What Are Altcoins?

An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than bitcoin.

Altcoins range from large networks like Ethereum and Solana to tiny tokens worth a few million. Stablecoins are technically altcoins too, but are usually counted separately.

Altcoins are more volatile than bitcoin: they often outpace it on the way up and lose more on the way down. A period when most altcoins beat BTC is called altcoin season.

Bitcoin dominance and the Altcoin Season Index help tell which phase the market is in.

See it on In-Crypto

Altcoin Season Index Bitcoin dominance

More terms

Token Blockchain Stablecoin Crypto exchange Trading Spot vs futures Margin trading Leverage Long and short Short squeeze Liquidation Stop-loss and take-profit Limit vs market order Market maker Crypto whale Perpetual futures DeFi and DEX

Frequently asked questions

Is ether an altcoin?

Technically yes, everything except bitcoin is, though ether is often treated separately because of its size.

When do altcoins rise?

Usually after a bitcoin rally, when BTC dominance starts to fall and money rotates into riskier coins.