Older cryptocurrencies with an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or expected to receive an ETF will soak up much of the capital deployed during the next altcoin season, according to Maen Ftouni, CEO of CoinQuant, a company that produces algorithmic trading tools.
“Not every single coin is going to have massive returns; the liquidity is going to be concentrated into certain places, dinosaurs being one of them, of course,” Ftouni told Cointelegraph at the Global Blockchain Congress 2025 in Dubai, UAE.
Ftouni said institutional capital will be directed toward “dinosaur” coins, and attributed the 2024 rally in older cryptocurrencies like XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) to this phenomenon. He said:
“Since the flow of funds is coming mostly from traditional finance and ETFs at the moment, those people are probably looking at these major coins, all the coins established that have the potential of getting an ETF, and this is why we’re seeing this rise in these dinosaurs.”
The prediction comes amid a debate between market analysts about the structure and market dynamics of the crypto market and how this will affect the onset of altseaon, a sustained rally in altcoin prices, during the current market cycle.
Related: Altcoins typically dump hard before altseason: Will history repeat?
Analysts speculate: When will altseason come, if at all?
There are over 26 million different crypto tokens listed on CoinMarketCap — more than double the amount of digital assets listed on the website at the beginning of 2025.
“Too many tokens, infinitely more to come, the supply of tokens is greater than demand,” economist and trader Alex Kruger said.
Kruger told traders to adjust their expectations and said that an “alteason” defined by a sustained period of rising asset prices likely will not happen during the current market cycle due to the changed dynamic.
Instead, traders should expect short bursts of rising altcoin prices that will only affect select tokens and may only last for several weeks at a time, Kruger added.
Magazine: Altcoin season 2025 is almost here… but the rules have changed
