In September 2025, the Altcoin Season Indexwhich tracks the performance of the top 100 altcoins against that of Bitcoin, had reached a new annual peak. This surge had sparked positive market sentiment, with calls for the altcoin bull run to finally begin. However, the tide has since turned and hopes of another altcoin season have faded. Now, the index has fallen again, approaching its annual lows.
Altcoin Season Index Drops to 39 from 78
The Altcoin seasonal index on the CoinMarketCap website has declined to a score of 29, representing a drop of over 50% from its September highs. Back then, the altcoin seasonal index had risen to a score of 78, suggesting that altcoins were in a bull market. However, this move was short-lived due to the market crash that followed, especially in the month of October.
This index takes into account the performance of the top 100 altcoins by market capitalization against the price of Bitcoin over a 90-day period and uses it to grade the chart. The more altcoins outperform Bitcoin during this time period, the higher the score on the index.
A score of 29 means that only 29 altcoins in the top 100 have performed better compared to the price of Bitcoin during this 90 day period. Companies like Binance-backed ASTER and ZCASH’s ZEC lead this list after seeing an increase of over 900% each during this time.
Interestingly, Ethereum price appears on the list of altcoins outperforming the market leader, with a 5.18% increase for ETH compared to the 4.32% drop suffered by Bitcoin at the time of writing.
What this means for altcoins
The current score of 29 on the Altcoin Seasonal Index represents the poor performance of altcoins in recent months, as they were especially shaken by the October 10 crash. However, this is not all bad news for the altcoin market, based on its historical performance.
Looking back, a bull run has always started when the index falls to low levels. Prior to the September 2025 rally, the Altcoin seasonal index had fallen below 40 before bottoming out. Therefore, the current low index score, coupled with market sentiment turning into fear, could suggest that a bottom is near.
Featured image of Dall.E, chart from TradingView.com
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