Altcoins surge up to 86% in a week… “Expect a bull market in Q4”

The US Federal Reserve's (Fed) 'Big Cut' and Vice President Kamala Harris's pro-virtual asset remarks have caused altcoin prices (virtual assets excluding Bitcoin) to soar. With the total value locked (TVL) of major altcoins rising significantly over the past year, analysis suggests that interest in altcoins will increase further if solid macroeconomic indicators and pro-virtual asset messages from US presidential candidates continue.

At 1:13 PM on the 24th, BitTensor (TAO) was trading at $536.53 on CoinMarketCap, up 86% from the previous week. During the same period, the price of SUI (SUI) rose by about 45%, and ImmutableX (IMX) rose by 42%. In addition, six altcoins, including Aptos (ATP) and Say (SEI), recorded returns of over 30%.



The reason for the favorable wind in the altcoin market is the US base interest rate cut and the remarks of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Harris. Last week, the US Federal Reserve implemented a 'big cut' by lowering the base interest rate by 0.5 percentage points. This is the first interest rate cut since March 2020. When interest rates are low, demand for virtual assets, which are relatively risky assets, increases, causing prices to rise. In addition, when Vice President Harris announced at a campaign fundraising event held in New York on the 23rd (local time) that she would "encourage innovative technologies such as digital assets," virtual asset prices soared.

Kim Min-seung, head of Korbit Research Center, said, “Since 2012, there has been a halving and a U.S. presidential election every four years, and virtual asset prices have risen significantly in the fourth quarter,” adding, “Market participants who learned from this are looking forward to the fourth quarter as interest rate cuts overlap.” He added, “Expectations have grown even more as candidate Harris, who was hostile to virtual assets, delivered a virtual asset-friendly message.”

Interest in altcoins has been steadily increasing since last year. According to DeFirama, SUI’s TVL on this day increased by 3,285% year-on-year to $900 million. SOL’s TVL also increased by 1,521% year-on-year to $5.128 billion. “Over the past year, the price increase of altcoins has been slower than that of Bitcoin (BTC),” explained Center Director Kim. “There were many market participants waiting for the altcoin bull market, and as expectations grew ahead of the fourth quarter, buying began.” Dong-hyeok Kim of Dispread Research said, “The cases of SUI and SOL may increase interest in the altcoin market as a whole.”

However, it seems that we will have to keep an eye on the macroeconomic indicators and messages from the US presidential candidates that will be announced in the future. Researcher Kim emphasized that “in the situation where the correlation between BTC and US stock returns has recently increased, macroeconomic factors such as the Fed’s interest rate cut, the US presidential election results, and the revitalization of the labor market will have an important effect.” He said, “In particular, considering the Democratic Party’s position that has been skeptical of virtual assets, the recently announced ‘digital asset fostering’ plan needs to be carefully viewed until the details are disclosed.”

Reporter Jaeheon Choi

chsn12@decenter.kr