Analysts are increasingly calling for the start of altseason as Ethereum posts massive gains and a wave of altcoins surges across the market. Over the past days, bullish momentum has pushed many digital assets higher, with price structures showing clear signs of strength. For many traders, this is the moment they’ve been waiting for—the long-anticipated shift where altcoins outperform Bitcoin and deliver outsized returns.

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Ethereum’s recent breakout above key resistance levels has added fuel to the narrative, with large-cap and mid-cap altcoins following in its footsteps. The market’s renewed optimism has sparked speculation that the altseason cycle, where capital rotates from Bitcoin into the broader altcoin market, may already be underway.

However, not all experts are convinced. Some point to Bitcoin’s continued dominance and the fact that most altcoins remain well below their all-time highs as reasons for caution. Historical altseasons have typically seen aggressive outperformance across the board, something the market has yet to fully confirm.

Altseason Still Waiting For Its True Breakout

According to top analyst Darkfost, the much-anticipated altseason hasn’t truly begun. By examining a comparative chart of Bitcoin, large caps (top 20), and mid/small caps, Darkfost notes that the current cycle is showing the weakest altcoin performance so far. While altcoins have made notable moves in recent weeks, their gains still pale in comparison to Bitcoin’s dominant run.

The last instance that resembled a genuine altseason occurred in early 2024, when altcoins—particularly mid- and small-cap projects—outpaced Bitcoin over a short but intense period. That surge marked a clear capital rotation away from BTC into the broader market, delivering outsized returns for altcoin holders. However, the present market conditions suggest that kind of broad-based outperformance has yet to materialize.

Even though Ethereum has broken above multi-year highs and several altcoins are posting impressive gains, the rally appears selective rather than widespread. Large caps are recovering steadily, but mid- and small-cap coins—often the hallmark of an explosive altseason—are still lagging. This disparity suggests that institutional and retail capital remains concentrated in more established assets.

For a confirmed altseason, analysts will be watching for a sustained breakout in mid- and small-cap performance relative to BTC. Until that shift occurs, the current market may be better described as a strong altcoin rally within Bitcoin’s dominant phase rather than the start of a full-scale altseason.

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Altcoin Market Nears Key Resistance

The Total Crypto Market Cap excluding Bitcoin (TOTAL2) is showing strong bullish momentum, currently sitting at $1.57 trillion after a sharp 13.21% weekly surge. This rally brings the market close to retesting its 2025 highs around the $1.6 trillion level, a critical resistance zone that has capped altcoin gains in previous attempts.

The chart reveals that the market has been in a sustained uptrend since early 2024, with price action consistently holding above the 50-week moving average (blue line) and maintaining bullish structure. Both the 100-week (green) and 200-week (red) moving averages are trending higher, reinforcing long-term support and signaling healthy market conditions.

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If the breakout occurs, TOTAL2 could target the previous all-time high zone near $1.75–$1.8 trillion, marking a potential acceleration in capital rotation from Bitcoin into altcoins. Conversely, failure to clear this resistance could lead to a short-term pullback toward $1.4 trillion support, which aligns with the 50-week MA. The coming weeks will be crucial for determining whether altseason truly ignites.

Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView

The native asset of the stablecoin-focused crypto project Ethena (ENA) skyrocketed by more than 28% on Friday, ignoring a wider crypto market pullback.

The price surge materialized after the Arthur Hayes-backed decentralized finance (DeFi) project announced a new strategic partnership with Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank.

The partnership aims to bring Ethena’s second stablecoin offering, USDtb, to the US under the regulatory umbrella of the recently enacted GENIUS Act, with Anchorage Digital issuing the asset domestically.

The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump last week, establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to the US dollar. The legislation requires each token to be fully backed by liquid assets such as cash or short-term US Treasuries.

USDtb is backed by institutional-grade tokenized treasury funds, including BlackRock’s BUIDL, a tokenized money-market fund designed to offer a stable value of $1 per token. BlackRock’s fund is built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain.

Says Guy Young, CEO of Ethena Labs,

“While we’ve already seen strong demand for USDtb, we expect GENIUS compliance to empower our partners and holders to confidently and significantly expand its use across new products and platforms. By partnering with Anchorage Digital – the only federally regulated crypto bank in the United States – we reinforce the foundation needed to continue scaling the product without compromising on speed, flexibility, or trust.”

Ethena’s native asset, ENA, is trading at $0.607 at time of writing and is up more than 56% in the past seven days.

By comparison, the overall crypto market cap is down more than 4% in the past 24 hours.

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Shares of Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose 43% this month, making the firm the top performer in the S&P 500 since it joined the index at the end of last month.

June’s run is already the stock’s best since November and caps three straight monthly gains. Coinbase’s shares reached their highest level since their public debut.

COIN hit a $382 high this week before enduring a slight correction, ending the week at $353 and seeing a slight 0.7% drop in after-hours trading to $351.

The wider S&P 500 index rose roughly 5% in June as geopolitical tensions eased.

Washington’s progress on the GENIUS Act, Congress’s first rulebook for dollar-pegged stablecoins, helped shift investor focus from trading fees to stablecoin revenue.

The bill brightened the outlook for Circle, whose shares hit a record high and saw its market cap near that of Coinbase this week.

Coinbase keeps all yield on USDC balances held on its platform and nearly half of other USDC income, equal to about 99 percent of Circle’s revenue, giving shareholders indirect exposure at no added cost, CNBC reported Friday, citing analysts including Citizens’ head of financial technology research Devin Ryan.

Trading, however, remains subdued. Average daily volume on Coinbase has drifted lower since April.

An altcoin associated with a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project surged by nearly 44% on Friday after receiving a prominent exchange listing.

On Thursday, the South Korean crypto exchange giant Bithumb announced it was listing XYO, the native token of the XYO Network.

The XYO Network aims to process any type of decentralized data.

Explains the project’s website,

“Encompassing both a network and protocol, XYO can be used for aggregating, verifying, organizing, and utilizing decentralized data from any hardware node capable of running XYO-enabled software or firmware.

XYO’s defining premise is decentralized verification, allowing network devices to verify the data flowing into the network’s databases by acting as witnesses for one another, strengthening the veracity of data received. Simple, accessible organization then allows this data to be put to use quickly and efficiently.”

Earlier this month, the project announced it would be migrating its network to a new layer-1 chain focused on DePIN. To help facilitate that move, the XYO Network is also rolling out a new layer-1 native token, XL1, and will operate with a dual-token model going forward.

The original XYO token will stay on Ethereum (ETH) and act “as an anchor to regulate the flow of XL1 into its native blockchain,” according to the project.

XYO is trading at $0.0154 at time of writing. The 278th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is also up by more than 71% in the past week.

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The top five chains in terms of stablecoin market capitalization — Ethereum, Tron, BSC, Base, and Arbitrum — reveal distinct patterns in issuance, bridging, and usage. The distribution and usage of stablecoins across these chains show how users approach and utilize them and why certain networks have become preferred venues for specific stablecoin issuers.

Ethereum leads with a stablecoin market cap of over $125  billion , buoyed by a net weekly increase in the billions. This large base shows Ethereum is a flexible platform for stablecoin issuance, trading, and DeFi adoption. A key factor is the wide variety of stablecoins found on Ethereum, from major issuers like Tether and Circle to algorithmic and overcollateralized options.

Although USDT makes up about half of Ethereum’s total stablecoin supply, USDC, DAI, and others also maintain a noteworthy share. This diversity points to Ethereum’s importance for both institutional and retail capital, drawing liquidity for lending protocols, liquidity pools, and other DeFi instruments.

