[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe issued a stern warning that most altcoins will struggle to survive into 2026. His comments come as uncertainty grows over the direction of the crypto market in 2026.

On the 30th (local time), blockchain media outlet BeInCrypto reported that van de Poppe said in a recent YouTube video that the assumption that "altcoins will ultimately rise again" is very dangerous. He said the past year has been a harsh wake-up call for investors. He said many altcoins posted worse performance than in 2022, and predicted that many projects that have suffered price declines of about 90 percent will not recover.

He cited flawed tokenomics and poor financial management as key reasons most altcoins are bound to fail. Van de Poppe said projects are virtually unable to recover if founders mishandled finances, designed token structures incorrectly, or suffered overly large declines.

A prolonged market slump was also cited as an important variable. He described the current situation as one of the longest bear markets in crypto history and compared it to the internet industry after the dot-com bubble burst. He said that just as many internet-based companies disappeared then, the current altcoin market has entered a similar restructuring phase.

Technological advances and changes in the competitive landscape are also reducing altcoins' chances of survival. He said newer and more efficient solutions are rapidly overtaking projects created in earlier cycles. He added that some altcoins are losing relevance because the problems they originally aimed to solve no longer exist.

The full-scale entry of institutional investors was also described as a double-edged sword. He said institutional adoption is positive for the broader crypto industry but can work against smaller projects. Citing NEO as an example, he said there are now alternatives that solve far better the problems NEO aimed to address.

Still, he said he does not believe all altcoins will disappear. Van de Poppe said projects where there is a gap between price performance and underlying strength are more likely to survive into the next cycle. He said projects can have long-term survival potential even if token prices are weak, as long as on-chain activity, total value locked (TVL), trading volume and fee revenue are rising.

He cited Arbitrum, Aave and NEAR as examples that meet those conditions. Van de Poppe said Arbitrum's price is hitting lows but fundamental ecosystem growth has risen by about 200 percent over the same period. He said that is what investors should look at to find good altcoins.

The outlook also aligns with a broader industry view that value is likely to concentrate in a small number of projects as the market matures, rather than a broad altcoin season returning. Experts expect the gap between altcoins that survive and those that fail to widen further in the next cycle. They said high volatility and losses may be unavoidable in the short term, but over the long term the ecosystem may be reshaped around more solid projects, strengthening the crypto market overall.