Altcoin season 'game is over', says Matt Hougan

Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan says the euphoric altcoin seasons — when almost every cryptocurrency rises across the market — are probably not coming back. "I think that game is over. I think we'll see a non-traditional altcoin season," he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Hougan expects a new kind of altcoin cycle that rewards projects with tangible use cases. "An altcoin season that rewards assets with real-world traction and real-world application," he said, adding: "I don't think we'll see the sort of rising tide lifts all buckets where you rotate from Bitcoin to ETH to DeFi to NFT pictures of rocks." Rather than a broad market rally, the market could "rerate" certain tokens, particularly those tied to what he described as "huge businesses." "I just think it'll be more differentiated than previous altcoin seasons," Hougan said.

Traders typically expect Bitcoin to run first, then capital rotates into Ether and altcoins.

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