38% of altcoins near all-time lows, worse than FTX crash: Analyst
Digital currency alternative assets continue struggling with persistent downward pressure as market confidence deteriorates following the devastating October 2025 market downturn.
Approximately 38% of alternative cryptocurrencies are currently trading close to their record lowest prices, representing a more severe situation than what followed the FTX exchange collapse, based on findings from CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost.
The present market conditions are "unfavorable" for speculative assets, with cryptocurrency markets being among the first to reflect this risk-averse positioning, the analyst noted, further stating:
"For comparison, this metric reached 35% in April 2025 and 37.8% just after the FTX crash. This chart perfectly illustrates the current situation for altcoins. Investors remain cautious and continue to lose interest in altcoins."
Alternative digital currencies, which generally function as substitutes to Bitcoin (BTC), include instances such as Cardano's ADA (ADA), currently positioned approximately $0.10 above its record low of $0.17. Polkadot (DOT) hit a historical bottom of $1.13 in February, though it has since climbed 33% from that point, while Polygon (POL) is exchanging hands roughly $0.02 away from its record low of $0.08.
Capital is being redirected away from alternative cryptocurrencies and flowing into equities and commodities, according to Darkfost. Transaction volumes on a daily basis peaked at more than $417 billion on Oct. 10, coinciding with the historic cryptocurrency market collapse, based on CoinMarketCap data.
By contrast, daily transaction volumes fluctuated between $49.4 billion and $268 billion throughout February and March 2026.
This decline in altcoin values constitutes the "largest regression" observed throughout the ongoing market cycle, the analyst explained, while suggesting it might offer a purchasing opportunity for market participants, he concluded.
Altcoin social activity drowned out by Bitcoin
This assessment arrives as references to alternative cryptocurrencies across social networking platforms declined to two-year minimums, according to Santiment, a crypto market sentiment analysis platform.
Worldwide Google search interest for altcoins similarly fell to its lowest annual point of 4 out of 100, based on information from Google Trends.
"Altcoins are suffering from a 'liquidity drain,' where even minor shifts in sentiment trigger outsized sell-offs," Jimmy Xue, co-founder of liquidity platform Axis, said in a message shared with Cointelegraph.
This situation exists because alternative cryptocurrencies do not possess the equivalent institutional backing and the "digital gold" storyline that Bitcoin benefits from, he added.
Market observers have identified multiple factors contributing to the deterioration in altcoin performance, including an excessive number of tokens vying for scarce investor funding, and the introduction of BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have transformed market mechanics by confining liquidity within conventional financial instruments.
More than 36.8 million distinct cryptocurrency tokens are currently catalogued on CoinMarketCap at the time of this writing.