Can Altcoins Rally Like Bitcoin?

Bitcoin’s late 2024 to early 2025 rally is an exciting spectacle for investors, as it signals market optimism and profitability trends in the cryptocurrency space. 

While Bitcoin is the undisputed king of cryptocurrencies, there are plenty of alternative crypto coins that share Bitcoin’s fundamental traits, namely scarcity, decentralisation, and volatile price movements. 

It’s an integral crypto to watch out for, as much of its market movements wildly influence the price movements of other altcoins.

That said, the growth of Bitcoin and that of altcoins aren’t exactly parallel to one another.

The value of various altcoins—whether they’re in the top 20 in market cap or fairly obscure—can and have independently risen and fell based on their own set of factors. These variables include a unique market sentiment toward new innovations in their blockchain technology.

With hundreds of altcoins in the market, a majority of which are quite obscure and undesirable, a question pops up. Can altcoins experience the same sustained upward momentum as Bitcoin? 

We’ll answer that for you! Let’s explore this and uncover the factors driving Bitcoin and altcoin rallies.

5 Reasons Behind a Bitcoin Rally

Before we delve into the intricacies behind factors that influence an altcoin’s price movement, it’s important to familiarise yourself with Bitcoin’s rallies and declines as well. 

Looking at Bitcoin’s price history helps us understand the landscape that sets the tone of the broader crypto market. It also helps distinguish Bitcoin from other cryptocurrencies and explains possible reasons why it could come off as a stronger investment vehicle than other cryptos.

Let’s explore potential reasons for Bitcoin’s rally in a bit more detail:

1. Bitcoin halving event: Bitcoin is built to only have a finite amount of coins in circulation—about 21 million. Every 4 years, BTC mining rewards will halve. Miners will mine fewer and fewer Bitcoins, which can trigger demand as the supply for the crypto dwindles.
2. Institutional adoption: More businesses and corporations are accepting BTC as a mode of payment worldwide. Bitcoin’s adoption in mainstream Investment funds and presence in various Bitcoin exchange websites and ETFs also drive consumer demand.
3. Macroeconomic factors: Inflation, a phenomenon that’s sweeping the world today, has led many individuals to look for alternative ways to liquidate their fiat. Bitcoin is one safe investment hedge that many consumers use to allocate their equity.
4. FOMO: All these factors combined in conjunction with Bitcoin’s bullish price movement have led many crypto investors to invest based on the belief that it’ll continue its upward trend.
5. Social media and word of mouth: Positive market sentiment, especially in crypto spaces, has led many investors to transfer their liquid assets into Bitcoin, claiming it to be the future of finance.

Bitcoin reaching $100,000 per coin is a testament to its resilience and increasing demand as a store of value. While it has had its fair share of dips, it bounced back and continues to dominate the crypto financial landscape.

This begs the question: do other altcoins have a fighting chance to catch up on Bitcoin’s dominance?

Can Altcoins Surge Alongside Bitcoin?

Yes, though the rate at which they grow can differ from coin to coin. Generally, altcoins follow Bitcoin’s surges and dips. 

However, not all altcoins rise equally—it’s usually those with strong fundamentals, good developer backing, a fair amount of hype, real-world utility, and market demand that tend to mirror or even outperform Bitcoin’s price change.

It also needs to be said that not all forms of growth will lead to long-term growth. Altcoins can rally exponentially at a moment’s notice, but it’s common for many of them to correct just as fast.

Looking through a historical lens, altcoin season generally coincides with Bitcoin’s rise. This is because investors are looking for the next best thing due to the overall enthusiasm in the crypto space.

With the right crypto investment and timing, it’s more than possible to score in on a good opportunity with altcoins—even more than a Bitcoin investor would. 

In fact, nearly half of the top 50 altcoins have breached past Bitcoin’s impressive 124% gain, signifying a remarkable investor interest in investing beyond the biggest crypto in the world.

What Drives an Altcoin’s Price to Surge?

Altcoins differ slightly from Bitcoin’s performance and amongst each other because they possess key fundamental differences. 

