The recent euphoria over Bitcoin rocketing above $123,000 has highlighted just how reliant the whole market is on the original cryptocurrency.
As Bitcoin Slips, Crypto Market Falls Back Below December Values
15 July 2025 - 19:13 CEST
The CMC100 index, which tracks the performance of the top 100 cryptocurrency projects by market capitalization, fell 5% since Monday’s high to $226.28 at 15:20 UTC on Tuesday. The index languished below mid-December levels despite Bitcoin just coming off an all-time high, having climbed about 9% over the same 8-month period.
The lag shown by the full gauge shows that altcoins, which represent 31% of its weighting, have yet to recover full value despite the widespread rebound across traditional and digital asset classes during most of Q2 and into the start of Q3.
Source: CoinMarketCap 100 Index (USD) July 2024-July 2025
Ether lagging
Ether (ETH), accounting for almost 11% of the CMC100, has only just crept back up above $3,000 despite topping $4,000 in December. Solana (SOL) has lost more than 28% since the same point in December, while BNB has also declined.
Traders with a basket of cryptos with higher exposure to Bitcoin than the market weighting would therefore have profited during this period from higher risk adjusted returns compared with altcoins, which have had larger drawdowns.
Increased enthusiasm
Looking ahead at the start of the northern summer, Ether is benefiting from increased investor enthusiasm around real-world asset tokenization and stablecoins. Ether also drew interest in early July from corporate treasuries and ETFs (exchange-traded funds).
Could an Alt Season return?
Altcoins will need a step-up in performance rather than relying on Bitcoin to carry the market. However, as our analysis has shown, many traders are still wondering whether an Alt Season in which they collectively outperform Bitcoin over an extended period will ever return?
