This Signal Has Flipped to Altcoin Season as Crypto Rally Spreads Beyond Bitcoin

Glassnode’s Altcoin Cycle Signal flipped from Bitcoin season to altcoin season this week, the on-chain analytics firm has reported.

This is after an August rally that had mostly bypassed altcoins gave way to broader participation across the market.

Signal Says the Market Has Widened

The Glassnode signal compares Bitcoin’s performance against a market-cap-weighted basket of the top 250 altcoins, minus stablecoins. High readings often mean altcoins are outperforming, while low readings mean BTC is leading.

Additionally, the chart shows Bitcoin’s price line changing color according to the prevailing regime, with orange representing Bitcoin season and blue representing altcoin season. The primary cryptocurrency rallied through mid-August while the signal stayed orange, then it turned blue today as BTC’s price flew past $87,000.

“The first rally in August saw altcoins stay relatively flat while BTC moved,” Glassnode wrote. “However, today’s rally has ignited the full breadth of the altcoin market.”

In another post, the analytics platform noted that Bitcoin was trading above both the True Market Mean and the short-term holder cost basis, levels that have historically defined a sustained uptrend when price holds above them.

The Elliott wave count also has BTC nearing the target for a fifth wave, with the daily RSI diverging from price, a setup analyst Darkfost says could be foreshadowing a pullback toward $74,500 before the asset goes up any higher.

Bitcoin itself was changing hands above $85,000 at the time of writing, up 5% in 24 hours and more than 10% across the week, after breaching $87,000 on Monday, the first time it had hit that level since the end of January. ETH also boasted a 10% climb of its own in one week that has taken it past $2,700.

Elsewhere, BNB crossed $800 for the first time since late January, XRP jumped from around $1.40 to above $1.50, and Dogecoin led the larger-cap alts with a 24-hour gain above 15%. All that winning pushed the total market cap 3.6% to over $3 trillion per CoinGecko, with Bitcoin’s share sitting at 57%.

A Rally Built on a Rough Week

As CryptoPotato reported, last week brought several macro headwinds, including the Senate voting against advancing the CLARITY Act and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates for the first time since July 2023, pushing BTC down to a multi-week low near $75,000 before it reclaimed its 50-week moving average and climbed back above $80,000.

You can watch the video below for more on how the market reacted when the Fed raised interest rates.

Meanwhile, ETH’s move past $2,700 has split opinion, with analyst DANNY not convinced. They called the setup a trap and expect a slide toward $1,500 before any real breakout.

But on the other hand, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has said that all the ingredients are there for a “face ripper” rally this month, with the price of oil cooling and rates “behaving.”