From new blockchain developments and social media hype to institutions favouring one over another, the price trends of each altcoin portray distinct narratives. While pricing trends can be similar, matching one with another’s price movement is not the best way to go about things.

Furthermore, not all altcoins will lead to happy endings for their initial investors, so always exercise rationality before making investment decisions. Understanding the crypto token’s fundamentals and technical indicators is a must to ensure you’re 

Then, you may wonder—what are the factors that can cause an altcoin to grow dramatically in price?

Let’s explore some potential reasons why an altcoin may rally:

1. Bitcoin’s performance: As previously alluded to, altcoins tend to rally when Bitcoin prices surge after a period of stability. The upward momentum of Bitcoin and the increased liquidity of the holdings of early crypto investors contribute to more capital being pushed to these altcoins.
2. Market hype: As Bitcoin enters the news cycle and the general population’s periphery, it brings attention to the crypto space as a whole. Investors interested in crypto, new and seasoned, may start exploring and investing in alternative crypto tokens in anticipation of a projected surge.
3. Institutional adoption: Just like with Bitcoin, some altcoins may also start to achieve growing interest in both government institutions and retail businesses as viable asset classes. The increase in demand in these spaces fuels price growth.
4. Desirable use cases: Bitcoin may be the grandfather of cryptocurrency, but many altcoins like Ethereum and Solana have blockchains that have real-world utility, making it a good long-term investment for believers of these apps.
5. Project developments: Altcoins with continuous upgrades and a solid roadmap can entice investors to put some of their capital into that altcoin.
6. Scarcity: If an altcoin has high demand but a limited token supply, this can contribute to long-term price appreciation.
7. Social media hype: Celebrities and political figures may use their influence to invite investors into certain altcoins, causing prices to surge for a short time.

Having said all that, it still needs to be said that altcoins are volatile investment vehicles. 

Many altcoins are susceptible to hype and media attention, causing prices to rise unsustainably and fall sharply. As such, be sure to do your due diligence and research heavily before selecting a cryptocurrency to invest in.

3 Top Altcoins With Highest Potential

Altcoins are integral players in the crypto space, and many of them show strong potential for rallies. In particular, you should be on the lookout for altcoins with strong fundamentals, a good social media reputation, an active developer team, and a high likelihood of penetrating the real world.

Looking at past price performance and chart movements is also a good way to determine an altcoin’s rally potential. If you want to know which altcoin among the many thousands has bullish tendencies, these are some of our top picks.

1. Ethereum

With a market cap of $400 billion as of early February 2025, and a 2nd place market cap ranking just behind Bitcoin, Ethereum is the next best crypto to watch out for if you’re deciding on your next altcoin.

This token is integral to decentralised finance and NFTs, making it a top crypto token in 2025 and beyond. It’s also recently switched to a proof-of-stake system, which makes it more scalable and energy-efficient than before.

Price-wise, Ethereum is not particularly good as it has held steady when looked through a 5-year lens. But this crypto token plays a big role in the crypto market in signalling a shifting market, as when it overtakes Bitcoin in growth, it’s usually indicative of an upcoming altcoin rally.

1. Solana

Solana is a relatively new cryptocurrency, but it has grown tremendously quickly over the past few years. Its market cap is about $115 billion—the fifth highest in the crypto space. 

Solana makes for a good investment because of its improved functionality when compared to other top cryptocurrencies. In particular, its blockchain is responsible for fast transactions at low fees, a fraction of the rate of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Furthermore, Solana’s blockchain is also impressive, as it’s built for developers to build decentralised apps, gaming platforms, and NFTs. And this space, just like Ethereum, is only growing.

Its price over the long term has been quite exponential in growth. There are many promising developments under its blockchain, making it a great high-growth potential investment in the crypto market.

1. XRP

Early XRP investors will be happy to see the explosive rise of this crypto token over the past few weeks. Now sitting in third place in overall market capitalisation, this token is one crypto that’s spearheading the future of decentralised payments.

This token’s blockchain, RippleNet, is used by many financial institutions like Bank of America and payment providers like American Express due to its low-cost cross-border transactions. 

Thanks to its utility and fast blockchain, this token is one to watch out for in the grand cryptocurrency scene.