ChainCatcher news, according to Coinmarketcap data, the Altcoin Season Index is currently at 22, unchanged from yesterday. This index indicates that in the past 90 days, about 22 projects among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have outperformed Bitcoin.It is reported that the CMC Cryptocurrency Altcoin Season Index is a real-time indicator used to determine whether the current cryptocurrency market is in a season dominated by altcoins. This index is based on the performance of the top 100 altcoins relative to Bitcoin over the past 90 days.

ChainCatcher message, encrypted KOL Ansem tweeted, "The bullish view on Bitcoin is that the $70,000 area should be a strong support level for Bitcoin, and after this drop, there are also some movements among altcoins that may start their own trends. There could be significant volatility over the weekend, so be cautious about being bearish."

ChainCatcher news, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on the X platform, hinting that the company might venture into the social application space. In response to the news about Meta planning to launch a standalone Meta AI app, he stated, "Well, maybe we will make a social app," and joked that it would be very interesting if Facebook (Meta) tried to challenge OpenAI, and OpenAI countered Meta.

ChainCatcher news, according to cryptocurrency analyst Miles Deutscher, stated that although Bitcoin prices remain at high levels, overall market sentiment has fallen back to 2024 lows.He pointed out that the correlation between cryptocurrency market sentiment and altcoin performance is higher than that of Bitcoin, and recently, altcoin performance has been weak. Deutscher raised the question of whether this indicates that the altcoin market is approaching a phase of selling pressure.

ChainCatcher message, QCP Asia released a market observation on February 25, with the following content: "Bitcoin has finally broken out of the range-bound trading, falling below $90,000 for the first time in a month, currently hovering below that level, triggering over $200 million in liquidations in the past few hours.Following Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico and restrict Chinese investments, market sentiment remains under pressure. As Bitcoin prices decline, short-term options hedging activities have increased, with the 1-month implied volatility now rebounding to 50, while the options skew interestingly remains largely unchanged.From a more macro perspective, despite data previously thought to lead to broader market weakness, the stock, fixed income, and gold markets have largely absorbed these impacts, while Bitcoin remains range-bound. The increase in Bitcoin's market cap and the decline in altcoin prices suggest that altcoin bulls may be fully invested, with any new dollar inflows only directed towards Bitcoin.We maintain a cautious stance. Recent Bitcoin demand has mainly been driven by institutions such as MicroStrategy and Metaplanet, which are financing through the issuance of stock-linked notes. Considering that cryptocurrency-related issuances have accounted for about 19% of total issuances over the past 14 months, this financing market may be nearing saturation—this could suppress (future performance)."

ChainCatcher news, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju posted on social media, "Altcoins expected to perform well in 2025: 1. Potential ETF approvals; 2. Sustainable attention drivers; 3. Revenue-generating projects. The era of all crypto assets rising is over. It is now a selective altcoin season ------ most altcoins will not succeed."

ChainCatcher message, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju posted an analysis stating that the traditional Bitcoin-driven rotation model for crypto assets has ended, influenced by regulation and institutional adoption. He illustrated this with a metaphor of "climate change," saying, "'rainy season' has completely disappeared, leaving only occasional drizzles."New funds will mainly flow into the market through stablecoins or widely accepted large-cap tokens, rather than a traditional broad altcoin market. Ki Young Ju also shared a five-phase roadmap to "altcoin season," which includes stablecoins, Bitcoin, large-cap tokens, selected crypto-native tokens, and institution-supported tokens.

ChainCatcher news, according to Coinmarketcap data, the Altcoin Season Index is currently at 28, down 11 points from last week. This index shows that in the past 90 days, about 28 projects among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have outperformed Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, Bitget CEO Gracy tweeted that Bybit is a respected competitor and partner. Although this loss is significant, it is just their annual profit. He believes that customer funds are 100% safe, and there is no need to panic or withdraw.He later added that the assets lent to Bybit are Bitget's own, and user assets will not be affected.

ChainCatcher message, Slow Fog Yu Xian posted on platform X stating: "Although there is currently no clear evidence, based on the methods used for Safe multi-signature and the current money laundering techniques, it resembles North Korean hackers. North Korean hackers, if I have wronged you, please correct me, and I will apologize..."

ChainCatcher news, Altvest Capital Ltd. announced that it will become the first listed company in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, a strategy that follows Michael Saylor's approach, which has seen its stock price soar over 2,400% since it began purchasing Bitcoin.Altvest CEO Warren Wheatley stated in an interview that the company has purchased one Bitcoin and has applied to regulators to raise approximately 200 million rand (10 million USD) by selling shares to increase its treasury reserves. He added that a final decision on the fundraising has not yet been made.

ChainCatcher news, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju posted on X platform stating: "The altcoin season has begun. There is no direct rotation from BTC to altcoins, but stablecoin holders are leaning towards altcoins. The trading volume of altcoins is 2.7 times that of BTC. BTC's market share no longer defines the altcoin season; instead, trading volume is dominating. However, this is a very selective altcoin season."

ChainCatcher news, according to the token unlocking data from the crypto asset data platform RootData, AltLayer (ALT) will unlock approximately 24,658.98 million tokens at 8:00 AM Beijing time on February 26, with a value of about 10.9534 million USD.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, crypto startup Altius Labs has completed a $11 million Pre-Seed funding round, led by Founders Fund and Pantera, with participation from institutions such as Archetype, Reforge, DCG, No Limit Holdings, and Amber Group, as well as angel investors from projects like Berachain, Movement, Ethena Labs, Ritual, dao5, Solana Foundation, and Hudson River Trading.Altius Labs was founded by Hudson River Trading software engineer Anit Chakraborty and former managing partner of Amber Group Annabelle Huang. Altius is building a VM-agnostic modular execution stack that separates the execution stack from a single binary implementation and network design, enabling seamless integration with any L1, L2, and application chains to immediately enhance performance and improve interoperability.

ChainCatcher news, QCP Capital's latest analysis points out that the term structure of the Ethereum options market has shown a significant distortion around the March expiration date, which may be related to the anticipated Pectra upgrade set to launch in early April.Looking back at history, the September 2022 merge upgrade followed the "buy the rumor, sell the news" pattern, with ETH surging before the upgrade and then retreating; while the initial performance of the Shanghai upgrade in April 2023 was pessimistic due to supply concerns, ETH rose 30% after selling pressure did not materialize. The current market may be positioning for the Pectra upgrade, with options volatility leaning bullish after March 28, indicating potential upward expectations.However, the weakness in the altcoin market poses a restraining factor, with the LIBRA collapse, SOL and ETH retreating to pre-election levels, and Bitcoin's market cap nearing historical highs. The continued recovery of altcoins relies on substantial progress in real applications and network development, rather than just speculative funding.

ChainCatcher news, QCP Capital's latest analysis points out that the term structure of the options market has shown a significant distortion around the March expiration date, particularly in Ethereum options. This may reflect the market's positioning for the Ethereum Pectra upgrade, which is currently in the testing phase and expected to go live in early April.Looking back at past upgrades, the September 2022 merge upgrade followed the typical "buy the rumor, sell the news" pattern—ETH fell back after rising over 100% from the June low post-upgrade. In contrast, the Shanghai upgrade in April 2023, which enabled staking withdrawals, faced pessimism due to market concerns about oversupply. However, once the market realized that the selling pressure did not materialize as expected, ETH rose by 30% in the following months.As expectations for the upgrade heat up, traders may be positioning for another volatility event, with options volatility skewed towards call options after March 28—this could lay the groundwork for the next thematic play in the crypto market following the Trump tariff turmoil.One dampening factor is the general weakness in the altcoin market—LIBRA's collapse, SOL and ETH retreating to pre-election levels, and Bitcoin's market cap share nearing historical highs. Beyond market catalysts, altcoins may need to achieve substantial progress in real-world applications and network development to sustain a recovery, rather than relying solely on speculative capital flows.

ChainCatcher news, on-chain analyst Ali posted that if ETH falls below 2600 USD, there will be no altcoin season.

ChainCatcher message, QCP Capital's latest analysis points out that as the market continues to consolidate, Bitcoin's market dominance has risen to about 60%, nearing a four-year high, while ETH and other altcoins have continued to underperform. The analysis indicates that the recent "runaway" scandal involving Argentina's President Milei and the LIBRA project may impact the development of similar projects and suppress the performance of altcoins and meme coins.The report emphasizes that despite numerous uncertainties in the macro environment, the implied volatility of cryptocurrencies and the VIX remain low, indicating that the options market is waiting for specific policy changes rather than just focusing on positive rhetoric. Currently, most trading is concentrated on recent volatility selling or range trading, rather than betting on significant breakout trends.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the activity of several mainstream public chains has significantly declined compared to the peak in 2021, indicating that the current altcoin market is still in a speculative phase. The total market capitalization of altcoins, excluding the top ten cryptocurrencies, is currently $277 billion, down 77% from the peak of $492 billion in November 2021.Nansen analyst Nicolai Sondergaard pointed out that the altcoin market may be delayed due to meme coins attracting a lot of investor attention and funds. "The altcoin season will still come, but it may take a different form than before. There are currently more tokens and greater decentralization; while most are rising, specific sectors and tokens will see much larger increases than the rest."Redstone co-founder Marcin Kazmierczak added that some altcoin prices are rising, but the number of active addresses has not increased, indicating that we are still in a speculative phase and have not yet entered a phase of widespread adoption.