A lot of alternative coins, about 38%, are now close to their lowest prices ever. This is a really bad situation, even worse than what happened after FTX collapsed, according to people who study the market.

The current state of the market is not looking good for assets that are risky, like cryptocurrencies. When people get nervous, they tend to put their money into safer things. Cryptocurrencies are usually the first to be affected when this happens.

The cryptocurrency market is seeing a significant downturn, and this is evident when looking at some of the alternative coins, known as altcoins, which are alternatives to the popular Bitcoin. For instance, Cardano's ADA is currently trading at a price that is just $0.10 above its all-time low of $0.17, showing just how far its value has dropped. Another example is Polkadot, which is represented by the symbol DOT, and it reached a record low of $1.13 back in February, although it has managed to recover about 33% of its value since then. Similarly, Polygon, which is abbreviated as POL, is currently trading at a price that is roughly $0.02 above its all-time low of $0.08, highlighting the challenges that these alternative cryptocurrencies are facing in the current market.

Darkfost pointed out that money is slowly moving out of the alternative currency market and into more traditional investments like stocks and goods. This shift is changing where people are putting their money, moving away from alternative currencies and towards more established assets.

Daily trading volume across the crypto market reached more than $417 billion on Oct. 10 during the historic market crash, according to data from CoinMarketCap. In comparison, daily trading volumes between February and March 2026 ranged from $49.4 billion to $268 billion.

The market expert said the big drop in altcoin value is the worst we've seen in this cycle, but it could also be a good time for investors who plan to hold on for a long time to buy in.

Altcoin Social Activity Drops

The decline in altcoin prices is also reflected in online sentiment. Mentions of altcoins across social media platforms have dropped to two-year lows, according to data from crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

People are not searching for alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, as much as they used to. In fact, according to Google Trends, interest in altcoins has dropped to its lowest point in a year, scoring just 4 out of 100. This suggests that the hype surrounding these digital coins has died down significantly.

Jimmy Xue, who co-founded the liquidity platform Axis, believes that the altcoin market is experiencing a significant problem - it's losing liquidity. He calls this a "liquidity drain". What this means is that even when investors' feelings about the market change just a little, it can cause a big wave of selling. This shows just how sensitive the altcoin market is right now.

He pointed out that altcoins lack the solid support from big institutions and a compelling story that Bitcoin has, which is why many people call it "digital gold".

Some experts think there are other reasons why things are slow. For one, there are too many tokens out there, all competing for investors' money. Another reason is the growth of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which are pulling money into traditional financial markets. This is taking away the money that could be invested in other areas.

Currently, more than 36.8 million different crypto tokens are listed on CoinMarketCap.

38% of Altcoins Near All-Time Lows, Worse Than FTX Crash: Analyst

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