The crypto market is beginning to turn. Altcoins and memecoins are flexing hard and Bitcoin’s dominance is breaking down. This fundamental trend is a bullish indication of the potential imminent arrival of “altseason,” a period where alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin outperform BTC.
As Michael Van Poppe, founder of MN Capital, pointed out, this is because of the declining Bitcoin dominance. He indeed had a bearish divergence with the negative volume trend.
"Strong bearish divergence on the weekly timeframe, indicating that the #Bitcoin dominance has peaked. The end of the bear market for #Altcoins." - Michael Van Poppe
ETH Ether (ETH) skyrocketed by an impressive 44.3% over the past week. At the same time, XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) were not far behind, gaining 20.6% and 22% respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) has fared even better, up a comparatively tame 10% over the same timeframe.
Altcoins would pump hard if the entire market is able to push above the $1.25 trillion resistance level. Such a maneuver would set the stage for creating those higher lows and higher highs. The TOTAL2 chart has recently cleared a downtrend line that has held since January 2025. This chart follows total crypto market cap excluding Bitcoin. In the TOTAL2 chart above, we’ve made a bullish break of structure (BOS) on the daily chart, making higher-low patterns. More importantly, almost all altcoins have cleared above its February and March highs where a higher time frame break of structure has occurred.
The Tether (USDT) dominance chart has dropped to 4.59% on May 13, a seven-week low going back to early February. The USDT dominance chart can likely find support at 3.90% as it’s in a descending triangle pattern. A continued decline in USDT dominance to 2022 lows could signal an acceleration of capital rotation into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. BTC Dominance (BTC.D) chart BTC Dominance has fallen 4% in six days, the largest drop since November 2024.
Nearly all of the altcoins remain 70% to 90% down from their all-time highs. This results in what we’d call a “relatively early” opportunity for recovery given the current market landscape.
