Altcoins, excluding Ether (ETH), have recorded $209 billion in internet promoting quantity since January 2025, marking one of many steepest declines in speculative demand for crypto property this cycle.
On Binance, altcoin buying and selling volumes dropped roughly 50% since November 2025, reflecting a gentle dip in exercise. The lower additionally coincides with a rise in Bitcoin’s quantity share on the alternate.
Analysts stated that the contraction in altcoin demand, alongside elevated stablecoin dominance, alerts that the broader market is shifting its capital towards BTC throughout the present downtrend.
Altcoin spot quantity imbalance deepens in opposition to Bitcoin
Crypto analyst IT Tech famous that the cumulative purchase and promote distinction for altcoins, excluding BTC and Ether (ETH), reached -$209 billion. The metric measures internet spot demand throughout centralized exchanges for altcoin buying and selling pairs. A optimistic studying signifies rising spot demand, which was briefly noticed again in January 2025.
1-year cumulative buy-sell quantity for Altcoins (excludes ETH). Supply: CryptoQuant
A damaging cumulative delta at this scale alerts the absence of constant spot consumers. The analyst famous that the metric tracks internet stream imbalance quite than worth valuation, so it doesn’t point out a market backside. Over the previous 13 months, capital has exited the altcoin markets with out vital counterflows.
Quantity information from Binance reinforces the shift. As BTC examined the $60,000 degree in early February, the full buying and selling quantity was redistributed. On Feb. 7, Bitcoin volumes rose to 36.8% of whole exercise. Altcoin volumes dropped to 33.6% by mid-February, from a excessive of 59.2% in November.
In accordance with crypto analyst Darkfost, related rotations appeared in April 2025, August 2024, and October 2022. Throughout these corrective phases, capital consolidated into Bitcoin whereas altcoin volumes contracted.Â
Bitcoin, Altcoins quantity exercise. Supply: CryptoQuant
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Tether dominance rises to its all-time excessive degreeÂ
Tether’s USDt (USDT) market cap dominance reached the 8% degree on the one-week chart, aligning with prior highs which lasted between June 2022 and October 2023. The rising stablecoin dominance sometimes coincides with capital shifting into dollar-pegged property quite than deploying into tokens like BTC (BTC) and Ether (ETH).Â
USDT.D and BTC worth chart comparability. Supply: Cointelegraph/TradingView
As noticed, the elevated USDT dominance coincided with Bitcoin consolidating close to bear market lows, as noticed in 2022 and 2023. A decline in dominance has typically marked one of many earliest alerts of a renewed bullish development.
Beforehand, the USDT dominance chart shaped lows round 3.80-4% in March 2024, December 2024, and October 2025. These durations coincided with Bitcoin setting new all-time highs close to $72,000, $104,000, and $126,000, respectively.Â
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