According to crypto trader and market analyst Michaël van de Poppe, the altcoin market, valued at over $879 billion on the time of writing, is poised for its next major surge towards its previous all-time high of nearly $1.2 trillion.
Van De Poppe said the Total3 market cap, which tracks the overall market capitalization of all the crypto token ecosystem excluding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), has maintained key support at around $784 billion.
According to TradingView data, the worth of Total3 can also be approaching the 365-day moving average again, one other key support level.
Source: Michael van de Poppe
In October, the overall value3 reached an all-time high of nearly $1.2 trillion, but quickly fell back after a historic market crash rocked digital assets and caused the overall altcoin market cap to fall by around 33% in a single day.
Investors, traders and analysts are attempting to gauge the possible start of the following altseason, a period of sustained price appreciation in altcoins after a disappointing 2025 marked by changes in crypto market dynamics and historical patterns.
Investors waited patiently for 2025, however the peak season never got here
During the latter stages of previous crypto market cycles, driven partially by Bitcoin's four-year cycle theory, investors typically shifted their BTC profits into riskier altcoins.
But after a disappointing 2025 for BTC, through which the annual candle closed within the red – a historic first for BTC in a 12 months after the halving – the 4-year cycle theory has been debunked, in accordance with analysts.
The variety of cryptocurrencies has also grown significantly. There are over 29 million coins listed on CoinMarketCap, all competing for limited investor capital and a spotlight.
The variety of crypto tokens tracked on CoinMarketCap. Source: CoinMarketCap
According to some crypto analysts, the proliferation of altcoins has saturated the market with too many tokens and prevented the altcoin season from starting.
Analysts also say the introduction of crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) modified market dynamics by creating liquidity silos for digital assets with an ETF that ensured funds remained locked and couldn’t flow freely throughout the crypto ecosystem.
This prevented capital from potential Bitcoin profits or other tokens from being converted into altcoins and dampened the alt-season phase of the market cycle that experienced crypto traders had expected.
