The median altcoin passed bitcoin for the first time in our record

On 8 September the typical coin in the top 100 finished 5.9 percentage points ahead of bitcoin over 30 days. Our Market Pulse index has recorded that margin for 23 days. Every one of the other 22 was negative.

Three readings in 72 hours

• 5 September, Pulse 45. Bitcoin turnover $35.5 billion, turnover component 38. Altcoin margin minus 7.0 points.
• 6 September, no reading.
• 7 September, Pulse 42. Turnover $19.8 billion, component 35. Altcoin margin minus 2.0 points.
• 8 September, Pulse 41. Turnover $23.1 billion, component 23. Altcoin margin plus 5.9 points.

That gap on the sixth follows a rule we published when the index launched.

“If a data source is unavailable, that day is not published at all — the history keeps a gap rather than an invented number.”

— Market Pulse methodology, intokened.com/en/pulse

Market Pulse methodology, published on the index page

What the flat number hid

The headline moved four points across those readings. Underneath it the turnover component fell fifteen and the altcoin component rose thirty-two.

A turnover component of 23 puts 8 September in the bottom 6.5% of the 384 days we have stored, 25 days in all. Bitcoin turned over $35.5 billion on 5 September and $23.1 billion on 8 September, a drop of 35% in three days.

The altcoin margin climbed while turnover drained. It bottomed at minus 12.1 points on 31 August and reached plus 5.9 eight days later, an 18-point swing.

Falling turnover pushes the index down and rising altcoin performance pushes it up. The two cancelled, which is why 41 reads like nothing happened.

Against a year of the same measurement

We have stored 384 daily readings since 14 August 2025, built from CoinGecko turnover and prices and the Fear & Greed index. The all-time median is 44, the floor is 20 and the ceiling is 89.

Across the last 30 recorded days the median is 37. The market has run below its own norm for a month, and these three days sit at the busier end of that quiet stretch without leaving it.

Compare that to 4 September, which scored 69 with both the growth and volatility components pinned at 100. Four days later the same instrument reads 41. Bitcoin closed near $79,800 on 5 September and near $78,200 on 8 September, down about 2%.

The limits of one reading

Pulse measures activity, not direction, and the altcoin component measures a margin. A median coin can lead bitcoin because it rose or because bitcoin fell harder, and this week bitcoin fell.

We saw the same rotation from the coin side on 7 September, when we counted the top ten altcoins over 48 hours and found four in five moving while bitcoin stood still.

Twenty-three days of margin history is short. One positive reading makes a first, and a trend needs several more behind it.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice; treat it as information to consider.