Macro Monday: Have Altcoins Bottomed?

After a relentless period of turbulence, Presidents’ Day and the Chinese New Year are giving global markets a much-needed breather.

AI acceleration and collapsing faith in the U.S. dollar have only exacerbated the doomerism that has penetrated every layer of market sentiment. Despite significant pullbacks, precious metals continue to captivate market attention as traders and investors flee to hard assets.

Meanwhile, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for crypto altcoins, which have bounced off a bottom not seen since January 2021.

Over 1M Jobs Revised Out of U.S. Reporting in 2025

For the third-straight year, the U.S. labor market is looking worse than originally expected. U.S. nonfarm payroll data show that U.S. job numbers were revised down by over 1M jobs in 2025, the largest revision recorded in the past 20 years.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests that the U.S. has consistently overestimated the strength of its labor market over the past three years, sparking further distrust in market health. With the labor market weaker than previously believed, the chances of a ‘soft landing’ are diminished, which could, in turn, mean more downside for US yields.

The revision comes against a larger backdrop of fears of mass unemployment in the face of AI development. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce by turning to AI tools, with entry-level roles being wiped from job boards. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei estimates that AI could replace around half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next few years alone.

Between a declining labor market and existential fears that AI progress will inhibit any recovery, investors and traders are desperately rotating out of fiat and into more resilient assets.

Will Metals Run Continue?

After a blistering run that lasted the bulk of 2025 and peaked in January 2026, precious metals appear to be consolidating. As the dust settles on a -36% daily crash, silver has found solid support at $71/oz and is rebuilding structure.

While less volatile, gold is exhibiting a similar pattern. Since the devastating crash that saw the world’s oldest store of value lose over $3T worth of market capitalization in a single session, gold appears to have found its feet at around $5000/oz.

January’s metal explosion may have been unprecedented, but one could argue that the rotation into hard assets and commodities will continue, as evidenced by growing demand for ‘secondary’ metals like aluminium, copper, nickel, and tin.

 The Shanghai Futures Exchange witnessed an 86% MoM trading volume increase in January 2026, which saw 5x the average monthly trading volume compared to the first 11 months of 2025. 

In much the same way that crypto liquidity flows from $BTC, to major altcoins, to minor altcoins further down the curve, commodities markets may be rotating capital into alternative metals as a catch-up or beta trade.

Could This Be The Bottom For Altcoins?

Having suffered one debilitating drawdown after another, crypto bulls might finally be in for a change in fortune. OTHERS.D, a chart tracking the performance of altcoins outside the industry’s Top 10 assets by market capitalization, is showing signs of breaking out of a multi-year downtrend that began in January 2022.

After bouncing off lows not seen since January 2021, the period preceding what was arguably the last great altcoin season, OTHERS.D is flirting with signs of a reversal. The revitalized trend comes at a time when TradFi giants like BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, are actively exploring altcoin investments, as seen by the firm’s recent interest in Uniswap’s $UNI token.

Syncracy Capital co-founder Ryan Watkins argues that rising interest in altcoins further down the risk curve is a result of institutions trying to front-run the impending CLARITY Act, which is yet to be passed by Congress.

Among majors, Solana is consistently showing strength amidst volatile conditions. According to CoinShares data, Solana Digital Asset Investment Products (ETPs) have maintained two consecutive weeks of capital inflows, moving against the trend set by Bitcoin and Ethereum-based products.

Zooming out, global markets have a big week ahead of them. With ~15% of S&P 500 companies projected to report earnings and a U.S. holiday compressing liquidity into a shortened week, the stock market is bracing for volatility.

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