Bankless · Monday, September 28, 2026
Ben Cowen posits that a true altcoin season, characterized by significant outperformance against Bitcoin, is unlikely without a crisis that would necessitate increased global liquidity. He draws parallels to 2019 and 2020, suggesting that while smaller rallies are possible, a major rotation into altcoins requires a substantial liquidity injection, which historically follows crises.
“And so the reason why there was no rotation into altcoins in 2025 was because we topped on apathy. There was not really, it was never really obvious the majority of participants that we had actually topped, right? It was never obvious. So why would people sell their Bitcoin for altcoins if they think Bitcoin's going to keep going up?”
“So we're in this like catch 22 where Bitcoin. As long as there's not a crisis, there's no reason for liquidity to really ramp up. And so because of that, it doesn't mean you can't have bull markets. We had a bull market for three years, not too long ago, despite restrictive liquidity conditions.”
“But the problem is we didn't get that until after there was a crisis to then justify the money printing, which then allow global net liquidity to surge to new all time highs.”