Only nine altcoins out of the top 50 have been able to beat bitcoin since its peak: selectivity for profit is brutal.

Over the years, the altcoin narrative has often been simplified to make it seem that if you take more risks, there may be a return on Bitcoin's market leadership than ever before. But data from Glassnode reported by CryptoPotato indicates that in practice finding an altcoin that actually beat bitcoin is very difficult because of the top 50 most valuable altcoins at the time when Bitcoin ( Bitcoin , BTC) peaked last October, only nine have outperformed BTC since then.

What's this about: the opportunity cost of moving money from bitcoin to altcoin.

The loss of BTC does not mean that the token always loses money in the form of 89000, some may still give positive returns, but compared to holding BTC, then the holder of altcoin might lose an opportunity at BTC. Doing better in the same time frame for Thai readers watching prices on THB or using platforms such as Bitkub .

Who won, and how much?

Zcash ( ZEC ), the privacy group token, is the most recent name. Glassnode indicates that ZEC yielded almost 14.5 times more than bitcoin over the measurement period and in a post by Glassnode on September 24, 2026 reports about 14 times as much compared to bitcoin. The second one was HYPE, which still clearly lagged behind with around 2.9 returns, followed by XMR at 2.6, and NEAR at 2.1, while UNI, TRX, LEO, and TAO were also identified as performing above bitcoin.

On the other hand, 41 of the 50 major altcoins that started to measure from Bitcoin's peak failed to win any bitcoin holdings, which is why "altcoin season" is a good term for describing market sentiment, but it's hard to predict because knowing there might be some runs strongly against knowing which one will run first.

This week, over 72% bitcoins have been won, but the big picture hasn't changed.

Glassnode also points out that over the past week, there have been more than 72% altcoins tracked by data platforms performing better than bitcoin compared to a peak of only 39% during its August bull run. This makes the market appear as though it is temporarily turning toward altcoin but must be read in tandem with the larger structure because the stability of expiration dates has barely increased in recent months, indicating that position gains may not have expanded much.

In addition, Glassnode notes that altcoin's cycle signal has entered what the market often refers to as "altcoin season", but earlier this month altcoins also gained significantly in value at USD without separating their market share from bitcoin meaningfully. The 90-day dividend figure is still negative for 0.9% while altcoin total market value increased by 21% in the previous month.

What should Thai and regional readers understand from this?

For readers in Thailand and regional users tracking digital assets under the the SEC (Thailand) framework (SEC) or markets such as Bitkub , 9 of these 50 statistics focus on "comparative" rather than superficial price reading. If a port with bitcoin is the main asset, adding altcoin means accepting more risk at the same time, and backtracking numbers are not an effective formula for choosing to win bitcoins.