Altcoins Steal the Spotlight as Bitcoin Dominance Fades After $87K Rejection: Weekly Crypto Recap

By CryptoPotato | Created at 2026-09-25 15:22:05 | Updated at 2026-09-25 16:42:36 2 hours ago

Numerous altcoins have produced far more impressive gains than BTC over the past week, including XRP, SOL, ADA, LINK, DOGE, NEAR, and more.

It was a rather interesting and unexpected week for the cryptocurrency markets, especially since the setbacks suffered just ten days ago.

Recall the market update from last Friday, in which we reported that BTC had somehow crossed the $80,000 barrier despite the failure of the CLARITY Act in the US Senate and the Fed’s subsequent interest rate hike. The cryptocurrency slipped to $75,000 after both of those developments, but rebounded swiftly and reclaimed the key $80,000 level by Friday afternoon. It hasn’t been below that level since.

Although it was initially stopped at $82,000 during the previous weekend after more bad macro news, this time on the two major war fronts, BTC started the current business week with one of its most impressive rallies this year. It defended the $80,000 support and the bulls drove it higher by $7,000 in less than 24 hours. As such, the cryptocurrency topped $87,000 for the first time since late January on the heels of massive ETF inflows.

It pulled back to $85,000 almost immediately, but the bulls initiated another leg up to $87,300. However, the rejection scenario repeated, and BTC has been unable to recapture its momentum since then. Moreover, it dipped below $83,000 on Thursday before it found support and bounced off to $85,000 earlier today.

The bears were more persistent once again, stopping its progress there and pushing it south to $83,500 as of press time. This means that the largest cryptocurrency is still 5% up weekly, but its performance has dwindled compared to most alts. The graph below will show the clear winners, led by BTW’s massive 73% weekly surge. ENA (52%), NEAR (45%), ONDO (40%), SUI (39%), BCH (32%), and AVAX (29%) follow suit.

Among the largest alts, XRP, LINK, and ADA stand out as the top performers, with gains of 17%-18%. Naturally, this has driven the BTC dominance metric south hard, losing roughly 2% in a week.

Market Data

 QuantifyCryptoCryptocurrency Market Overview Weekly September 25. Source: QuantifyCrypto

Market Cap: $3T | 24H Vol: $113B | BTC Dominance: 56.5%

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BTC: $83,500 (+5%) | ETH: $2,685 (+5.9%) | XRP: $1.57 (+17%)

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This Signal Has Flipped to Altcoin Season as Crypto Rally Spreads Beyond Bitcoin. We continue with the altseason narrative as Glassnode’s Altcoin Cycle Signal flipped from BTC season to one dominated by altcoins this week, which was not the case during the August rally.

Bitcoin Just Broke Its Correlation With Gold, Stocks, and the Dollar: What Changed? Meanwhile, BTC’s relationship with the largest asset classes such as US equities and the precious metal market has deteriorated as most have failed to follow the cryptocurrency’s resurgence.

Zcash Tops $1,600 After Europe’s First ZEC ETP Debuts. The popular privacy coin continued its impressive ascent in the past several days, surging past $1,600 for the first time in a decade. The latest move higher came after 21Shares launched the first ZEC ETP in Europe.

Bitget Reports $351M Hot Wallet Breach, Says User Funds Are Covered. The week didn’t go by without a major incident as Bitget reported an incident in which bad actors swiped over $350 million in various cryptocurrencies. The exchange promised that every dollar of that loss falls under its User Protection Fund, so customers’ balances will remain whole.

Ondo Finance Unveils BlackRock-Backed On-chain Portfolios for Investors. Ondo launched three new on-chain portfolio products based on BlackRock strategies, aiming to integrate traditional portfolio management with blockchain. Perhaps it’s no surprise that its native token is among the top gainers over the past week.

Strategy’s Bitcoin Stash Hits 846,000 After Fresh 950 BTC Purchase. After another pause, this time a smaller one of just three weeks, the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin resumed its purchases, accumulating 950 BTC for $75.7 million. Interestingly, Strive made an even more impressive buy this week, scooping 1,355 units for $107.7 million.

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