Despite ICON and Ethereum Classic Rising, ‘Alt Season’ Is Not Here Yet

As it’s commonly said, never give in to FOMO and chase pumps—especially when bullish momentum has not yet been established. The same applies to those who claim that ‘alt season’ is here over ICON (ICX) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) experiencing some upward price movement. The current altcoin market is actually showing no signs of a reversal in its general trends.

Don’t Buy the Hype

The recent price spikes for ICON and Ethereum Classic have not solidified new support areas and will likely taper off in the short-term. As @cryptoamd points out, “accumulation takes longer than a day.” If you see a cryptocurrency spiking 40% in a day, it’s not time to bunker down on it: in fact, it’s time to sell.

*alts go up 2% besides two scam coins $icx and $etc*
CT Influencer: "Alt season baby, rising wedge bitcoin dominance, get ready for moon mission, we're all gonna make it!"

*Doesn't realize most alts are going to make another lower high and accumulation takes longer then a day"

— AMD Trades (@Amdtrades) August 22, 2019

The reason for the Ethereum Classic price rally is primarily due to its upcoming Atlantis Hard Fork. The planned hard fork is expected to take place on September 13th. The forked coin will be called ‘Atlantis’ and “implements Ethereum’s Byzantium and Spurious Dragon upgrades to the Ethereum Classic network.” It should be noted, however, that price spikes due to hard forks usually don’t last since they tend to have an expiration date (i.e., the date of the fork itself). ICON’s rally, on the other hand, seems to be an orchestrated pump similar to what the cryptocurrency has experienced in the past throughout its spectacular decline. It’s unclear what the catalyst has been for ICON’s rise, but it is likely in anticipation of its network upgrade which is expected soon. The cryptocurrency is up 18% in the last 24H. Still, traders would be foolish to try to buy in at either of these price levels. Neither cryptocurrency has established higher support, and both have been some of the worst-performing in all of 2018/19. ICON is currently trading at $0.228, down from an all-time high of $12.84 set in 2018. Ethereum Classic bodes a bit better, presently trading at $7.20, down from an all-time high of $43.27.

‘Alt Season’ Not Here Yet

For those of us expecting an ‘alt season’ as we saw in early 2018, when virtually every cryptocurrency exploded in price, that might not happen again. It’s time to start looking at fundamentals. Github activity, connections, and growth over the long-term will ultimately set altcoins apart. There are simply too many of them for 2017/2018 to repeat as it did. Even Litecoin, one of the biggest altcoins by market cap, is falling. Yet, something should be said about those that call for ‘alt season’ every time a random cryptocurrency rallies in price. These analysts are arguably just trying to exploit the fear and greed of the market, and seem to be making the same failed predictions all summer now. So no, Ethereum Classic and ICON are not kicking off alt season—it’s going to take much more than a marginal hard fork to change the entire market sentiment. Will the cryptocurrency market ever truly get an ‘alt season’ again? Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.  Buy and trade cryptocurrencies with a 100x multiplier on our partner exchange, StormGain.

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