Analysts divided as meme coin rally sparks alt season speculation

Meme coins PNUT, PEPE, WIF, and BRETT recorded the highest gains among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap on Nov. 14 amid analysts’ predictions of an approaching altcoin season.

Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) skyrocketed 122.5% over the past day bringing its market cap to over $2 billion. The meme coin hit an all-time high of $2.44 on Thursday before parting off with some of the gains and floating around $2.07 when writing.

Pepe (PEPE) was up 75% over the past 24 hours, exchanging hands at $0.0000225 with its market cap standing at $9.4 billion. Earlier on Nov. 14, the Ethereum-based meme coin also reached an all-time high of $0.00002457 with a massive trading volume of over $25 billion at the time of writing.

Other popular meme coins such as Dogwifhat (WIF), Brett (BRETT), Popcat (POPCAT), Bonk (BONK) and FLOKI (FLOKI) also topped daily gainers posting gains between 20-40%. Meanwhile Dogecoin and Shiba Inu the first meme coin ever launched also recorded more modest gains of 5.4% and 5.9% respectively.

The recent surge in meme coins and other altcoins has lifted the sector’s market cap by 9% in the past day, reaching a record high of $126.6 billion. This rally follows Donald Trump’s recent election victory and Bitcoin hitting new highs multiple times over recent days.

As Bitcoin navigates its price discovery phase, analysts are actively debating the potential for an upcoming alt season, speculating that this momentum could soon ignite a broader altcoin rally.

According to crypto analyst Miles Deutscher, the market is currently still in the “Bitcoin phase” of the cycle where the flagship crypto remains in price discovery and continues to rally and suck up liquidity until it hits the cycle top. Altcoin season begins after BTC dominance starts to drop.

The analyst added that although there has been a recent surge in altcoins, a full-fledged alt season is yet to come, emphasizing that BTC’s strong performance at this stage is crucial to setting the stage for a sustainable altcoin rally. The higher BTC climbs, Deutscher noted, the more aggressive the eventual capital rotation into altcoins is likely to be.

However, fellow analyst Ash Crypto believes that Bitcoin dominance, currently hovering around 60.80%, has likely reached its peak for this cycle, and he expects Bitcoin to soon begin losing ground.

“ONCE THE CRASH BEGINS, ALTSEASON WILL START,” said Ash Crypto.

Similarly, market commentator CryptoAmsterdam expects alt season to start in the coming weeks.

Patric H, on the other hand, envisions a longer timeline, suggesting that the altcoin rally may not fully materialize until Bitcoin dominance reaches approximately 66%, assuming BTC’s momentum continues. Like Deutscher, he believes this higher dominance level would lay the groundwork for a much stronger alt season and advises followers to hold onto their altcoin positions in anticipation.

With the altcoin index currently showing a reading of 35, it appears that the crypto community is still far off before experiencing a true altcoin season, which typically occurs when the reading goes above 75 as seen earlier in March 2021 and August 2022.