Tron, with around $65  billion  in stablecoin value, is second but far more concentrated. Tether represents virtually the entire pool on Tron, reflecting a strategic focus by Tether’s operators to mint directly on the network. Tron has fewer competing issuers, and its lower transaction costs have helped turn it into a popular corridor for stablecoin transfers.

Unlike Ethereum, Tron shows zero bridged value, indicating that stablecoins on Tron are almost entirely native rather than flows from other chains. This highlights the network’s specialized function in the market: it offers a consistent, cost‐effective environment for USDT transactions, which attracts users who need fast and inexpensive transfers over engaging with a broader DeFi ecosystem.

BSC ranks third with a stablecoin market cap of over $7  billion, dominated mainly by Tether but with a measure of diversity that includes BUSD and USDC. A significant portion of the stablecoins on BSC, around $6  billion, is bridged from other chains.

Users rely on bridging solutions to bring liquidity to yield farming, trading, and other DeFi operations. BSC’s transaction costs are typically lower than Ethereum’s, which makes it more appealing to traders and yield seekers who see it as a more economical environment even though it has less total stablecoin liquidity than Ethereum or Tron.

Base is one of the newer entrants but has already accumulated over $4 billion in stablecoins, driven mainly by USDC. A substantial $3.9  billion of that total is bridged rather than issued natively, indicating that Base’s ecosystem has grown primarily by attracting liquidity from external sources, particularly Ethereum.

Much of this capital reflects users’ preference for USDC minting and bridging, likely tied to Coinbase’s relationships and the broader DeFi community’s confidence in its redemption process. Participants move stablecoins to Base to take advantage of lower transaction costs and in search of new yield opportunities in an environment closely anchored to Ethereum’s security guarantees.

Arbitrum, nearing $4  billion  in stablecoins, has a modest lead over Base in total stablecoin supply, and about $1.8  billion of that is bridged liquidity. Like Base, Arbitrum relies heavily on capital migrating from Ethereum, with a stablecoin composition featuring USDC, Tether, and other assets. Arbitrum’s early entry as a Layer-2 helped secure various DeFi protocols operating on the network. These platforms attracted stablecoin holders seeking to deploy funds in protocols that replicate Ethereum’s robust liquidity without the high gas fees.

While analyzing the significance of these distributions, Ethereum and Tron’s dominance reveals two primary use cases for stablecoins. On Ethereum, users seek a broad DeFi environment and a variety of stablecoin issuers, while Tron caters to less sophisticated high‐volume transfers, focusing on Tether for cost‐effective settlements. Ethereum’s stablecoin mix surpasses $125  billion  in total value with very little reliance on bridged tokens, whereas Tron’s $65  billion  is almost entirely natively issued USDT.

This concentration of stablecoins on just two networks highlights the market’s tendency to cluster around infrastructure that offers either broad functionality or minimal transaction expenses. At the same time, users have shown they are willing to spread capital to other chains, but usually only if the new environment provides unique benefits or specialized applications.

Some chains show a much higher bridged stablecoin total than native issuance because they do not host as many official stablecoin issuers on their networks. Instead, they rely on bridging solutions to funnel liquidity from larger or more established chains.

BSC, for example, has $6  billion bridged out of over $7  billion , indicating that only about $1 billion is directly minted or natively issued on BSC. Base follows a similar pattern, with $3.9  billion  bridged against just over $4 billion in total, while Arbitrum’s $1.8  billion of nearly $4  billion in stablecoins arrive via cross‐chain bridges.

In contrast, Tron’s bridged number stands at zero, affirming that Tron’s entire $65  billion  in stablecoins is natively minted Tether. This phenomenon is widespread on Layer 2s and sidechains, where users enjoy faster and cheaper transactions while still leaning on Ethereum’s liquidity and security models. Since stablecoins function similarly once on a particular chain, the defining factor becomes how quickly and inexpensively they can migrate rather than whether native or bridged.

The post Ethereum’s diverse mix of stablecoins outpaces Tron’s USD dominance appeared first on CryptoSlate.