The Real Alt Season is in Crypto Equities

10/14/2025, 10:00:17 AM
Intermediate
Blockchain
By analyzing the historical performance of Bitcoin and altcoins, the article reveals that institutional investors in the current market tend to favor crypto-related stocks rather than direct investments in crypto assets.

There have been a lot of questions as to whether we’ll have an alt season in crypto this cycle. Some look at Jan 2024 or 2025 as the peak, where non-Bitcoin cryptoassets appreciated significantly – with many reaching new all-time highs.

In past cycles, major appreciation in the price of Bitcoin has preceded similar appreciation (if not outperformance) of many longer-tail cryptoassets. But over the past few years, we haven’t seen this pattern play out. Bitcoin dominance currently sits at 58% and has been in a steady uptrend since November 2022.

So, is this cycle going to skip alt season? Is it just that alt season isn’t here yet? Or maybe… is alt season already happening in a different market entirely, and just no one is looking?

My sense is that it’s the latter. The real alt season is happening in crypto equities.

What are the characteristics of an alt season setup?

  • Price appreciation attracts new capital → question is, where is that new capital coming from?
  • Price appreciation leads to a rotation of profits → question is, who’s taking profits and where is it being redeployed?

There’s certainly new capital looking to get exposure to crypto. But much of this is institutional, not retail. Retail tends to be fast adopters, while institutions are slower and often wait for external legitimization. Well, that’s happening now. The SEC approved the Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in 2024. Chairman Atkin recently announced Project Crypto. Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman has advocated for the tokenization of equities. The list goes on.

The institutions are here with fresh capital. My guess is that most of that capital is being directed to crypto equities rather than crypto assets. Equities are familiar and accessible. Institutions already have operational setups (custody, compliance processes, dealer relationships, and more) are already in place, whereas purchasing crypto assets may require brand new capabilities. And buying equities falls within their mandates – vs. direct crypto tokens (much less long-tail alts) may simply be out of scope.

As a result, institutions are plowing money into crypto (or crypto-adjacent) equities. Coinbase is up 53% YTD. Robinhood is up 299%. Galaxy is up 100%. Circle is up 368% since its IPO in June (75% if you use the end-of-day close on its first trading day). Compare that to Bitcoin (up 31%), Ethereum (35%), or Solana (21%) and crypto equities’ outperformance becomes clear.

A similar story holds true if we look at performance since Bitcoin’s bottom on 12/17/22:

There’s good reason to believe this trend will continue. We have a slew of crypto equity IPOs on deck, with many more later stage companies likely to file in the years ahead.

Like a typical alt season, not every asset will perform well. And I expect there to be some rotation, as traders take profits from one expensively priced asset (e.g. CRCL trading at 26x P/S) and redeploy that capital into other assets.

In crypto, we often get different metas: the market might move from DeFi assets to gaming tokens to AI coins. Equities are likely no different. An alt season within crypto equities might see rotation from stablecoin stocks to exchange stocks to digital asset treasuries (or another trend).

There are a number of other reasons I believe that the crypto equities alt season may end up looking more like a historical alt season than any future alt season we get in cryptonative markets:

  • Asset concentration. There are only a handful of equities that provide exposure to crypto. This is similar to how, in past crypto cycles, there were arguably under 100 tokens that buyers found attractive. And notably, it’s a very different dynamic than the crypto-native market today – which has millions of tokens and, as a result, is experiencing broader dispersion among deployment.
  • Access to leverage. Last cycle, a number of crypto-native lending desks collapsed. We haven’t seen many rebuild. Equity allocators do have access to leverage, though, which means the booms can get bigger (and the busts can really bust).

We probably will have another alt season in crypto-native assets. But it will take time as the new marginal sources of capital gradually set up operational capabilities that enable them to deploy into cryptoassets.

So for now, it may not be the alt season many expected – but we are in an alt season nonetheless.

Thank you to Hootie Rashifard and Mason Nystrom for feedback on this essay.

Disclaimer:

  1. This article is reprinted from [alanadlevin]. All copyrights belong to the original author [alanadlevin]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
  2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
  3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.

