More than a third of tracked altcoins are now sitting near cyclical lows despite broader market stability.
Summary
- CryptoQuant data shows that 38% of altcoins are trading near all-time lows, a deeper decline than the opening phase after FTX.
- Analyst Darkfost describes this as “the biggest pullback altcoins have seen during this cycle,” highlighting the ongoing structural pressure on non-BTC assets.
- While BTC has held near recent highs, the dispersion between large caps and small caps has widened, with the altcoin’s poor performance pointing to weak liquidity and exceptional appetite.
On-chain analytics company CryptoQuant reports that 38% of altcoins are currently trading near their all-time lows, marking a more difficult recovery than the period following the fall of FTX. The metric, highlighted by analyst Darkfost, is designed to capture how many different tokens remain under sustained selling pressure, as the broader market shows signs of stabilization.
In a social media briefing, Darkfost describes this as the biggest pullback altcoins have seen so far in the current cycle, emphasizing how uneven returns have been between blue-chip assets and the long tail of speculative tokens.
Market participants commenting on the data pointed out that, unlike the post-FTX phase—when forced liquidations and distressed selling drove prices down—the current environment includes few obvious forced sellers. Instead, the altcoin’s weakness appears to be driven by a mix of low liquidity, high-risk budgets, and the rotation of more established names like BTC and ETH, which hold a large share of existing market penetration and regulated products. One observer noted that after FTX, when the major overhang was cleared, many assets made at least a reflexive bounce, and now the majority of altcoins remain pinned near their lows despite occasional rallies in the majors.investing+2
Dispersion and liquidity pressure
The differences described by CryptoQuant have important implications for portfolio construction and risk management across digital assets. Increased dispersion—when some segments of the market are trending higher while others are trending lower—often increases both opportunity and risk, especially for funds that try to cycle between themes or capture relative value. With a large share of altcoins near ATL, the purchase of funds in many order books has decreased, which increases the impact cost of entering or exiting positions and increases the potential for sharp movements, “Bart style” noted by traders.
At the same time, the data suggests a growing concentration of market interest in a small set of high-quality or narrative-driven assets, including BTC, ETH, and ecosystems like SOL that continue to see relatively strong developer and user activity. Centralized venues like Coinbase have also created more volume in a limited basket of listed tokens, further increasing the relative inefficiency of small caps that don’t have deep markets or institutional access. In Europe, developing regulatory frameworks such as MiCA may reinforce this concentration by encouraging platforms to prioritize assets in line with clear disclosure profiles, which may leave many altcoins structurally disadvantaged even as broader crypto sentiment improves.
