Bitcoin’s dominance hovering around 57% has become a quiet wake-up call for traders monitoring the broader cryptocurrency and altcoin market in general – and for good reason.
Bears and bulls split over altcoin timing
Cryptocurrency analyst Michael van de Poppe believes there is a brutal purge of the altcoin market coming, but he does not see it as a collapse. He sees it as cleaning.
According to Van de Poppe, approximately 99% of all altcoins exist I went to zero – He believes the result is fair.
He compares this to the early Internet era, when hundreds of companies launched, burned through investors’ money, and disappeared. What remained was the building of the modern Internet.
Despite these stark predictions, Van de Poppe says he has rarely been more optimistic about the direction cryptocurrencies are headed. Reports indicate that he described this period as one of the most bullish periods he has seen for the asset class overall, even with most individual tokens facing extinction.
I think it’s totally worth that 99% of it #Alternative currencies It will reach zero.
It’s not like all internet companies from https://t.co/GoodB359DI The bubble survived.
However, during that bubble phase, there is a lot of money being made and coming out of the bubble phase, there is…
— Michael van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 19, 2026
He has focused on a few projects that he believes can survive the shock – BitcoinEthereum, and select decentralized finance platforms like Aave. He says the short-term pain in DeFi stems from KelpDAO hack. But he views this as a temporary disruption, not a structural break.
Arbitrum is marked as a buy-on-the-dip opportunity
Van de Poppe equally tracks Arbitrum. According to the calculations of his latest analysis, there may be a possibility to buy the token when it falls to the $0.16 mark.
Currently, the analyst sees a similarity in the market with what happened during the first months of 2020. Characteristics include increasing trading volumes, recovery of critical price marks, and technical indicators before the breakout.
His assessment on Bitcoin is that there is still more upside. It is eyeing new highs near $77,000. EthereumHe says it is still in an uptrend and is worth buying on dips, provided it remains above certain key support levels.
BTCUSD trading at $75,545 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView
Not everyone buys the optimism
Analyst group Our Crypto Talk says the market has yet to get a bullish call. Their framework requires that the price move above the 20-day SMA, and that this average crosses above the 50-day SMA.
Neither condition was met. With Bitcoin still trading below these averages and dominating at 57%, they call this area the red zone – a period when markets are more likely to bleed rather than rise.
Is this a good time to buy altcoins?
The simple answer is “no”
Because there is no Altseason now
You only need two conditions on this chart to confirm
✅ Price > 20 SMA
✅ 20 SMA > 50 SMA🟢 2021: Politicization has shaped the wealth of generations.
🟢 2024: Rotations were conducted during 2-3… pic.twitter.com/NfYYqDMgNP– Our talk about cryptocurrencies (@ourcryptotalk) April 17, 2026
Bitcoin’s founding phase could indicate what comes next
Other analysts have pointed to Bitcoin’s rise in dominance as a warning sign for altcoins. When Bitcoin’s share of the overall market rises, it typically means money is flowing into Bitcoin and from smaller cryptocurrencies — a pattern that has historically preceded extended weakness across the altcoin space.
For his part, Van de Poppe admits that the market is still building a base after the sell-off in the last quarter of 2025. He estimates that this base phase usually lasts two to four months before the breakout begins.
Bitcoin has been consolidating for nearly two and a half months, which he says puts the market near a potential turning point.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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