Dinosaur Coins ETC, BCH and DOGE Roar Back as Altcoin Season Heats Up

The highly-anticipated altcoin season is finally here. After bitcoin BTC broke record highs last week and consolidated this week, the way opened for capital to rotate into the more speculative altcoin market.

Friday's top performers are known as dinosaur coins, many of which were created before the 2017 bull market.

Ethereum classic (ETC) leads the pack with a 24-hour surge of 20% after breaking through the $20.27 level of resistance. It still faces a stern test at $25.00, a level it rejected exactly one year ago before plummeting to $15.80.

ETC's growing popularity is reflected in its trading volume. That tripled to $756 million, showing the move is backed by traders who are rolling capital from sector to sector in true "altcoin season" style.

Litecoin (LTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), dogecoin (DOGE) and of course XRP also posted notable gains. And all rose to stardom as retail investors poured capital into the 2017 cycle.

LTC is up in part because of MEI Pharma's $100 million LTC fund with the project's founder, Charlie Lee, taking a board seat. But it's also due to a general rotation into legacy coins that stuttered during this week's ferocious altcoin move.

Uniswap (UNI), which was actually released slightly later than the others, in 2020, also climbed 20%, and as volume topped $1.7 billion — a 70% increase.

It is now trading above the $8.11 and $10.33 levels of resistance as it looks to move up towards $12.09, a level that caused several rejections during the middle of last year.

What does Friday's move mean?

The rotation into dinosaur coins can be looked at one of two ways. Either it is a bullish scenario in which traders are flipping their gains and moving methodically from sector to sector, or it is the early etchings of a cycle high, with traders attempting to squeeze the final scraps of profit before a the market enters a correction.

There are several technical indicators that first, bullish, scenario is the most likely, including a series of breakouts above months-old levels of resistance. If, however, bitcoin tumbles below $110,000 altcoins will suffer a complete wipeout.

Open interest on several altcoins suggests the recent move has been backed with leverage. Dogecoin open interest is up at $2 billion, a 30% rise in 24 hours, while uniswap's is up by 35% to $389 million, Coinalyze data shows.

This means that if the market experiences a broader sell-off, leveraged altcoin positions will unwind, leading to liquidations and subsequent pressure to sell. Coupled with the reduced liquidity and lower market depth of altcoins, several tokens could face a decline in excess of 10%.

The ideal scenario for altcoins is bitcoin climbing above the $124,000, a level of resistance, and moving higher before another period of consolidation. That would allow capital to rotate without the risk of an immediate correction.