According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, about 38% of altcoins are now near all-time lows, worse than the post-FTX market crash.
The current market is “unfavorable” for risk assets, and crypto markets are the first to absorb that risk, he said, adding:
“For comparison, this metric reached 35% in April 2025 and 37.8% just after the crash of FTX. This chart perfectly shows the current situation of altcoins. Investors are cautious and losing interest in altcoins.”
Examples of altcoins, a cryptocurrency that often serves as an alternative to Bitcoin (BTC), include Cardano’s ADA (ADA), which is around $0.10 from a low of $0.17. Polkadot ( DOT ) hit a high of $1.13 in February, but is now up 33% from there, and Polygon ( POL ) is trading about $0.02 off its low of $0.08.
Liquidity is moving out of altcoins and into stocks and commodities, Darkfast said. According to CoinMarketCap, the daily trading volume reached more than $417 billion on October 10, the day of the historic crash of the crypto market.
For comparison, daily trading volume in February and March 2026 ranged from $49.4 billion to $268 billion.
He said the altcoin’s decline represents the “biggest regression” on record in the current market cycle and could present a buying opportunity for investors, he concluded.
related to: $209 billion left altcoins in last 13 months: Are traders turning to Bitcoin?
Altcoin social activity has been eclipsed by Bitcoin
According to crypto market sentiment analysis platform Santiment, the analysis comes as mentions of altcoins on social media platforms have fallen to a two-year low.
Global Google search volume for altcoins also fell to a yearly low of 4 out of 100, according to Google Trends.
“Altcoins suffer from ‘liquidity leakage,’ where even small changes in sentiment lead to overselling,” Jimmy Xu, co-founder of liquidity platform Axis, said in a message shared with Cointelegraph.
This is because altcoins lack the institutional support and narrative of “digital gold” that Bitcoin enjoys, he added.
Analysts cited several reasons for the decline of altcoins, including too many tokens competing for limited investor capital and the launch of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), changing market dynamics by injecting liquidity into traditional financial instruments.
At the time of writing, there are over 36.8 million different crypto tokens listed on CoinMarketCap.
Magazine: Brandt Says Bitcoin Still Down, Polymarket Sees Hope: Trade Secrets
