It would be nice if it turned out we were all still in the very early stages of the fore coming cryptobubble, instead of say, halfway there.
It seems to me like most people still don't understand bitcoin, so even fewer know or care about the alts. If the trend keeps up and more money continues to flow into BTC, its only natural to assume that some of this would breathe more life into the nascent alt markets.
When BTC started jumping last month, I was surprised to see some of the alts quickly go down in value. This went against my theory but if profit taking is over and the BTC price stays elevated, I predict we will find that find the faith of the general public in BTC is the primary driver for the growth of alts.
When BTC started jumping last month, I was surprised to see some of the alts quickly go down in value.
"Normal" alt patterns used to be easy to define (at least for the ones with decent volume/value)
The 'old normal':
When BTC/USD went up, alt/usd almost always went up, but alt/BTC often went down (for example, if alt/usd only went up a little/or stable then it is easy to see why alt/btc goes down with a BTC/USD price increase), also when BTC/USD fell many of the alts/btc would rally
The above was (usually) true for most of last year, until the huge Nov/December rally.
Late last year we had an extreme alt bubble and during the crazy trading "near the top" when BTC/USD went up, so would most/many alt/btc (the alt/USD value increases were extreme)
This "reverse" pattern lasted for a while even once the down-trend started, but lately things have settled and the "old normal" has been true fairly often. If the alts do take off again, the % gains are often amazing.
