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Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin — short for 'alternative coin'.
What it is
Altcoin is the catch-all for non-BTC crypto: ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, DOGE, and thousands more. The category spans massive layer-1 protocols (Ethereum), DeFi tokens (UNI, AAVE), payment coins (XRP, LTC), memecoins (DOGE, SHIB), and everything in between. Altcoin season ('alt season') is when alts outperform BTC — usually mid-late bull market. Altcoins are higher beta than BTC: in bull markets they 5×-10× BTC's returns; in bear markets they drop 80-95% while BTC drops 60-70%. The 'BTC dominance' metric measures crypto-market share — when it drops, alts are leading.
Example
Q1 2024: BTC +60%, ETH +40%, SOL +180%, AVAX +90%. Altcoin season. Q4 2024: BTC +35%, most alts -10 to -30%. BTC dominance rising.
How Indikora uses Altcoin
Indikora's Asset Tier Router scores every altcoin for tradeable quality. Low-quality 'meme-only' tokens are filtered out of the bot's universe.