The altcoin market is experiencing one of its longest periods of stagnation. According to my data, based on analytics from leading on-chain platforms, approximately 39.9% of altcoins are currently trading near their all-time lows. This figure, which peaked at 45% in late June amid Bitcoin's drop below $60,000, reflects a fundamental shift in the market structure.
Why are most tokens doomed?
The key issue is massive oversaturation. To date, over 53.5 million cryptocurrencies have been created, and around 60,000 new tokens enter the market daily. Demand simply cannot keep up with this supply flow. This is not a temporary correction but a structural crisis: liquidity is spread too thin, and the vast majority of projects are doomed to gradual decline.
The chart of the share of altcoins at their lows clearly demonstrates a historical pattern: previous extreme values coincided with phases of deep pessimism. However, the current level has held steady for longer precisely due to the unprecedented oversaturation of the market with new tokens.
Biggest losses in the top 500: TAC and LAB lead
Of particular note is the collapse of the TAC token, which plummeted 89.14% in a single day to $0.00435. Meanwhile, the daily trading volume reached $83.55 million, and its market cap shrank to $20.37 million. This is a classic example of a pump-and-dump on steroids, where aggressive price inflation is followed by a lightning-fast sell-off.
Second place in losses went to LAB, with a 75.94% crash to $3.45. Notably, this is one of the largest victims by scale: the token's market cap still stands at $1.08 billion, and daily trading volume reached $189.68 million. Such a deep drawdown at these volumes suggests a panic sell-off among large holders.
Other projects also suffered significant losses: Grass fell by 35% (to $0.3499), SkyAI by 30.84%, and Tria by 28.87%. Rounding out the list of biggest declines are ETHGas (-27.32%), Cream (-22.38%), and TROLL (-22.16%).
The overall picture shows that the sell-off is affecting tokens of very different market caps—from tens of millions to a billion dollars. This confirms my main thesis: without an influx of fresh liquidity, even notable projects rapidly lose value. Selectivity is no longer an advantage but a necessary condition for survival in this market.
My expertise: The current situation resembles the "altcoin winter" of 2018-2019, but with one key difference—the scale of token issuance back then was hundreds of times smaller. Investors should prepare for the fact that 90% of current projects will never return to their all-time highs. The only way to preserve capital is to focus on the top 10 coins with real liquidity and a proven user base.