Share

Crypto Calendar
Project Updates
Coinbase will upgrade all MATIC tokens to POL from October 14 to 17, and during the migration period, rewards for staking MATIC will not accumulate.
POL
-1.74%
2025-10-14
Hackathon
Pi Network has officially launched Pi Hackathon 2025, marking its first major developer challenge following the debut of the Open Network. This hackathon invites developers to design and launch Pi-powered applications that deliver real-world utility and help evolve the ecosystem—with a total prize pool of 160,000 Pi. Building on the innovation momentum from Pi2Day 2025, the competition encourages a broad range of utility-driven ideas, from daily-use tools to entirely new app concepts. All submissions must meet the Mainnet Listing Requirements and provide tangible value to the Pi community. Incentives & Prizes: 1st Place: 75,000 Pi 2nd Place: 45,000 Pi 3rd Place: 15,000 Pi Up to 5 Honorable Mentions: 5,000 Pi each Key Dates: August 15: Registration opens and team formation begins August 21: Hackathon officially starts September 19: Midpoint check-in (optional, but may yield mentorship and exposure) October 15: Final submissions due, including app listing and demo video Developers are encouraged to leverage Pi App Studio, Brainstorm, the Developer Portal, and open-source resources (PiOS), as well as AI tools, to build and refine their ideas.
PI
-9.11%
2025-10-14
Hackathon
Starknet announced the start of the Re{solve} Hackathon on September 15, running for one month with a prize pool of over $50,000. Participants are encouraged to build practical solutions, bring them to production, and compete for rewards.
STRK
-2.42%
2025-10-14
127MM Token Unlock
Starknet unlocks tokens at 12 AM UTC.
STRK
-2.42%
2025-10-14
Tokens Unlock
Sei will unlock 55,560,000 SEI tokens on October 15th, constituting approximately 1,15% of the currently circulating supply.
SEI
-2.22%
2025-10-14

Related Articles

The Future of Cross-Chain Bridges: Full-Chain Interoperability Becomes Inevitable, Liquidity Bridges Will Decline
Beginner

The Future of Cross-Chain Bridges: Full-Chain Interoperability Becomes Inevitable, Liquidity Bridges Will Decline

This article explores the development trends, applications, and prospects of cross-chain bridges.
12/27/2023, 7:44:05 AM
Solana Need L2s And Appchains?
Advanced

Solana Need L2s And Appchains?

Solana faces both opportunities and challenges in its development. Recently, severe network congestion has led to a high transaction failure rate and increased fees. Consequently, some have suggested using Layer 2 and appchain technologies to address this issue. This article explores the feasibility of this strategy.
6/24/2024, 1:39:17 AM
Sui: How are users leveraging its speed, security, & scalability?
Intermediate

Sui: How are users leveraging its speed, security, & scalability?

Sui is a PoS L1 blockchain with a novel architecture whose object-centric model enables parallelization of transactions through verifier level scaling. In this research paper the unique features of the Sui blockchain will be introduced, the economic prospects of SUI tokens will be presented, and it will be explained how investors can learn about which dApps are driving the use of the chain through the Sui application campaign.
8/13/2025, 7:33:39 AM
Navigating the Zero Knowledge Landscape
Advanced

Navigating the Zero Knowledge Landscape

This article introduces the technical principles, framework, and applications of Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology, covering aspects from privacy, identity (ID), decentralized exchanges (DEX), to oracles.
1/4/2024, 4:01:13 PM
What is Tronscan and How Can You Use it in 2025?
Beginner

What is Tronscan and How Can You Use it in 2025?

Tronscan is a blockchain explorer that goes beyond the basics, offering wallet management, token tracking, smart contract insights, and governance participation. By 2025, it has evolved with enhanced security features, expanded analytics, cross-chain integration, and improved mobile experience. The platform now includes advanced biometric authentication, real-time transaction monitoring, and a comprehensive DeFi dashboard. Developers benefit from AI-powered smart contract analysis and improved testing environments, while users enjoy a unified multi-chain portfolio view and gesture-based navigation on mobile devices.
5/22/2025, 3:13:17 AM
What Is Ethereum 2.0? Understanding The Merge
Intermediate

What Is Ethereum 2.0? Understanding The Merge

A change in one of the top cryptocurrencies that might impact the whole ecosystem
1/18/2023, 2:25:24 PM
Start Now
Sign up and get a
$100
Voucher!