Bitcoin’s dominance, which stands at around 57%, has become a quiet alarm bell for traders monitoring the broader crypto and altcoin market in general – and for good reason.
Bears and bulls disagree on altcoin timing
Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe believes that the altcoin market is facing a brutal purge, but he does not see it as a collapse. He sees it as a clean-up job.
According to van de Poppe, this is around 99% of all altcoins aimed at zero – and he thinks the result is fair.
He draws a parallel to the early Internet era, when hundreds of companies were founded, wasted investors’ money and disappeared again. What was left formed the modern web.
Despite this gloomy forecast, van de Poppe said he has rarely been more optimistic about the development of cryptocurrencies. He reportedly described this as one of the most bullish periods he has seen for the asset class as a whole, even as most individual tokens are at risk of extinction.
I think it totally deserves 99% #Altcoins go to zero.
It’s not like all internet companies from the https://t.co/GoodB359DI Bubble survived.
However, a lot of money is made in this bubble phase, and when you come out of the bubble phase, there are…
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 19, 2026
His focus has narrowed to a handful of projects that he believes can survive the market shakeout – BitcoinEthereum and select decentralized finance platforms such as Aave. In his opinion, short-term problems in DeFi can be traced back to KelpDAO chop. But he sees this as temporary turbulence and not a structural break.
Arbitrum is flagged as a buy-the-dip opportunity
Van de Poppe is also pursuing Arbitrum. According to his recent analysis, there is an opportunity to buy the token if it falls to the $0.16 level.
Currently, the analyst sees a market similarity to events in the early months of 2020. Features include increased trading volumes, recapture of critical price levels, and technical signs of a breakout.
His assessment of Bitcoin is that there is still further upside potential. It is aiming for new highs near $77,000. Ethereumhe says, is still in an uptrend and is worth buying on dips provided it stays above certain key support levels.
BTCUSD trading at $75,545 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView
Not everyone buys the optimism
According to analyst group Our Crypto Talk, the market has not yet earned an upside. Your framework requires the price to move above the 20-day simple moving average and for that average to cross above the 50-day average.
Neither condition is met. Since Bitcoin is still trading below these averages and dominance is at 57%, they are talking about a red zone – a time when markets are bleeding rather than recovering.
Is it the right time to buy altcoins?
The simple answer is “NO”
Because there is currently no Altseason
All you need to confirm is two conditions in this table
✅ Price > 20 SMA
✅ 20 SMA > 50 SMA🟢 2021: Altseason printed generational wealth.
🟢 2024: Rotations worked in 2-3… pic.twitter.com/NfYYqDMgNP– Our crypto talk (@ourcryptotalk) April 17, 2026
Bitcoin’s base phase could be a signal of what’s next
Other analysts called increasing Bitcoin dominance a warning sign for altcoins. When Bitcoin’s share of the overall market increases, it typically means money is flowing into Bitcoin and out of smaller tokens – a pattern that has preceded extended weakness in the altcoin space in the past.
For his part, Van de Poppe admits that the market is still building a base after the sell-off in the fourth quarter of 2025. He estimates that this base phase typically lasts two to four months before an outbreak occurs.
Bitcoin has been consolidating for about two and a half months, which he believes is bringing the market close to a potential turning point.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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