 
 
Major altcoins like BNB, Ripple’s XRP, and Solana (SOL) are currently facing pressure from bearish market forces after a major market slump in the first half of November. The “altseason” hasn’t arrived in this cycle, leaving many traders worried, but a growing number of crypto analysts believe the market is due for a major bullish rebound in 2026.
Altseason Delayed, Not Cancelled
One of these analysts is CryptosRus, a popular influencer with over 250,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter). He tweeted:
“ALTSEASON WASN’T CANCELLED : JUST POSTPONED
A lot of people expected an altseason just like 2017 and 2021.
So the big question became: are altcoins dead?
 
The answer is no : macro simply hasn’t allowed the rotation yet.
Quantitative tightening and reduced central bank liquidity have made it harder for capital to spill into smaller-cap, high-risk assets. That’s why the altseason everyone expected never fully ignited.
QT could end as early as next month, and another rate cut is expected in December.
When liquidity returns, rotations can accelerate fast.
As retail panics, whales quietly accumulate during this opportunity.”
The tweet ended with this graph:
According to this graph, ETH/BTC pair is currently trending downwards following significant losses incurred by Ethereum. This pattern, CryptoRus argues, was observed at the beginning of 2017 and in the first half of 2021. A major altcoin bull market led by Ethereum immediately followed this trend, leading Bitcoin to lose its market dominance. The analyst believes history is about to repeat itself here.
The Future
According to CryptosRus and multiple analysts on X, the altseason has only been delayed this time around, and it will occur at some point. The delay, however, has consequences and cannot be dismissed easily, as it would break the 4-year cycle of the crypto market significantly.
The reason is that all three previous halvings, i.e., 2012, 2016, and 2020, have been followed by major bullish price action in the years that followed. 2013, 2017, and 2021 had broken records and resulted in major price appreciations. 2017 and 2021 were especially important in crypto history, as they unleashed altseasons that benefited cryptocurrencies beyond BTC.
However, the 2024 halving and the subsequent 2025 calendar year have failed to match the energy of the previous post-halving years.
We have seen some dogged ATHs from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB, but the rest of the crypto market has performed underwhelmingly, to say the least. 2025, therefore, has so far been the worst such example in history, which is a cause of concern for crypto users, many of whom have been waiting for an altseason for a better part of the last 4 years.
This is why they wish to see a big altseason in 2026 and claim it is delayed and not cancelled altogether. They blame Quantitative Tightening (QT) and other economic obstacles. To a certain extent, that is true. However, different asset classes, such as the stock market and commodities like Gold and Silver, are performing much better and are not expected to come down anytime soon.
In any case, even if BTC rebounds strongly in 2026 and we are fortunate enough to witness another altseason, the 4-year cycle is likely dead, and the importance of the year following the halving is now diminished.