This has been a nice little bull run for Bitcoin. On April 8, the world’s leading cryptocurrency was trading for just over US$76,000; on June 11, the price of BTC is setting all-time highs, up to $109,647.90 as we go to press.
So why are the crypto betting markets so tepid when it comes to Bitcoin’s short-term future? Yes, we’ve seen the posted total for the year-end price of BTC rise from $100K to $120K (plus 50 cents) on the financial odds board at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review) – but that’s at the very low end of the price targets most analysts have set for Bitcoin in 2025.
Maybe those bettors are trying to tell us something. Check out what’s happening with Ethereum: Not only has the 2025 year-end total for ETH moved from $3,500.50 to $3,800.50 at BetOnline since we last checked in this past April, the vigorish on the Over has also shot up from –120 to –175. That’s a steamy coin right there.
This can only mean one thing: It’s Altcoin Season. Bettors and investors alike are flocking towards Bitcoin alternatives – or so the numbers suggest. Let’s take a closer look to see if we can get the jump on the crypto marketplace.
What Is Altcoin Season?
It’s a period of time when altcoins – that’s any crypto besides Bitcoin – rise more quickly in price than BTC. The cool kids call it “altseason” for short.
There are different ways to mark the start and end of Altcoin Season, but according to CryptoRank, it begins when Bitcoin peaks, and it ends when the TOTAL2 index (tracking the combined market cap of the Top 125 altcoins) peaks. Which means we’ve enjoyed Altcoin Season twice as of last October:
- March 1, 2017 to January 5, 2018 (310 days)
- January 3, 2021 to November 10, 2021 (309 days)
It’s not just the length of those seasons that’s eerily similar. Arguably more important is their timing; the first season started 235 days after the July 9, 2016 Bitcoin halving, and the second started 237 days after the May 11, 2020 halving. Wouldn’t you know it, the most recent halving took place on April 19 of last year. Yup: Altcoin Season is already here – at least in theory.
For back-up, let’s turn to the Altcoin Season Index at CoinMarketCap, which only uses the Top 100 altcoins in their calculations. By their definition, we need 75 of those coins to have outperformed Bitcoin over the past 90 days. We’ve been there most of the time since early May, but not consistently enough to firmly establish that altseason has arrived. It’s like this unseasonably warm spring heralding the imminent arrival of summer.
What Can We Expect?
Lots of activity from crypto whales. Of course, plenty of what is happening on the crypto markets right now is tied in with the activities of the Trump Administration, but this dynamic is bigger than all of us; just look at all that Ethereum activity, shooting up 164.14% in volume to $7.84 billion (as per Coindesk) in just 24 hours before settling down a bit at press time.
It might seem a little strange calling Ethereum an “altcoin” in this day and age, given how much traction its gained in the crypto world, but there’s still a cavernous divide between Bitcoin and everything else – which means we can still use ETH as a bellwether for the rest of the altcoin market. And yes, the vibes are so immaculate, you’d think it’s Brat Summer all over again.
As for specific altcoins to hoard, we’ve seen just about every coin get pumped since December, when the crypto markets really started heating up following the U.S. federal election. These are speculative assets – so is Bitcoin, for that matter – but if the whales are inhaling all that Ethereum, maybe there’s still room left to ride their extra-long coattails.
Bet and invest accordingly.
