A handful of altcoins are showing recovery signs nine months into a crypto bear market that began with the October 2025 flash crash. Hyperliquid, Solana and Ethereum have all rebounded, but historical patterns and a hot inflation print suggest the slump may not be over.
Nine months into the crypto bear market that started with the flash crash on Oct. 10, 2025, a few altcoins have started to claw back ground. Most crypto majors have lost at least 30% of their peak value, and many altcoins have plunged more than 95%, yet recent weeks brought signals that the downturn may be nearing its end.
Capital rotates into the survivors
One of the main features of crypto bear markets is that money abandons weaker projects and consolidates into a handful of perceived winners. Those winners tend to mix the crypto majors with promising altcoins that look likely to survive and eventually thrive as conditions improve.
Hyperliquid is the clearest example of that rotation. Despite being an altcoin, the token is up 75% over the past three months on the back of its platform for trading perpetual futures contracts. Three U.S. spot Hyperliquid ETFs have also drawn $312.9 million in net inflows since their mid-May launch.
Fundamentals improve for Solana and Ethereum
Pessimism toward previously disfavored assets tends to fade as fundamentals improve too far to ignore. On Solana, the value of tokenized real-world assets rose from $1.4 billion at the start of 2026 to $3.5 billion as of July 8, a 38% gain over the past 30 days. Solana itself is up 16% in a month as of July 8, while Ethereum is clawing back from its June lows, though at a slower pace.
History and macro headwinds counsel caution
The recovery may not hold. Crypto bear markets have historically lasted between nine and 18 months, with a median of about 12, so nine months in is early. Bitcoin’s current 50% decline from its October 2025 high could deepen further, given that the previous cycle saw a 77% drop from November 2021 to November 2022.
The macro backdrop is not helping. May’s consumer price index measure of inflation came in at a three-year high of 4.2%, in line with expectations but hot enough that the Federal Reserve’s next move may be a rate hike rather than a cut, which would starve crypto of the liquidity it needs to rebound. Strong demand for semiconductor, AI and memory stocks gives traditional capital plenty of high-growth alternatives, making a run into crypto a lot less likely.
Source: The Globe and Mail
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