6% with others combined at $29.1%. In the last 30 days, despite ups and downs in the crypto market, this has changed very little. In the last 12 months, the only time it hit 53.9% was on 12th October 2024. Its highest was 64.4% in August.
Generally, Bitcoin dominance drops below 54% during an altcoin season. Yet in the last year, this has rarely happened at all. The levels of Bitcoin dominance have fallen, but nowhere near levels enough to signal the start of altcoin season. In fact, there are signs that altcoin season may be over before it has started. A breakout of over 59% usually shows that Bitcoin is firmly back in control.
Add to this the altcoin season index. This tracks the performance of the top 100 performing altcoins over the last 90 days in relation to Bitcoin. This has dropped to 69 and usually requires a score above 75 to consider it altcoin season.
By no means does this mean altcoins are not an attractive prospect. As BNB shows, there are still gains to be had in them regardless of the altcoin season’s arrival or not. The economy is in a turbulent period, and so is crypto. Check macroeconomic factors and study cryptocurrencies to see which are the most attractive, rather than wait for a definite yes to the arrival of altcoin season.
