Bitcoin's (BTC) 65% recovery from sub-$29,500 on July xx to a swing loftier of $48,200 on Aug. xiv took less than a month and helped bring fresh bullish momentum back to the crypto market and to traders who were dreading the prospect of another prolonged bear marketplace.

Currently, the BTC rally has stalled out nearly the $46,000 price level, and this phase of sideways trading is giving altcoins an opportunity to step forward. Every bit shown in the chart below, the full market capitalization of the altcoin market has risen 80% since July 20. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin potency rate is downward 10% since July 30.

Bitcoin dominance vs. total altcoin market capitalization,ane-day chart. Source: TradingView

Data from TradingView shows that the dominance rate of Bitcoin had been on the rising in contempo weeks, but this tendency fizzled out for Bitcoin on July 30 as a number of altcoin projects rallied due to a marketwide oversold bounce, new partnerships and protocol updates.

DeFi and NFT projects hit tape highs

Projects with a focus on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) were the leading altcoin gainers over the past 4 weeks.

Three of the biggest gainers over the past month include Axie Infinity Shards (AXS), Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA), which all saw their prices break out to new record highs on Aug. 17.

AXS/USDT vs. SOL/USDT vs. LUNA/USDT 4-60 minutes chart. Source: TradingView

Every bit shown above, AXS price surged nearly 400%, while LUNA and SOL increased by 340% and 187%, respectively.

I interesting observation to note is that Solana and Terra began to see increased interest several days later on the implementation of the London hard fork on the Ethereum network.

While the London hard fork introduced several benign changes to the Ethereum network, including a token burning mechanism that has the potential to brand Ether deflationary, the upgrade did petty to solve the problem of high transaction costs. This left the door open for competing layer-ane solutions similar Solana and Terra to gain market share.

Related: Eth2 staking contract ranks as single-largest Ether hodler with $21.5B

Analysts denote the offset of altcoin season

The surge in altcoins has led many traders to forecast the dawn of a new altcoin season. According to "The Moon," a pseudonymous Twitter analyst, altcoin seasons follow a major run-upwardly in the cost of BTC, particularly when the cost stalls or pulls dorsum.

Further prove pointing toward the start of an alt season is found in the increasing number of altcoins notching new all-fourth dimension highs over the past two weeks. Double-digit daily gains and price breakouts from projects similar Audius and memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) are making headlines, and Crypto Twitter is abuzz with chitter-chatter about the hottest altcoins to sentinel.

Despite these stiff performances, it'south interesting to annotation that the Altcoin Flavor Index is really at its lowest indicate in two years, as highlighted in the tweet below.

What this means, in the long run, is upwardly for interpretation, simply one bullish take is that the altcoin rally seen in the past ii weeks is just a prelude to the real altcoin flavour, which has however to begin.

To date, Bitcoin continues to be the leading market indicator that dictates the future direction of the crypto market every bit a whole, simply data shows that consolidation phases often give altcoins an opportunity to push college.

If Bitcoin'south price drops dorsum toward $forty,000 or below, then most analysts would expect altcoin prices to too move south. On the other paw, a rally above the $48,000 level is likely to see altcoin prices push button higher.

The views and opinions expressed hither are solely those of the author and exercise not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading motion involves risk, and yous should comport your own research when making a conclusion.