As Bitcoin has rebounded back to the $94K–$96K range during a bullish end to April 2025, excitement has quickly returned to the cryptocurrency space, especially among retail traders. This surprise rebound has led many to shift their attention and profits into smaller altcoins. To end a historically volatile month, the overall crypto market jumped 10% during its final eight days, while Bitcoin's gain was only 7%, indicating that money is flowing into more speculative assets and signaling that the crowd may be entering a greed-driven phase. This has been a familiar trading pattern since the recovery from the FTX-driven crypto crash began in early 2023. Any time Bitcoin leads an initial rally and then begins to move sideways, investors generally start taking bigger risks in hopes of scoring even higher returns through more speculative (and riskier) purchases.

Meme coins, in particular, are once again gaining considerable attention. Online discussions about these high-risk tokens have proliferated as traders embrace a “gamble” mindset, rather than a calculated investment approach. Notice how social volume has been creeping up for top market cap meme coins, and declining for Layer 1s and Layer 2s. This is a telltale sign that traders are increasingly investing based solely on speculation and short-term gains.

Historically, the best times to invest in altcoins have been when crowd interest is between low and practically nonexistent. But at this current stage, with buzzwords like “altcoin,” “altseason” and “bull cycle” trending, caution is advised, with retailers looking for any opportunity to buy minor dips. Markets move opposite to crowd expectations, so when the crowd’s excitement peaks, it often signals that prices are nearing exhaustion.

It's important for crypto traders to balance their optimism with caution. Greed-driven markets can create several short-term gains to test your resolve in profit taking. But when this overconfidence becomes a bit too prevalent, sudden drops may blindside you. As we enter May 2025, it will be key to watch whether this shift toward altcoins holds strong, or instead ends up being another short-lived spike fueled by hype and speculation. Below, we’ll analyze the sentiment and narratives forming around the top market caps in crypto.

Bitcoin again attracting traders with FOMO fever

As mentioned, Bitcoin’s resurgence to $95K gave traders renewed hope in crypto’s top market cap asset. With the beginning of April hampered by uncertainty and news about tariffs, BTC’s correlation with the sinking S&P 500 was causing major concern. But on Apr 10, 2025, the script flipped, with sentiment and other metrics clearly indicating that retail traders were jumping off of BTC’s bandwagon, anticipating that its market value would continue to sink below $70K, and possibly even below $50K. We can see that social media was making lower price calls ($10K–$69K) during the stretch between Apr 6–18, 2025. This was the ideal buy time. After prices eventually hit a temporary plateau at the end of April, high price calls ($100K–$159K) are now greatly exceeding lower calls.

Overall levels of discussions toward Bitcoin remain quite steady, currently at about 25% of all asset topics. However, there’s a notable growing level of positive commentary vs. negative, just as we confirmed by looking at price calls in the above chart. In the chart below, the purple bars represent the daily ratio of asset discussions related to Bitcoin vs. all top 100 assets. The daily gold line represents the positive-vs.-negative commentary.

Ether (ETH) finally gaining some retail backing

Cryptocurrency’s #2 market cap asset is well documented as a major disappointment to retail investors, at least from a price perspective. And with good reason: while BTC, BNB, XRP and SOL have all had their moments in the sun, ETH has been a consistent underperformer. Below, we see just how far ETH (shown in red) has fallen since March 2024, particularly in relation to the other top caps.

Back in 2022 and 2023, Ethereum was (on average) taking up about 10% of total top 100 asset discussions. In 2025, the new normal for ETH social dominance is about 6–7%. As for its bullish-vs.-bearish commentary across social media, it did bottom out, like many assets, at the beginning of the month. The commentary is actually now quite bullish once again.

There’s once again been a push from some of the more prominent social media accounts and KOL’s to get retail to begin believing in Ether’s future as an investment, with modest success. More importantly, Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum’s co-founder) has begun speaking recently about his intentions to innovate and improve Ethereum.

XRP traders increase Optimism on likelihood of ETF approval

The XRP community is growing more and more confident in its holdings, as the chances of an XRP Spot ETF approval in 2025 have jumped to 85%, up from 65% just two months ago. This boost comes as the more crypto-friendly SEC leadership could lead to a friendlier approach toward crypto. Traders are now predicting new all-time highs for XRP, and betting platforms like Polymarket reflect this shift, with 80% odds of approval by the end of the year.

Even though the SEC recently delayed its decision on Franklin Templeton’s spot ETF proposal (until Jun 17, 2025), the delay hasn’t shaken investor optimism. Many believe that, once approved, these ETFs could bring in large amounts of institutional money and push XRP into the financial mainstream.

Interestingly, the overall level of discussion toward XRP (relative to other top cryptocurrencies) has been declining steadily over the past three months. However, with people talking about it and following the increasing likelihood of ETF approvals, the bulls are getting more vocal as compared to the few bears.

