Share this article
'Altcoin Season' Is Coming, Technical Analysis Suggests
An inverse head-and-shoulders pattern, one of the most trusted bullish price setups, is building in the altcoin market.
Updated Aug 11, 2023, 2:40 p.m. Published Aug 11, 2023, 10:27 a.m.
- The market cap of altcoins is forming a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders pattern.
- A potential completion of the pattern would mark the beginning of alt season, according to one trader.
A bullish inverse head-and-shoulders price pattern is building in the combined market capitalization of altcoins. The term “altcoin” is short for “alternative coin” and refers to cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin (BTC).
A potential completion of the pattern would signal "alt season," or outperformance of alternative cryptocurrencies relative to bitcoin and ether (ETH), according to technical analysis by Josh Olszewicz, a crypto trader and former researcher at Valkyrie Investments. Olszewicz analyzed the charts of altcoins, excluding ether and prominent stablecoins.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The inverse head-and-shoulders, one of the most trusted bullish technical analysis patterns in the market, forms when an asset chalks out three price troughs, with the middle one being the lowest. A breakout or a bearish-to-bullish trend change is confirmed once prices rise above the trendline (neckline), connecting the peaks between the lows.
Chartered market technicians ascertain the post-breakout price target by adding the depth of the pattern (distance between the low of the head and the neckline) to the breakout point.
If you have a look at the altcoin's daily market cap chart, the bottom of the left shoulder, $188.4 billion, was created in June 2022; the low of the head, $173.23 billion, was made at the end of December; and the bottom of the right shoulder at $177.36 billion appeared in June this year, data from TradingView shows.
The bounce from the right shoulder low has stalled in the past three weeks, with the market cap consolidating at around $230 billion at press time. The pattern will be complete once the market cap rises past the neckline resistance located near $300 billion.
"The altcoin market cap is showing some sort of triple bottom/inverted head-and-shoulders situation," Olszewicz said in a market update.
"I don't buy the head-and-shoulders pattern that's sitting in the middle of consolidation. I am waiting for a break above $300 billion," Olszewicz added.
The chart shows two scenarios: one where the altcoin market cap turns lower from here, invalidating a potential inverse head-and-shoulders pattern.
The other scenario involves the altcoin market cap rising past $300 billion, signaling an onset of alt season.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
These Three Metrics Show Bitcoin Found Strong Support Near $80,000
Onchain data shows multiple cost basis metrics confirm heavy demand and investor conviction around the $80,000 price level.
What to know:
- Bitcoin rebounded from the $80,000 region after a sharp correction from its October all time high, with price holding above the average entry levels of key metrics.
- The convergence of the True Market Mean, U.S. ETF cost basis, and the 2024 yearly cost basis around the low $80,000 range highlights this zone as a major area of structural support.
Top Stories
