Altcoin Season ‘Game Is Over’: Matt Hougan

The euphoric altcoin seasons where almost every cryptocurrency rises across the market are probably not coming back, says Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan.

“I think that game is over. I think we’ll see a non-traditional altcoin season,” Hougan said in an interview on Wednesday. “An altcoin season that rewards assets with real-world traction and real-world application.”

“I don’t think we’ll see the sort of rising tide lifts all buckets where you rotate from Bitcoin to ETH to DeFi to NFT pictures of rocks.”

Hougan said future altcoin seasons could instead see the market “rerate” certain tokens, particularly those tied to what he described as “huge businesses.”

Altcoin season likely to be “more differentiated”

“I just think it’ll be more differentiated than previous altcoin seasons,” Hougan said.

Crypto traders typically expect, based on past cycles, that Bitcoin (BTC) would first reach new all-time highs, then capital will rotate into Ether (ETH) and then into altcoins, kicking off altcoin season.

As for Bitcoin, which recently fell as low as $60,000 in February, Hougan said it was “starting to bottom and trend higher.” Bitcoin is trading at $70,237 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.

Altcoin season debate continues

The altcoin season debate has divided the crypto industry, with crypto analyst Matthew Hyland saying in November that traders should have confidence in an altcoin season arriving soon, citing the Bitcoin dominance chart as “bearish for many weeks.”

Related: 38% of altcoins near all-time lows, worse than FTX crash: Analyst

In December, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said, “There is always an altcoin season happening.”

“[If you’re] always saying altcoin season isn’t there, [it’s] because you didn’t own what went up,” Hayes said.

Crypto sentiment platform Santiment said on Wednesday that mentions of altcoins on social media reached their lowest level in two years, while indicators suggest investors are focusing on Bitcoin. 

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