Altcoin season explained, 17 of 50 coins beat Bitcoin: what to watch now

An altcoin season is the period in which the majority of large cryptocurrencies beat Bitcoin over several months. That is not a mood and not a feeling but a ratio: an index counts how many of the largest coins have performed better than Bitcoin over a fixed window. If that ratio reaches 75 percent or more, the altcoin season counts as confirmed. On October 23, 2026 it sits clearly below that. This piece explains how to recognise an altcoin season, which metrics are fit for the job and which only look like it.