Is It Altcoin Season? — Altseason Barometer, Live

What is Altseason Barometer?

The Altseason Barometer is Yieldo's own 0-100 gauge of whether capital is rotating into altcoins. It is computed from one input only: Bitcoin dominance. The altcoin-to-Bitcoin market-cap ratio is (100 - BTC.D) / BTC.D, and the barometer measures how that ratio changed over the last 90 days. A change of +25% maps to 100 (altcoin season), -25% maps to 0 (Bitcoin season), and 50 means altcoins and Bitcoin grew at the same pace. Because BTC dominance is measured against the total crypto market cap, stablecoins sit on the altcoin side of the ratio - the reading is a rotation gauge, not a portfolio return.

How Altseason Barometer Affects Crypto Markets

A reading above 75 means the altcoin market cap has grown far faster than Bitcoin's over the last quarter - historically the phase where risk moves down the market-cap curve and funding on altcoin perpetuals turns expensive. Below 25, capital is consolidating into Bitcoin, and altcoin staking yields and funding premiums usually compress with it. The barometer is a trailing 90-day measure, so it confirms a rotation rather than predicting one - pair it with BTC dominance for the live trend and the Fear & Greed Index for positioning.

What is Altseason Barometer?

The Altseason Barometer answers one question with one number: over the last 90 days, did altcoins as a group gain or lose ground against Bitcoin? It reads the altcoin-to-Bitcoin market-cap ratio (100 - BTC.D) / BTC.D today and 90 days ago and expresses the change on a 0-100 scale where 50 is parity.

How This Differs From the Altcoin Season Index

The widely quoted Altcoin Season Index (Blockchaincenter, and the version CoinMarketCap publishes) counts how many of the top 50 coins outperformed Bitcoin over 90 days: 75 or more means altcoin season. We do not publish that number, because we do not store 90 days of daily prices for 50 individual coins and will not print a figure we cannot verify. Our barometer measures the same rotation from a different angle - aggregate altcoin market cap against Bitcoin market cap - so it moves with the Altcoin Season Index but will not match it point for point. Two known differences: our measure is capitalisation-weighted, so a single large altcoin can drive it, and stablecoins count on the altcoin side.

Historical Trends

BTC dominance fell from roughly 95% to 35% during the 2017 ICO cycle and from about 70% to 40% during the 2021 DeFi and NFT cycle - on this scale both would have printed a sustained 100 for months. The chart above shows the full series we have recorded, which starts on the day we began storing daily BTC dominance; it is not a multi-cycle backtest.

How to Use Altseason Barometer in Trading

Above 75: altcoins have already run, so position sizing and funding costs matter more than direction. Between 25 and 75: no regime, majors and the long tail move together. Below 25: Bitcoin is absorbing the flow and altcoin drawdowns are usually deeper. Read it with BTC dominance for the live trend, the Fear & Greed Index for positioning, and altcoin funding rates for crowding.