Haseebmirza2

treating it like some unbreakable tradition in crypto.
So many years spent holding tight.
So many years clinging to faith.
So many years repeating that mantra: “The next cycle will finally deliver.”
Bitcoin surged roughly 8.5 times from its 2022 bear market low around $15,400. Ethereum climbed about 5.5 times from its bottom near $900. Meanwhile, gold and silver both smashed through to fresh record highs.
And altcoin holders?
We just held on and kept dreaming.
Every price drop felt like a chance to buy more.
Every setback was chalked up to “just needing more time.”
Yet here we are, closing out another year with the same old pattern resetting itself.
No real excitement, no capital flowing into alts, no big moment where they finally shine.
Staying convicted these days feels exhausting and downright discouraging.
The whole community keeps circling back to the same tough question: Have we held on too long… or was that big altcoin breakout never going to happen?
Frankly, this has been one of the weakest year end periods for crypto in the past seven years.
Could this finally be the cycle where the classic four year pattern shifts, and we get a huge altcoin surge in the first or second quarter of 2026?
It’s our remaining sliver of optimism, and it does line up with some solid macro developments like the end of quantitative tightening, the shift toward easier liquidity, and expectations for additional rate cuts next year.
But at this stage, nobody can say for sure, especially since the market has been moving independently from stocks, gold, and pretty much every other asset class ever since that sharp drop on October 10th.
Even the most positive news seems to fall flat, no matter how promising it looks.
We’re sitting on what might be the strongest underlying fundamentals crypto has ever had, yet the price action isn’t reflecting any of it likely due to intense manipulation in the charts.
So it basically comes down to one of two scenarios: Either crypto rebounds strongly in early 2026, playing catch-up with the gains in stocks and gold as trading algorithms recalibrate…
Or traditional markets correct sharply to align lower with where crypto is now. One of those outcomes feels inevitable.
What’s your take will crypto finally surge ahead, or will stocks pull back hard to meet it?