Altcoin Liquidity Crunch: 83% Of Crypto Tokens Slip Into Bear Trend
Altcoin breadth on Binance has deteriorated sharply, with a big majority of tokens now buying and selling beneath a extensively watched long-term development stage, an exhaustion sign that CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost frames as a liquidity drawback as a lot as a worth drawback.
In a publish on X, Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) shared a CryptoQuant chart monitoring the share of Binance-listed altcoins buying and selling beneath their 50-week transferring common alongside Bitcoin’s worth. His headline declare: “LIQUIDITY CRUNCH PUSHES 83% OF ALTCOINS INTO BEAR TREND,” arguing that the majority traders uncovered to non-Bitcoin, non-stablecoin belongings are “now in important problem,” significantly these nonetheless holding positions.
Altcoin Breadth Breaks Down On Binance
Darkfost’s chart, titled “Altcoins efficiency (Binance)”, exhibits the proportion of altcoins beneath the 50-week transferring common rising again into traditionally pressured territory. In his newest learn, 83% of Binance altcoins are beneath that threshold, an indication that weak spot just isn’t remoted to a handful of names however unfold throughout the tape.
He additionally pointed to an much more excessive episode earlier this month. “Since the tip of the bear market in 2023, a brand new document was set on February 7, with greater than 92% of altcoins on Binance buying and selling beneath this key technical help,” he wrote, describing it as a post-2023-cycle high in draw back participation.
That stands in stark distinction to the situations seen throughout earlier upside phases. Darkfost famous that in March 2024 solely 6% of Binance altcoins traded beneath the 50-week line, and in December 2024 the determine was 7%. Outside of these multi-month home windows, he added, at the very least half of altcoins remained below the edge, conduct he characterised as meaningfully completely different from the prior cycle’s breadth dynamics.
Darkfost framed the altcoin drawdown as inseparable from Bitcoin’s development and the macro backdrop, suggesting that the market’s danger finances has tightened whereas altcoin provide has expanded.
“The market continues to be pushed by BTC’s actions, which has been in a downtrend since October 2025 following an ATH at $126,000. At current, BTC’s momentum stays extremely unsure, with worth nonetheless hovering at roughly 46% of its all time high. Rising geopolitical tensions, significantly between the US and Iran, alongside more and more hawkish projections and tone from the Fed expressed within the newest FOMC minutes, are making the present setting particularly difficult for extremely unstable belongings reminiscent of altcoins,” he wrote.
The chart itself marks BTC close to the mid-$60,000 vary, underscoring his broader level: in a regime the place Bitcoin path is unclear and macro inputs are hostile to period and volatility, breadth in higher-beta tokens can deteriorate rapidly after which keep impaired.
Why The 50-Week Line Matters
Darkfost emphasised the 50-week transferring common as a long-horizon filter utilized by market contributors to separate corrective phases from structurally constructive ones. When a majority of tokens sit beneath it, rallies are usually narrower, choice stress rises, and “alt season” narratives turn out to be more durable to maintain with out a decisive shift in liquidity situations.
He attributed the present setup to “the rise in altcoin provide throughout the broader crypto market mixed with nonetheless constrained liquidity situations,” a mixture that may mechanically dilute marginal flows. In that setting, he argued, outperforming turns into much less about broad beta publicity and extra about understanding how market construction has modified.
At press time, the entire crypto market cap excluding Bitcoin stood at $943.46 billion.