Altcoin spot trading has risen to almost four times Bitcoin’s level, its highest ratio since September 2025, according to Glassnode, as investors rotate profits into higher-risk digital assets.
Wintermute said retail clients using its over-the-counter desk sold Bitcoin last week to fund purchases of altcoins. At the same time, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $2.4bn in inflows across five sessions, although the daily total fell each day from $999m on Sept. 21 to $134.5m on Sept. 25.
Farside Investors recorded inflows of $714.7m on Sept. 22, $346.9m on Sept. 23 and $190.7m on Sept. 24. The five-day total was $2.386bn, averaging $477m a day, with the final figure 86.5% below the opening session.
Glassnode said its rolling weekly ETF inflow measure was close to $2.7bn, the highest level in almost a year. Ethereum ETFs attracted $602.8m over the same period, meaning Bitcoin products accounted for about 80% of combined Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF inflows.
Rotation gathers pace
Wintermute’s Sept. 28 OTC report described net Bitcoin selling on its desk as being driven mainly by retail investors taking profits and moving into altcoins.
The breadth of that shift has also widened. Glassnode said 72.5% of the altcoins it tracks had outperformed Bitcoin through Sept. 23, compared with 39% during August’s squeeze. CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost said the altcoin market, excluding Bitcoin, had expanded by about $371bn, or 45%, since June.
Some 87% of Binance-listed altcoins were trading above their 200-day averages, up from about 20% in August. Weekly altcoin deposit transactions averaged more than 22,700 on Binance, 8,300 on Coinbase and 32,000 across other exchanges, with overall deposits at their highest level since October 2025.
However, derivatives activity has not matched the spot-market move. Fewer than half of the tracked altcoin perpetual markets added positions during the past 30 days, leading Glassnode to describe the latest phase as mainly spot-driven.
Bitcoin’s spot cumulative volume delta fell 86.5% to $17.3m, while perpetual futures delta stood at minus $261.5m and futures open interest was $38.9bn. The percentage of supply in profit rose from 69.3% to 74% in a week, while the realised profit-to-loss ratio increased 79.6% to 1.4.
Glassnode said comparable bursts of risk-taking had been followed by flat or negative performance in more than 80% of cases, although it does not regard the measure as a certain market-top signal.
Bitcoin remains key
Wintermute said Bitcoin must continue rising to create fresh wealth for another rotation into altcoins. It identified $82,500 as a key level, with Bitcoin’s recent high near $87,000. A move above $87,000 could generate more profits, while Glassnode’s next major resistance zone is $95,000 to $97,000.
A fall below $82,500, particularly if ETF inflows approach zero, would weaken the replacement buying that has absorbed Bitcoin sales. A break below Glassnode’s $77,000 True Market Mean would put the wider recovery structure in question.
The Federal Reserve raised rates to 3.75%-4.00% on Sept. 16. The 10-year Treasury yield reached about 5.23% on Sept. 25, its highest since 2007, while Brent crude rose above $107 on Sept. 28. Wintermute cited oil, interest rates and the possibility of another Fed increase as the main external risks to the current market regime.
