Alt Season or Exit Liquidity? Parsing the Crypto Market’s Next Move

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bitcoin dominance is falling. Ethereum is rallying. Altcoins are exploding. Today on The Breakdown, NLW asks: is this the start of a new leg up in the bull market—or the beginning of the end? From surging ETH ETF inflows and treasury company buy pressure to warning signs of froth and echoes of 2021, this episode examines the competing narratives shaping the current moment. NLW unpacks the shifting risk spectrum, the legitimization of crypto through stablecoin legislation, and whether the explosion of altcoin treasury companies signals sustainable innovation—or just the next leverage bubble. Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast: https://pod.link/1438693620 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBreakdownBW Subscribe to the newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thebreakdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the discussion: https://discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8 Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownBW

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:09.3	It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:18.3	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, July 22nd, and today we are talking about whether this
0:23.9	old season that appears to be here is the next leg of the bull market or the beginning of the end
0:29.6	for this Bitcoin cycle. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown,
0:33.9	please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show
0:41.2	notes or go to bit.ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, there is definitely something happening
0:46.3	out there in the markets. Bitcoin dominance has been plunging this month despite new all-time
0:50.9	highs. Over the past week, it fell from 64 to 60%, which is the sharpest
0:55.3	decline since May. ETH outperformance has been the major driver, with price gains of 50% in two
1:00.9	weeks. But various altcoins also put on a strong performance, joining to push total crypto
1:05.6	market cap to $4 trillion for the first time ever. Many are starting to get anxious that this is it for the Bitcoin
1:12.0	cycle. Keith Allen, the co-founder of Material Indicators, noted that stable coin dominance is also falling.
1:18.2	We're rapidly approaching an all-time high for top 100 all-coins excluding Bitcoin in Ethereum,
1:23.0	which is currently getting close to $1 trillion. Roman trading wrote, Bitcoin dominance dumping and alt-running
1:28.4	proves liquidity is rotating, ending the bull run. By alt while you can, Bitcoin is likely close to over.
1:34.4	As another sign that conditions are getting frothy, XRP now has a bigger total market cap than McDonald's.
1:40.1	And if you want some real deja vu, global NFT market cap was up 17% over the weekend.
1:45.5	Now, the fear around Alt season is simple pattern matching back to last cycle. In November
1:50.2	2021, Bitcoin saw its final peak. Price was cut by more than a third by the end of the year,
1:54.8	but active crypto traders barely noticed. There was a raging bull market in Alts and Capital
1:59.2	was rotating furiously out the risk spectrum.
	...

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