If you’ve been waiting for altseason, you might want to pull up a chair. The data says you could be waiting a while.
CryptoQuant analyst IT Tech flagged a striking trend in altcoin spot trading activity: the cumulative buy/sell volume difference for altcoins, excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, dropped to a fresh multi-year low in early July. The metric had already touched a five-year extreme in June, and it’s kept falling since. In other words, sellers have been dominating buyers on spot exchanges for over 15 consecutive months with no signs of letting up.
The numbers paint an ugly picture
The cumulative buy/sell volume difference tracks whether more volume on spot exchanges is hitting the bid (selling) or lifting the ask (buying) across the altcoin market. When the number goes negative, it means sellers are in control. When it craters to roughly -$209 billion, it means sellers have been in control for a very, very long time.
That -$209 billion figure, reached in June, represents the most negative reading since CryptoQuant began tracking the metric in 2020. Back in January 2025, the metric was hovering near zero, a relatively balanced state between buyers and sellers. Since then, it’s been a one-way trip south. IT Tech described the pattern bluntly: “just distribution” with “no floor” present.
