Altcoin Market Falls $800 Billion Short as Retail Traders Vanish

The altcoin market is $800 billion smaller than past cycles would suggest — and a shift in retail sentiment may have killed it.

A new estimate from 10x Research argues that the complex of non-Bitcoin tokens has been starved of capital this cycle, largely because retail investors, especially in South Korea, have turned to crypto-linked equities instead, while Bitcoin boomed on institutional flows. The estimate lands just weeks after a record liquidation wiped out swathes of the altcoin market, amplifying fears that the speculative playground for digital tokens beyond Bitcoin and Ether may never recover.

“Altcoin market capitalization would be ...