An estimated 38% of altcoins are trading near their all-time lows, a worse reading than observed after the FTX collapse, CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost reported. He said the market is “unfavorable” for risk-on assets and crypto is the first to reflect broader risk-off sentiment.
“For comparison, this metric reached 35% in April 2025 and 37.8% just after the FTX crash. This chart perfectly illustrates the current situation for altcoins. Investors remain cautious and continue to lose interest in altcoins,” Darkfost added.
Examples of altcoins include Cardano’s ADA, reportedly about $0.10 above its all-time low of $0.17; Polkadot (DOT), which hit an all-time low of $1.13 last month but is now up roughly 33% from that price; and Polygon (MATIC), trading about $0.02 above its all-time low of $0.08.
Darkfost said liquidity is draining from altcoins into equities and commodities. Daily crypto trading volume reached more than $417 billion on Oct. 10 — the day of the historic crypto market crash — according to CoinMarketCap data. By contrast, daily volumes ranged from $49.4 billion to $268 billion in February and March 2026. The altcoin drawdown represents the largest regression of the current market cycle, he said, and could offer buying opportunities for investors.
Altcoin social mentions have also declined. Santiment reports altcoin mentions on social platforms are at two-year lows, while Google worldwide search interest for “altcoins” fell to a one-year low of 4 out of 100 on Google Trends.
“Altcoins are suffering from a ‘liquidity drain,’ where even minor shifts in sentiment trigger outsized sell-offs,” Jimmy Xue, co-founder of liquidity platform Axis, told Cointelegraph, adding that altcoins lack the institutional backing and “digital gold” narrative that supports Bitcoin.
Analysts point to several causes for altcoin weakness: an oversupply of tokens competing for limited investor capital and the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have shifted liquidity toward traditional investment vehicles. CoinMarketCap lists more than 36.8 million crypto tokens at the time of reporting.
Related coverage has examined $209 billion exiting altcoins over the last 13 months and whether traders rotated into Bitcoin.
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