The Bitcoin dominance has hit a new cycle high, providing a bearish outlook for altcoins and any potential altcoin season. Crypto analyst Finsends has commented on this development and how it could affect the altcoin season moving forward. 

What’s Next As Bitcoin Dominance Hits New High?

In an X post, Finsends stated that the Bitcoin dominance has made a new high and that it feels like it can never go down again. However, he opined that there should be a bigger correction starting somewhere around the current levels. The analyst added that the potential target area for a top in this scenario goes up to 68.56%.

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His accompanying chart showed that the Bitcoin dominance could hit this projected top of 68.56% in July, after which a decline would begin. Based on the chart, the BTC.D could drop to as low as 48% on this decline, paving the way for a potential altcoin season. If so, then altcoins could witness significant gains in the second half of the year and outperform BTC in the process. 

In an X post, crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe also commented on the rising Bitcoin dominance and a potential altcoin season. He noted that the altcoin season indicator has hit its lowest number in two years. The analyst added that the lows of this indicator over the last six years were in June or July.  

Based on this, he remarked that there seems to be a pattern since the indicator has hit a low again this June. Michaël van de Poppe didn’t predict when exactly altcoin season could begin or if the Bitcoin dominance would top anytime soon. However, before now, he had expressed confidence that the alt season would still happen. The analyst noted that the last cycle was also called a Bitcoin cycle until altcoins started to run and heavily outperformed. 

What Needs To Happen For Altcoins To Take Off

In another X post, Michaël van de Poppe stated that altcoins are in need of an upward push from Ethereum, and that this needs to happen through a push of Bitcoin. He further remarked that once the BTC price bottoms out, that is a very likely moment for Ethereum to continue outperforming the flagship crypto, with the Bitcoin dominance declining. 

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The analyst believes that altcoins would start “shining” when the next leg upwards for Ethereum takes place, possibly ushering in altcoin season. He declared that once altcoins start to shine, market participants can expect them to heavily outperform the markets. However, for now, Michaël van de Poppe believes investors need to have some more patience. 

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $101,700, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Ascension, one of the largest private healthcare systems in the United States, has revealed that the personal and healthcare information of over 430,000 patients was exposed in a data breach disclosed last month.

As Ascension revealed in breach notification letters sent to affected individuals in April, their information was stolen in a data theft attack that impacted a former business partner in December.

Depending on the impacted patient, the attackers could access personal health information related to inpatient visits, including the physician’s name, admission and discharge dates, diagnosis and billing codes, medical record number, and insurance company name. They could also gain access to personal information, including name, address, phone number(s), email address, date of birth, race, gender, and Social Security numbers (SSNs).

“On December 5, 2024, we learned that Ascension patient information may have been involved in a potential security incident. We immediately initiated an investigation to determine whether and how a security incident occurred,” Ascension said.

“Our investigation determined on January 21, 2025, that Ascension inadvertently disclosed information to a former business partner, and some of this information was likely stolen from them due to a vulnerability in third-party software used by the former business partner.”

While Ascension didn’t reveal the total number of affected individuals at the time, an April 29 filing said that the incident impacted 114,692 individuals in Texas, and the company also told Massachusetts’ Office of the Attorney General that 96 residents had their medical records and SSNs exposed in the incident.

However, the healthcare giant also disclosed in an April 28 filing with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) that wasn’t published until today that the data breach affected 437,329 individuals.

​Ascension offers two years of free identity monitoring services to those impacted by this incident, including credit monitoring, fraud consultation, and identity theft restoration.

Although Ascension didn’t share any details regarding the breach affecting its former business partner, the timeline of the breach implies that the attack was part of widespread Clop ransomware data theft attacks that exploited a zero-day flaw in Cleo secure file transfer software.

Last year, Ascension notified almost 5.6 million patients and employees that their personal, financial, insurance, and health information had been stolen in a May 2024 Black Basta ransomware attack.

After the incident, the healthcare organization revealed that the ransomware breach resulted from an employee downloading a malicious file onto a company device.

Following the May 2024 attack, employees were forced to keep track of procedures and medications on paper, as patients’ electronic records couldn’t be accessed. Ascension also had to pause some non-emergent elective procedures, tests, and appointments and redirect emergency medical services to unaffected healthcare units to prevent triage delays.

Ascension has over 142,000 employees, operates 142 hospitals and 40 senior care facilities acoss North America, and reported revenues of $28.3 billion in 2023.