Bitcoin's 28% Two-Year Gain Masks a 74% Wipeout Across Altcoins

The cryptocurrency market's two-year rally has been far narrower than headline figures suggest, with gains concentrated almost entirely in Bitcoin while the median altcoin has shed nearly three-quarters of its value.

According to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode and crypto exchange Bybit, Bitcoin rose 28% over the past two years, while the median mid-cap altcoin posted a negative return of 74% over the same stretch. The divergence, the report said, has become the defining characteristic of the current market cycle.

Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market capitalization, landed roughly flat over the period, underscoring how tightly the upside was concentrated at the very top of the market. That stands in sharp contrast to the rotation pattern many crypto investors had come to expect, in which gains in Bitcoin eventually spill over into smaller tokens during a so-called altseason.

"Bitcoin compounding higher while the mid-cap complex halves and halves again" is how the report framed the dynamic.

The concentration is also visible in how leveraged positions are distributed across the market. Bitcoin futures open interest amounts to roughly 2% of its market capitalization, according to data as of the settled close on August 23, while speculative small-cap tokens carry significantly heavier leverage. Meme coin PEPE, for instance, showed open interest near 24% of its market cap.