Bitcoin is flashing some signs of strength as it pushes towards $9,400. This marks a break above the resistance it has faced at $9,300 over the past week.
Although BTC has only climbed slightly today, buyers appear to be in firm control of the aggregated cryptocurrency market. Many altcoins are now finding themselves caught within intense uptrends.
In some cases, some smaller digital assets like Dogecoin have been able to see parabolic rallies over a 24-hour time period.
This price action has led some investors to deem it “altseason” – signaling that they anticipate this trend to continue.
It is important to note that this may simply be the result of Bitcoin’s historically low volatility, which provides an ideal backdrop for altcoins to make independent movements.
It is possible that once BTC’s volatility returns, it will crush altcoins and cause many to surrender all of their recent gains.
Bitcoin Volatility Remains Incredibly Low, But That May Soon Change
Because Bitcoin has generally remained stuck within the lower-$9,000 region over the past couple of days, altcoins have been significantly outperforming it.
This isn’t unusual, however, as alts historically tend to perform quite well during times of stability for the benchmark cryptocurrency, as traders largely shift their focus towards smaller and more easily moved tokens.
Over the past couple of days, numerous altcoins have seen massive rallies, including ADA – which was trading up over 20% at one point yesterday – Dogecoin, Chainlink, and others.
Dogecoin even posted gains of over 100% yesterday evening, but this Tik Tok-induced pump was short-lived, and its price has since heavily retraced.
Nevertheless, the market still looks hot, and there is a strong chance that more tokens will post notable gains as Bitcoin remains stable.
According to data from Skew, Bitcoin’s volatility is currently at levels not seen in over a year.
The last time it was this low was just before the “great selloff” seen in November of 2018 that ultimately led the crypto to lows in the $3,000 region.
“Bitcoin ten days realized volatility = 20%. Last time we reached that level, we had the great sell-off of November 2018 shortly after.”
Image courtesy of Skew.
Why BTC Could Soon Crush Altcoins
Because the ongoing altcoin rally appears to be dependent on Bitcoin’s stability, a pending BTC movement could halt these tokens in their tracks.
One analyst spoke about this in a recent tweet, explaining that any imminent BTC volatility could prove to be dire for this trend.
“No matter if it’s going to be a green or red [candle] on BTC, alts don’t react well to high BTC volatility. I fully expect them to continue to perform well in the upcoming weeks but entering a lot of the majors at this spot is questionable at best.”
Because bouts of volatility as low as Bitcoin is seeing now tend to be followed by massive movements, this “altseason” may soon come to a quick end.
Featured image from Shutterstock.