Market analysts are pointing to steady XRP/BTC and ETH/BTC cross ranges—and an unusually stable top-20 leaderboard—as evidence that crypto performance is increasingly driven by fundamentals rather than the broad, liquidity-fueled rotations associated with traditional alt seasons.

Bitcoin’s drop below $90,000 initially looked like the start of a classic risk-off cascade. Instead, markets behaved atypically: cross pairs held firm, and major alt rankings barely shifted.

In a note to CoinDesk, Singapore-based market maker Enflux described the muted reaction as the strongest indication yet that crypto is transitioning from a liquidity-dominated environment to one grounded in genuine utility and revenue.

“Majors without clear revenue, utility, or institutional relevance are down 60–80%,” the firm said. “Historic alt seasons—the vertical rotations of 2017 or the leveraged reflexivity of 2021—were fueled by narratives, excess liquidity, and retail mania. Much of that simply isn’t present at scale in this bull market.”

Enflux added that tokens tied to staking, ETFs, or real-world use cases are showing relative resilience.

Bizantine Capital partner March Zheng said he is observing the same shift.

“We’re watching the relative rankings of the top twenty coins and how they move against bitcoin’s market cap,” Zheng explained. “So far, the range has remained surprisingly balanced. In typical deep Bitcoin corrections, alts take heavy hits.”

Zheng believes that the stability suggests the market is not entering a classic alt season but is instead settling into a more orderly, fundamentals-oriented structure.

Collectively, the signals point to a maturing market—one that is increasingly distinguishing between assets with real demand, revenue, and institutional interest and those that represent speculative beta. Stronger tokens are holding their ground, while weaker majors are absorbing most of the stress.

The key question now: will this fundamentals-driven thesis continue to hold, or is a broader rotation still ahead?

---

Market Movement

• BTC: Trading near $92,234 after rebounding from its dip below $90,000.
• ETH: Holding around $3,099 as the market stabilizes.
• Gold: Down for a fourth straight session to $4,064.60/oz as traders slash the probability of a December U.S. rate cut to roughly 50%, from nearly 94% a month earlier.
• Nikkei 225: Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Wednesday, though Japan’s benchmark reversed higher by 0.5% despite Wall Street’s AI-driven tech pullback.

---

Elsewhere in Crypto

• Pump’s new “Mayhem Mode” fails to lift token launches or revenue in its first week (The Block)
• Robinhood outlines a three-phase “Permissionless Assets” tokenization roadmap aimed at disrupting TradFi (CoinDesk)
• Coinbase explains its donation to Trump’s ballroom (Axios)