The crypto market continues to decline and the smallest, riskiest tokens are being hit the hardest. In fact, the MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Small-Cap Index, which tracks the 50 smallest cryptocurrencies in a group of 100, fell to its lowest level since November 2020 on Sunday before recovering slightly. This drop occurred as Bitcoin gave up the roughly 30% gain it had accumulated earlier in 2025 in October. Additionally, altcoins, which generally reflect traders’ willingness to take risks, have lagged far behind major tokens since early 2024.
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In past bull markets, small-cap tokens often surged because traders were hungry for high-risk, high-reward bets. That changed last year after the United States approved Bitcoin and Ether ETFs (ETH-USD), which attracted most institutional funds to safer large-cap coins. As a result, demand for smaller cryptocurrencies has weakened. For example, a Dogecoin-related ETF (DOJE) that began trading in September has not seen a single day of inflows since October 15, and Dogecoin itself has fallen 13% over the past month.
Additionally, over the past five years, the small-cap index has fallen almost 8%, while the large-cap index has climbed about 380%. It is also worth mentioning that the overall crypto market is still recovering from the October 10 crash that caused $19 billion in liquidations and erased over $1 trillion in value across all tokens. Therefore, analysts say investors need to be much more selective in their crypto investments, as the market’s appetite for risk fades.
Is Bitcoin a good buy?
Using TipRanks’ technical analysis tool, indicators appear to indicate a negative outlook for Bitcoin. Indeed, the summary section illustrated below shows that six indicators are bullish, compared to two neutral indicators and 14 bearish.
See more Bitcoin technical analysis
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