ARE YOU READY FOR A LONG ALT SZN?

ARE YOU READY FOR A LONG ALT SZN?

Bitcoin has dominated the headlines in 2025 and outperformed most other cryptoassets in the process. Trump’s election may have exposed a new reservoir of crypto-curious investor capital, but like Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, wielding its metaphorical straw, Bitcoin said “I drink your milkshake!” gobbling up most of that money and leaving the well dry for other assets.

To paraphrase Pete Seeger, ‘to everything, there is a szn,’ so the question now is are we turn…turn...turning to Alt SZN?

There are now some early signs that we may (finally) be in for a more broad-based rally. In the last month, Ethereum, Solana, SUI, SEI and other Layer 1 networks, or the platforms that support stablecoins, DeFi and a myriad of other applications, have begun to outperform Bitcoin, while so-called “Bitcoin dominance,” which hit a high of around 66% in late June, has declined to 63%. This is an encouraging sign. Bitcoin dominance typically surges in advance of a broad based rally. This occurred in 2017, 2021 and may be happening now. In both prior cycles, Bitcoin’s share of total crypto market cap dropped to below 40%.

Figure 1: Relative Outperformance of SOL, SUI, SEI and ETH Vs. Bitcoin

Figure 2: Bitcoin Dominance Since January 1^st, 2017

Bitcoin’s outperformance since the beginning of the year is hardly surprising, given several significant tailwinds. First, Bitcoin ETFs  have gathered $18.5 billion in assets, while treasury corporations have  bought up 250,000 BTC, fueling demand. Bitcoin ETFs now hold $180 billion in AUM. And then there’s Trump and the new administration, which advocated for a strategic Bitcoin reserve and has pushed a pro-crypto agenda, which so far has mostly accrued to BTC.

That is about to change and there are several drivers. First, ETH and SOL treasury companies are now emerging as a major source of buying. For example, today, 11 public companies hold ETH on their balance sheet, totaling 730,000 ETH ($2.4 billion). And just in the past few weeks, SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and Bit Digital have raised a combined $847 million to initiate their ETH treasury strategies. And Ether ETFs have had one of their best stretches in a while: 12 consecutive weeks of net inflows, equating to almost 20% of total AUM.

However, there is a more fundamental, and arguably far more consequential, reason to be bullish on the broader market, and in particular Layer1 networks such as Ethereum, Solana, SUI and SEI: They will form the foundational layer for a new internet of value that could transform every industry and market in the economy. It’s no coincidence that in the past month, these protocols have all started to outperform Bitcoin, beginning around the time that Circle (CRCL) IPO’d, revealing the strong business and retail demand for stablecoins, one of the first killer apps that are only possible because of networks like Ethereum.

We recently wrote about how several major crypto and fintech players are leaning into tokenizing assets and bringing more of their businesses onchain. If stocks, bonds, titles, deeds, art, collectibles, IP and other scarce assets are going to transact peer to peer seamlessly onchain, they will need high-performing scalable networks.

Tokenholders in SUI, SOL and SEI, for example, benefit directly from the adoption of their technology. In Q1 of this year, the Solana network paid out more than $800 million in fee revenue to stakers (that is, token holders who stake their assets to the network, contributing to its shared security). Like a dividend, this payout can grow dramatically as network activity, and therefore fee revenue, scales.

This new driver of cryptoasset performance – fundamentals – are far more quantifiable and stickier than the traditional FOMO that drove past rallies. With new regulations being tabled, companies going public, and applications and assets launching daily, the fundamental backdrop has never been stronger. So, this ALT SZN, unlike past ones, could prove to be a long summer.

As we’ve discussed, one of the biggest crypto trends in public markets has been the rise of treasury strategy companies. Lately, it’s Ethereum-focused treasury firms that have taken center stage, led by SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and Bit Digital. Over the past few months, these three have raised a combined $847 million to launch their treasury strategies and start stacking ETH. Leading the charge is SharpLink Gaming, which made headlines in late May by announcing a $425 million financing to become one of the first NASDAQ-listed companies to pursue an ETH treasury strategy. On June 13, they made their first ETH purchase. Since then, they’ve accumulated 280,706 ETH, making them the largest known single holder of ETH. In doing so, they even surpassed the Ethereum Foundation, which holds around 240,500 ETH. What makes ETH treasury strategies particularly interesting is that, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is a proof-of-stake network. That means these companies can stake their ETH or deploy it into DeFi protocols to earn yield, paid in ETH. This not only increases ETH per share for investors in these companies but also strengthens the Ethereum network by boosting the amount of ETH being staked. It’s a win-win: companies earn yield on their ETH, while the Ethereum ecosystem becomes more secure and capital flows into core protocols. SharpLink has done exactly that. They’ve staked and restaked almost all of their ETH holdings. As seen in the chart, both the total amount of ETH staked and the validator queue have surged due to the influx of ETH from these treasury companies. Today, nearly 30% of all ETH supply is staked, roughly 35 million ETH, with another 400,000 ETH waiting in the validator queue. Case in point: the biggest beneficiary of ETH treasury companies may very well be the Ethereum ecosystem itself.

Chart 2:  Crypto’s Breakout Pushes Bitcoin and Ethereum Into Global Asset Elite

With Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high of $123,000 this week and Ethereum showing signs of a redemption rally, we thought it was the perfect time to highlight how large these assets have become relative to the world’s biggest by market cap. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum now rank among the top 50 assets globally. Bitcoin is the 6th largest, with a $2.4 trillion market cap, just behind Amazon but ahead of Google, Silver, Meta, and Saudi Aramco. Gold still holds the top spot at $22.6 trillion, which some Bitcoin investors view as a long-term benchmark, often calling BTC “digital gold.” The Bitcoin-to-Gold ratio is hovering around 36, just shy of its all-time high of 41 set in December. Ethereum ranks 27th, right behind Johnson & Johnson and Costco, and just ahead of Procter & Gamble and SAP. Looking at the bigger picture, the total crypto market is at a record high of $3.8 trillion. For perspective, both Nvidia and Microsoft are individually larger than the entire crypto market. This kind of growth is impressive considering the total market was under $300 billion just five years ago. But when you stack it up against the world’s biggest assets, it’s clear that there is still a lot of room to run.