Many older cryptocurrencies have experienced strong price increases recently, despite being less in the spotlight compared to new projects. Why is that?

Bitcoin as a catalyst

Bitcoin is currently breaking record after record. However, most altcoins remain stagnant, with the exception of the popular Solana and certain memecoins. Nevertheless, so-called "dino-coins" such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Stellar (XLM) have also recently shown significant price gains.

XRP rose more than 70 percent over the past seven days, ADA by 45 percent, BCH by 16 percent and ETC by 26 percent. XLM even recorded 115 percent growth over the same period. Dogecoin (DOGE) doubled in value, thanks largely to Elon Musk and his influence in the new U.S. administration with the word "DOGE.

Will there be a new altcoin season?

The recent rise of these altcoins indicates a resurgence of retail investors. Many of them are being drawn to the crypto market by the Bitcoin rally, for fear of missing the opportunity. This behavior in previous market phases has led to sharp rises in altcoins following Bitcoin hype.

Growing attention to Bitcoin and the broader crypto market is also evident in search volume on Google. Yet this is still far below the peak level of 2021.

New projects and token unlocks

Older projects have another advantage: they face less risk of dilution. Many new projects are backed by venture capital investments (VCs). When large amounts of tokens are released from private funding rounds, team members and investors can sell these cheaply purchased tokens en masse, which depresses the price. This was the case with TIA (Celestia), for example.

What can we expect?

Whether coins continue this course is always uncertain. In the last bull market, this was not the case. Still, if demand rises sharply, the best-performing altcoins are expected to be mostly those with the strongest story - whether they are old or new.