According to Maen Ftouni, CEO of CoinQuant, an organization that makes algorithmic trading tools, older cryptocurrencies which have or are expected to receive an exchange-traded fund (ETF) will absorb much of the capital deployed in the following altcoin season.
“Not each coin will produce huge returns; liquidity might be concentrated in certain places, including dinosaurs after all,” Ftouni told Cointelegraph on the Global Blockchain Congress 2025 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Ftouni said institutional capital is being funneled into “dinosaur” coins and attributed the 2024 rally in older cryptocurrencies reminiscent of XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) to this phenomenon. He said:
“With the cash flow coming mostly from traditional finance and ETFs right away, those individuals are probably taking a look at these big coins, all of the established coins which have the potential to get an ETF, and that's why we're seeing this rise in these dinosaurs.”Ftouni sits down with Cointelegraph in Dubai. Source: Cointelegraph
The prediction comes amid debate amongst market analysts in regards to the structure and market dynamics of the crypto market and the way this may impact the onset of Altseaon, an ongoing rally in altcoin prices, throughout the current market cycle.
Analysts speculate: When will the old season even come?
There are over 26 million different crypto tokens listed on CoinMarketCap – greater than twice as many digital assets as were listed on the positioning in early 2025.
“Too many tokens, there’s an infinite number to come back, the provision of tokens is larger than the demand,” said economist and trader Alex Kruger.
Kruger urged traders to regulate their expectations, saying that as a result of the changing dynamics in the present market cycle, an “old season” characterised by a sustained period of rising asset prices is unlikely to occur.
Instead, traders should expect short bursts of rising altcoin prices that only affect select tokens and should only last for several weeks at a time, Kruger added.
