Crypto market not too far from Altcoins’ ‘last gasp’: expert

KEY POINTS

• Glassnode’s Check said that more and more crypto holders are “less and less willing” to trade their BTC and ETH for altcoins.
• He said the low demand for ETH ETFs would further prove that there was “no serious demand” for altcoins.
• He also predicted that alternative digital currencies would struggle in the coming years.

Altcoins, or cryptographic tokens often described as “alternatives” to Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralized digital asset, could be nearing the end of their life, an industry expert has predicted.

James Check, principal analyst at market data and blockchain provider Glassnode, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that altcoins, including memecoins, will face serious headwinds in the coming years.

He estimated that most cryptocurrency holders already have sufficient Bitcoin or Ethereum assets which, following recent developments with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “are now confirmed as winning tickets.”

He said many digital asset holders of the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies are “increasingly unwilling” to acquire altcoins because they know they will grow their assets “by simply staying put.” [exchange-traded funds]” Check further noted that crypto investors invest in memecoins from time to time, but not to the same extent as they do with strong digital coins such as BTC and ETH.

“We may not be too far from the last gasp of alts, and I have a feeling that the low demand for ETH ETFs over time will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It will remind us that “There is no serious demand for this stuff, and this will significantly lower expectations for the future moon.”

Check isn’t the only industry expert thinking Ether ETF demand will be low compared to the demand for Bitcoin ETFs. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas argued that he didn’t think many investors would feel the need to “go beyond Bitcoin/gold for their crypto/precious metals allocation.”

Finally, Check said it expects the altcoin sub-sector to face an “increasingly difficult time in the coming years” as more investors flock to realize that there is no real value in Bitcoin alternatives.

Despite Check’s dire predictions for the altcoin market, several notable altcoins and memecoins have made waves in recent months, including Shiba Inu (SHIB), which recently raised $12 million to build its new layer 3 blockchain. SHIB is the second largest memecoin by market capitalization, behind Dogecoin (DOGE).

BRETT, one of the top memecoins on Coinbase’s layer 2 Ethereum blockchain, recently said it is nearing a market value of $500 million and he remains optimistic about an upward trend this year.

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