Altcoin trading remains relatively high on Binance, accounting for 60% of all trades. Despite the slowdown in BTC and ETH trading, the altcoin market remains active.
Binance is turning into an altcoin venue, with up to 60% of trading volume tied to its large token portfolio. At the same time, BTC and ETH activity has been declining, with continued selling pressure in small volumes.
Altcoin trading volume has recovered on Binance and now accounts for over 60% of trading activity. Both BTC and ETH trading activity declined even more significantly. |Source: CryptoQuant.
Despite the relatively slow season for altcoins, there are some unique elements to Binance’s asset selection. Exchange hosts keep track of stablecoin liquidity and provide sufficient funds for speculation. Furthermore, this exchange handles the most liquid altcoins, allowing for speculative trading with sufficient liquidity.
The exchange also offers carefully selected projects and often invites market makers to generate more trading volume. Both BTC and altcoins are volatile, and traders may be taking advantage of that volatility for potential short-term profits.
Despite the market downturn, altcoin trading on Binance has returned to early 2025 levels and shows no signs of slowing down. The added activity comes from reawakened old coins like ZCash (ZEC), Binance’s own select tokens, and occasional pumps from older assets.
Altcoins compete for attention with BTC
Based on just the altcoin season index 26 Point, it’s BTC season now. Altcoins have underperformed during Bitcoin’s decline, with major coins falling to the $85,000 range.
The recent interest in altcoins comes in the wake of the excessive profits of certain assets. Leaders that have outperformed BTC include ZEC and ASTER, pushing the entire sector higher. However, small or forgotten altcoins remain illiquid and risky, and there is no market to raise all their assets.
Traders remain wary of old historical narratives about altcoin all-seasons. In the past, the fall of BTC led to the expansion of altcoins. However, the market in 2025 faces different pressures, and some of the outflows from BTC will not end up in the altcoin market.
Instead, inflows are concentrated in certain blue-chip tokens and ecosystems, with occasional meme token pumps. This time, the mass adoption of the meme is not there to support any general sense of active trade.
Altcoins also rose due to the launch of derivatives trading and perpetual futures DEXs. While Binance and other centralized exchanges are used as hedging tools and arbitrage, a significant portion of altcoin activity has moved to HyperLiquid and other markets.
Altcoin market remains cautious
Despite the relatively high share of altcoins on Binance, traders are still relatively cautious.
In early October, altcoin trading peaked at more than 82% of all Binance activity on expectations of a month of continued gains.
Altcoins broke out in 2025, with some returning to their highest prices since 2021. However, not all assets have recovered, and some are actually extending multi-year bear markets.