Altcoin Season? Darling, It’s Gone Positively Wall Street! 🍸💼

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My dear, while the crypto crowd is still clutching their pearls waiting for the great ‘altcoin season’ to waltz in, one rather clever expert has declared it’s already here-just not in the way one might expect. 🕶️✨

Apparently, this year’s darling isn’t some flashy digital token but rather the oh-so-staid publicly traded companies tied to the crypto ecosystem. How utterly *establishment* of them! 🏦💸 This shift, my loves, is all about those institutional darlings finally dipping their toes into the crypto pool, spurred by regulatory nods and the allure of accessibility. Bravo, Wall Street, bravo! 👏

Institutional Darlings Redefine the Altcoin Season, Darling

Traditionally, when Bitcoin decides to have its moment, the altcoins follow like eager puppies. But, as Alana Levin (formerly of Boston Consulting Group, no less) so wittily points out:

“Over the past few years, this little dance hasn’t quite played out. Bitcoin’s dominance is sitting pretty at 58%, darling, and it’s been on an uptrend since November 2022. So, is this cycle skipping the alt season? Or is it simply that alt season has gone incognito-perhaps it’s already sashaying down Wall Street while we’re all looking the other way?” 🕵️‍♀️💃

In her *deliciously* detailed analysis, Levin reveals that instead of the usual crypto token tango, institutional investors are now flocking to crypto-related equities. How très chic! 🥂

With Bitcoin holding court and institutions favoring the regulated, the ‘real’ alt season is happening in traditional markets, not in those wild crypto tokens. How utterly predictable-and yet, so amusing! 😂

“There’s certainly new capital looking to get a piece of the crypto pie, but darling, it’s mostly institutional, not retail. Retail darlings are the early birds, while institutions prefer to wait for their invitation. Well, the invitation has arrived, hasn’t it?” she quipped. 📨✨

Levin, ever the astute observer, highlights the milestones that have made this shift possible: the SEC’s nod to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the Nasdaq CEO’s flirtation with tokenizing equities, and the overall crypto-friendly environment. How positively *legitimized*! 👑

Such developments have made crypto exposure as safe as a cup of tea with the Queen for institutions, who prefer equities due to their established frameworks for custody, compliance, and trading. How dreadfully practical! ☕

“Purchasing crypto assets might require *new* capabilities, darling. But buying equities? That’s right up their alley-unlike direct crypto tokens, which might simply be out of scope,” she added with a wink. 😉

Why CeFi Is Outshining DeFi This Cycle, Darling

The numbers, my dears, don’t lie. Levin points to the *stunning* gains of several crypto-related stocks in 2025:

  • Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) is up 53%-not too shabby! 📈
  • Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD) has soared 299%-now that’s what I call a rally! 🚀
  • Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (GLXY) has doubled, darling-100% increase! 🌌
  • Circle Internet Financial Ltd. (CRCL) has climbed 368% since its June IPO, or 75% from its first trading day’s close. Bravo! 🎉

In contrast, Bitcoin has only managed 31%, Ethereum 35%, and Solana 21%. Poor dears-they’re simply not keeping up! 🐢

This outperformance isn’t just about sentiment, darling-it’s backed by hard fundamentals, according to Artemis CEO Jon Ma. Coinbase reported a tidy $1.5 billion in net income, while Robinhood posted $1.2 billion annualized in Q2 2025. Few blockchain projects can boast such numbers! 💼💰

“Also, CeFi is absolutely crushing DeFi on fundamentals: Coinbase = $80B of CEX daily volume per +73% YoY with 8.7m monthly transacting users. Robinhood = $407B of CEX volume Aug ’25 +64% YoY with 26.7m funded accounts. Hyperliquid = $293B of spot + perp volume Sept ’25 +713% YoY but only ~50k DAU on HypeCore perp DAU,” he pointed out. 📊

The executive emphasized that most retail activity in the crypto space still happens on centralized platforms rather than decentralized ones. How dreadfully old-fashioned! 🏛️

“We’ll see a shift in token outperformance when more retail users / volume moves onchain and fundamentals improve,” Ma concluded with a shrug. 🏗️

Crypto Stocks Echo the Classic Alt Season Playbook, Darling

Levin also observed that this equity boom mirrors historical alt seasons in several ways. Only a handful of viable stocks tied to crypto are attracting capital, much like early crypto cycles when fewer than 100 tokens dominated. How quaint! 🧵

“Last cycle, a number of crypto-native lending desks collapsed. We haven’t seen many rebuild. Equity allocators do have access to leverage, though, which means the booms can get bigger (and the busts can really bust),” she wrote with a dramatic flourish. 🎭

She also anticipates rotations within equities, such as from stablecoin issuers to exchanges or digital asset treasuries. How very *token-esque*! 🔄

“There’s good reason to believe this trend will continue. We have a slew of crypto equity IPOs on deck, with many more later stage companies likely to file in the years ahead. We probably will have another alt season in crypto-native assets. But it will take time as the new marginal sources of capital gradually set up operational capabilities that enable them to deploy into cryptoassets. So for now, it may not be the alt season many expected-but we are in an alt season nonetheless,” the post read with a wink. 🕰️✨

Both Levin and Ma converge on a single message: the center of gravity in the crypto market has shifted. As institutional investors pour billions into regulated vehicles, crypto equities have become the new frontier of speculation and growth. How utterly *Wall Street*! 🌆💼

While the next true altcoin rally may still be on the horizon, the current market dynamic shows that the alt season is already here-it just moved to Wall Street. Cheers, darlings! 🥂

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2025-10-07 15:12