Altcoin Carnage Ahead? 99% Could Be Wiped Out, Analyst Says

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.

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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.

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Bitcoin’s Basing Phase Could Signal What Comes Next

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