Altcoin Season Index

We take the top 50 cryptocurrencies by open interest—an approximation of capitalization for perp assets—and exclude stablecoins, wrapped tokens, and gold tokens. For each coin, we calculate the 90-day return based on Binance spot prices in USDT pairs. We compare this to BTC's return over the same period and see what percentage of altcoins outperformed it. This is the index: a scale from 0 to 100.

This is the standard window used by CoinMarketCap. A quarter is long enough to filter out short-term noise, but not long enough to spot a trend reversal in time. The altcoin season typically lasts two to four months, with 90 days covering the middle.

Open interest better reflects an asset's value to a trader: if a coin has a billion dollars in open interest, it's liquid and is actually traded. Market cap, on the other hand, is easily inflated by illiquid issuance. The downside of this selection is that tokenized stocks and commodities—SpaceX, SK Hynix, oil—which are traded on the same basis as coins, tend to climb to the top. We filter them out: only assets with a market cap rating, i.e., real cryptocurrencies, are considered.

Typically less than fifty. To be included in the calculation, a coin needs a Binance spot market price both today and 90 days ago. Some coins with the highest open interest don't meet this requirement: newly listed coins like HYPE are mostly trading at pre-listed prices, while delisted pairs like XMR have seen their prices drop. We prefer to calculate the index based on a smaller, but more accurate, sample, rather than using prices from exchanges with no historical data. The actual number of coins is always shown below the index scale.

A high value indicates capital is flowing into altcoins, allowing for more aggressive trading. However, the index doesn't tell you what to buy. Look at the top 5 leaders, where momentum is already present, or search for potential candidates using open interest growth and abnormal volume screeners—they reveal nascent movements that could become the next leaders. Buying at the peak of the altcoin season is not recommended, as a correction usually begins there.