If the pattern of bitcoin gains moving into altcoins weakens, doubts are growing over the chances of an “alt season” being repeated. Cointelegraph reported on June 20 that bitcoin’s market dominance is also holding above a key support level, prompting expectations that bitcoin could keep absorbing funds from altcoins for the time being.

Ki Young Ju (주기영), CEO of CryptoQuant, said on social media platform X (Twitter) on June 19 that the rotation trend from bitcoin into altcoins has effectively disappeared. By CryptoQuant’s tally, altcoin trading volume denominated in bitcoin is at its weakest level since 2021.

The metric tracks flows in small and mid-sized altcoins traded against bitcoin on centralised exchanges, excluding ether, XRP, BNB and solana. In 2017 and 2021, a sharp rise in bitcoin-denominated altcoin trading underpinned an alt season, but it is now read as a sign that bitcoin is no longer serving as a key source of liquidity for altcoin rallies.

Ju analysed that the phase in which altcoins surged simply because bitcoin rose may be over. He also said that as the market matures, the influence of narrative-driven altcoins is weakening, while areas tied to real businesses and profit-generating decentralised finance, stablecoins, tokenisation of real-world assets and AI agents are relatively strong.