Bitcoin’s dominance hovering around 57% has become a quiet alarm bell for traders watching the broader crypto and altcoin market in general — and for good reason.
Bears And Bulls Divided Over Altcoin Timing
Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe believes a brutal clearing out is coming for the altcoin market, but he does not see it as a collapse. He sees it as cleanup.
According to van de Poppe, roughly 99% of all altcoins are headed to zero — and he thinks that outcome is fair.
He draws a parallel to the early internet era, when hundreds of companies launched, burned through investor money, and vanished. What remained built the modern web.
Despite that stark forecast, van de Poppe says he has rarely been more optimistic about where crypto is heading. Reports indicate he described this as one of the most bullish periods he has seen for the asset class overall, even as most individual tokens face extinction.
I think that it’s fully deserved that 99% of the #Altcoins are going to zero.
It’s not like all of the internet companies from the https://t.co/GoodB359DI bubble survived.
However, during that bubble phase, there’s a lot of money made and coming out of the bubble phase, there’s…
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 19, 2026
His focus has narrowed to a handful of projects he believes can survive the shakeout — Bitcoin , Ethereum, and select decentralized finance platforms like Aave. Short-term pain in DeFi, he says, stems from the KelpDAO hack . But he views that as temporary turbulence, not a structural break.
Arbitrum Flagged As A Buy-The-Dip Opportunity
Van de Poppe is equally tracking Arbitrum. According to accounts of his latest analysis, there could be a possibility of buying the token when it falls to the $0.16 mark.
Currently, the analyst sees a similarity in the market with what happened during the early months of 2020. The characteristics include increased trading volumes, reclamation of critical price marks, and technical indications before a breakout.
His assessment on Bitcoin is that more upside remains. He is eyeing new highs near $77,000. Ethereum , he says, is still in a bull trend and worth buying on dips, provided it holds above certain key support levels.
Analyst group Our Crypto Talk says the market has not yet earned a bullish call. Their framework requires price to move above the 20-day simple moving average, and for that average to cross above the 50-day.
Neither condition has been met. With Bitcoin still trading below those averages and dominance sitting at 57%, they call this a red zone — a period where markets are more likely to bleed than rally.
Bitcoin’s Basing Phase Could Signal What Comes NextIs it the right time to buy Altcoins?
The simple answer is “NO”
Because there is no Altseason right now
You just need 2 conditions on this chart to confirm
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
Other analysts flagged rising Bitcoin dominance as a warning sign for altcoins. When Bitcoin’s share of the total market climbs, it typically means money is flowing into Bitcoin and out of smaller tokens — a pattern that has historically preceded extended weakness across the altcoin space.
Van de Poppe, for his part, acknowledges the market is still building a base following the Q4 2025 selloff. That basing phase, he estimates, typically runs two to four months before a breakout takes hold.
Bitcoin has been consolidating for roughly two and a half months, which he says puts the market close to a potential turning point.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView