Altcoins Rip Higher, but One Brutal Metric Kills the Altseason Hype

While bitcoin has ripped 23.6% higher over the last seven days and ethereum has blasted 31.2%, the real fireworks have been deeper down the board, where Pump.fun’s PUMP has exploded 99% and Ethena’s ENA has ripped 98.57%. Even after logging massive gains, a great deal of today’s crypto tokens remain buried below their former peaks, leaving plenty of lost ground still to reclaim.

WRITTEN BYJamie Redman
SHARE
Published:Aug 23, 2026, 8:39 PM EDT

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin jumped 23.6% this week, while PUMP and ENA nearly doubled.
• ZEC gained 75.15% as most altcoins remained far below their prior peaks.
• Google’s “altcoin” score sits at 26, signaling Altseason 3.0 mania remains absent.

Bitcoin Rips Toward $80,000 as Billions Flood Back

Hundreds of billions have poured back into the crypto market, while bitcoin’s explosive run to nearly $80,000 has been impossible to ignore. At press time, the leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) is consolidating around $77,400 per coin, but it remains 38.5% below its all-time high (ATH) of $126,080, logged Oct. 6, 2025.

Ethereum (ETH) is coasting around $2,452 per unit, but despite outperforming BTC lately, it still needs to climb 50.4% to reclaim its $4,946 ATH. Altcoins have posted even wilder moves compared with BTC, pushing the Altcoin Season Index to 43 from a low of 25 in May, according to blockchaincenter.net stats. That hasn’t stopped speculators from declaring that Altcoin Season has already arrived.

Altcoins Explode Higher but Old Peaks Remain Miles Away

The scoreboard is simple: if 75% of the top 50 coins outperform bitcoin over 90 days, the market officially enters Altcoin Season. PUMP and ENA have been the three-month champs this season, climbing 192% and 69%, respectively. This week alone, PUMP has ripped 99% higher while ENA has blasted 98.57%, yet both remain buried below their all-time highs.

PUMP still needs to climb 39.7% to reclaim its peak, while ENA faces an even steeper 89.2% climb. Stacks (STX) also rocketed 94.55% this week, while official trump (TRUMP) jumped 91.55%. But the wreckage from their former highs remains brutal: STX is still down 94% from its peak, while TRUMP sits 96.4% below its zenith.

One crypto distinctly breaking from the pack is zcash (ZEC), up 75.15% this week and trading at $851 at the time of writing, putting ZEC at a fresh peak as of today. Aave (AAVE) has ripped 65.48% higher over the last seven days, but it still needs another 78.5% gain to reclaim the all-time high it recorded more than five years ago on May 18, 2021. Meme token pepe coin (PEPE) jumped 59.61% this week, yet it remains buried 85.4% below its all-time high.

Not everyone joined the party, though, as jelly (JELLY) shed 5.48% over the last week and just (JST) dropped 4.24%. Centrifuge (CFG) tumbled 3.93%, while quibic (QUIBIC) lost 3.36%. Fewer than a dozen coins took hits this week, while the rest of the market either consolidated or posted massive gains across the seven-day stretch.

But while altcoins delivered the bigger gains, most remain buried far deeper below their former peaks. Zcash and a handful of others buck that trend, but bitcoin’s closer proximity to its record high shows just how much more ground many altcoins still have to recover.

Traders Declare Altseason as Social Media Euphoria Erupts

On social media, particularly X, some traders are convinced altcoins are staring down a full-blown melt-up. “This is f***ing altseason,” The Crypto Dog wrote on X. “Everyone said there’d never be another altseason well WRONG it’s here look around it’s f***ing altseason.” Three days ago, another person on social media insisted, punctuating the call with rocket emojis:

“ALTSEASON 3.0 IS COMING.”

Google Searches Flash a Very Different Altcoin Signal

Search interest tells a different story. Worldwide Google queries for “altcoin” currently score just 26 out of 100 over the past 12 months Google says interest is still 80% higher than the preceding year. The last time “altcoin” approached Google Trends’ maximum score of 100 was September 2025, just before bitcoin punched into its all-time high

The split between social media euphoria and lukewarm retail search interest suggests any looming Altcoin Season is still standing on shaky ground. Strip away the speculation, and the tape tells a simpler story: altcoin pumps have been, and remain, selective rallies, while the broad-based mania that defines a true “Altseason 3.0” has yet to show up.

Ripple CEO Says Crypto Rules Near Finish After White House Meeting

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says U.S. crypto regulation is approaching a decisive point after White House and CFTC meetings. His…

Tags in this story

Altcoin SeasonAltcoinsBitcoin (BTC)Ethereum (ETH)

Source: news.bitcoin.com