Bitcoin’s Price Stagnancy Prompts Pivot to Altcoins but Interest in Speculative Assets Remains Limited

Bitcoin has been trading within the $28k to $32k range for nearly four months. Historically, the crowd has been known to get very polarized when a top crypto asset goes for an extended period of time in a tight price range. Investors now have the option of thousands of other assets when they become restless over the lack of Bitcoin price excitement.

When the premier crypto becomes flat, sentiment plays a big factor, according to a new report by the analytics company – Santiment.

‘Crowd Speed Toward Greed’

The crypto analytic firm noted that the amount of bullish calls appears to be exceeding the bearish ones at this time. This is not the greatest sign for a turnaround, as per Santiment’s latest insight. The reason for this is traders are not worried even after BTC failed to stay above the $30k psychological support level.

Further analysis reveals bearish sentiment and more traders calling for price tops and mentioning “selling.”

On the brighter side, the percentage of Bitcoin-related discussions by traders (compared to the top 100 altcoins) is still hovering in a region that the firm deems to be a “healthy” area. Even if it’s not significant, the BTC social dominance is still 2.42% above the healthy zone of discussion rate.

This is because a high percentage of BTC discussion is perceived to be healthy enough focus for the crypto sector to rise. It is also indicative of fear due to limited interest in more speculative assets, Santiment explained.

Contrastingly, a low rate of BTC discussion may reflect a worrisome trend of traders being excessively focused on altcoins and assets that are designed for short-term gains (rather than long-term sustainability for the crypto sector).

The report reads,

“As of now, there does appear to be a lull in trader activity. Fear of making the wrong decision is one thing, but there is an almost eerie indifference washing over the crypto discussion forums as of now.”

However, this trend will also be temporary and will not last forever. The report stated that once traders start leaning overly bullish or overly bearish, the outcome is typically the opposite of the crowd’s expectation.

Accumulation Spree

Despite Bitcoin’s dull price action, long-term holders have continued to accumulate the asset. The latest data suggested that this cohort of investors currently owns 14.52 million BTC, an all-time high. Short-term holders and speculators, on the other hand, are left with just 25%.

The accumulation spree comes in the backdrop of renewed enthusiasm following recent applications from BlackRock, Invesco, WisdomTree, VanEck, and others, to launch a spot BTC ETF in the US over the past several weeks.