The post Altcoin Season Stalls – Is the Party Over for Ethereum, XRP, and Friends? appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

It was all champagne and rocket emojis in altcoin land until today. On Wednesday, the crypto market gave altcoin traders a wake-up call as Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin all took sharp turns downward. The correction comes after a euphoric, leverage-fueled run that pushed many tokens to multi-month and in some cases, all-time highs. Traders are now looking around and wondering if the long-awaited altcoin season ended before it properly got going, or if this is just a dip because the next leg up.  The trigger: a surge in derivatives speculation that may have stretched markets to a breaking point. According to Glassnode, open interest on altcoin derivatives hit a record-smashing $45 billion this week, nearly doubling from $26 billion at the start of July. That’s a monumental leap in just three weeks. It’s also a sign that frothy exuberance was in overdrive. Here’s what that kind of speculative fuel does: it inflates expectations, pumps up prices, and sets the stage for sudden, dramatic pullbacks when those expectations aren’t met. That’s precisely what we’re seeing. The Casualties of the Day XRP, which only last week broke a seven-year high and was the darling of the market, is now the biggest loser among the top 10 coins. It’s down nearly 10% in 24 hours, currently trading at $3.22. Sure, it’s still up 8% for the week, but that’s cold comfort for anyone who bought yesterday’s top. Dogecoin, the joke that became a memetic force of nature, dropped 9% to $0.241. Solana fell 7% to $188. Ethereum managed a more modest dip, down 3% to $3,586, but it’s leading the liquidation leaderboard. Nearly $605 million in crypto long positions got nuked in the last 24 hours, and Ethereum accounts for over $129 million of that—$104 million of which were bullish longs that…

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Filed under: News - @ July 24, 2025 5:27 am