2017–2021 Altcoin Run Likely Never Happening Again, According to Veteran Trader – Here’s Why

A popular market analyst known for his timely crypto calls says that the astronomical altcoin gains of the last cycle are probably never going to happen again.

Pseudonymous trader Pentoshi tells his 858,600 followers on the social media platform X that altcoins now have less potential to print the same level of gains seen in 2017-2021 because the market has significantly expanded and the total market cap started at a much higher level this cycle.

“Well some updated thoughts. I think for alts, we will never see a run like 2017-2021 again. But I also said that previous to this run. The space is just way too big now, with hundreds of millions of people, whereas there, we really did start at 0 for DeFi (decentralized finance) and in 2017 all alts combined were $13 billion. We just started at such a high floor.”

He also says that the robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) sector may start dominating investor interest at the expense of alts.

“I also believe the next bubble won’t even be in crypto. It’s likely going to be in robotics/AI. 50% of the global GDP is labor, a $50 trillion annual market… These fields are moving at lightning speed and likely to have the most allocations. Of course, there will be big opportunities here, a lot of that will end up back in utility too. Memecoins I think are too extractive, and while people call utility a meme, they have stood the test of time.”

However, the veteran trader says there still remains the potential this cycle for the total crypto market cap to surge to around $4.4 trillion. The total crypto market cap is $2.97 trillion at time of writing, down 8.9% in the last 24 hours.

“It’s just a maturing market, and for most of us. We got in pretty damn early and got to capture immense upside. It just isn’t realistic to expect the cycles of the past because eventually returns would be smoothed out. It couldn’t last forever. It takes far more now to move the capital than before.

I never expected anything wild this cycle, my expectations for alts were maybe 2x the previous highs and for total [crypto market cap] to reach $4.4 trillion or so, which was a pretty conservative estimate. We may still even get there yet. But I think we need to set realistic expectations for alts in general and the market.”

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