Despite a small price dip in XRP’s price below $2.20, the XRP TA crowd still retains a bullish outlook. This growing optimism is also supported by increased interest from big asset managers like Grayscale and Bitwise, who are lining up to launch XRP-based funds. With attention growing and more exposure on the way, many in the crypto space see XRP on the edge of a major breakout.

BNB is starting to fly under the radar

Binance Smart Chain’s coin, BNB, saw big price jumps in mid-February and mid-March 2025 for two main reasons. In mid-February, Binance sold most of its Bitcoin, Ether and Solana holdings (over 90%), but kept most of its BNB. This signaled to investors that the company strongly believes in its own coin, with many traders following that lead. As a result, the price of BNB rose steadily, going above $650 after a week of gains.

Then again, in mid-March, rumors started spreading that Binance might team up with Donald Trump for a new crypto-related project. This rumor came at the same time BNB broke through a key price level, which generated more excitement among more traders. Some experts said the price could keep rising, possibly to $875. With all this attention and strong support from Binance itself, BNB stood out while many other coins were struggling.

But since this rumor, the following six weeks have been rather quiet for the #5 market cap asset. Social dominance is always quite low for the altcoin, but it’s steadily declined since the Trump association rumors began to fade. Bullish-vs.-bearish commentary is fairly neutral for the time being.

It’s worth noting that the crypto community did just get news of Trump’s intention to collaborate with CZ, the founder of Binance. In theory, this shouldn’t make a bit of difference to the value of BNB, due to CZ’s limited association with the exchange these days. However, he does still act as advisory and is a proponent for BNB staking to streamline the ecosystem.

Don’t be surprised if BNB sees a bit of a boost in retail interest as a result of this latest story. Whether or not this leads to anything of significance with price is another story.

Solana seeing artificial bullish waves of enthusiasm

Traders have been discussing Solana's current price, market capitalization, trading volume and technical analysis patterns, and positive price predictions for 2025 and beyond. There’s also been mentions of Solana's potential Spot ETF approval, bullish market sentiment and its ranking among top cryptocurrencies, making it a focal point in crypto market discussions.

Based on the current level of overall discussions toward Solana across social media, there’s actually been something of a decline over the past three months. The asset is currently taking up about 4.4% of all crypto discussions, but was hovering at between 6–7% back in January and February. Its noticeable underperformance as compared to other top caps (−38% over the past three months) is surely related to this declining interest.

As far as sentiment goes, we’ve seen some bizarre anomalies related to Solana discourse across socials. During a pair of stretches in late March and early April, positivity began to heavily outweigh negativity when SOL was being brought up. This leads us to believe that, most likely, bot accounts (with minimal followers) have likely been attempting to skew public perception of the altcoin.

Dogecoin ETF hype soars

Crypto’s top meme coin by market cap hasn’t gone without its share of news. In April 2025, excitement around Dogecoin grew as several major firms, including 21Shares and Bitwise, submitted official paperwork to launch Dogecoin Spot ETFs. Nasdaq also filed a key document with the SEC to list the 21Shares Dogecoin ETF (listed back on Apr 9, 2025), marking an important step toward bringing DOGE to mainstream financial markets. These filings suggest growing interest from institutional investors, as ETFs offer a regulated, simpler way to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin. However, the SEC has chosen to delay decisions on these filings until mid-June, leaving traders in a state of cautious anticipation.

Regardless, this wave of ETF proposals comes after the success of Bitcoin ETFs and the shift in attitude from US regulators, especially with President Trump’s administration becoming more supportive of crypto. With Dogecoin now among the top 10 most traded coins and one of the largest by market cap, the idea of a DOGE ETF is gaining traction. The partnership between 21Shares and the Dogecoin Foundation (via the House of Doge) to promote the ETF has added credibility to the project, sparking stronger engagement from both longtime DOGE supporters and traditional investors looking for new opportunities.

Because of these developments, crowd sentiment toward Dogecoin has clearly shifted. After being seen mainly as a meme or joke coin, DOGE is now viewed as a more serious investment option with potential for wider adoption. Analysts and traders have noticed heavy accumulation by whales, with bullish patterns forming in the charts, which has added to the sense that Dogecoin may be entering a new phase of growth. While the SEC’s delays mean that final decisions are still pending, the buildup has created a more optimistic and energized mood around the coin than we’ve seen in a long time.

Until late April, DOGE had been on a major decline in terms of crowd interest. But its social dominance has spiked to its highest level in nearly three months, as the conversations and filings surrounding Nasdaq’s ETF listings have risen.

Upon reviewing the sentiment across crypto’s top assets, it’s clear that crowd emotions are anything but unified. BTC’s rebound punished the bearish predictions that failed to play out, and has evidently silenced doubters for the time being. Meanwhile, DOGE’s newfound legitimacy via ETF applications may be a big story over the next couple of months as well.

Ethereum appears to be regaining some respect, but still trails behind in social buzz.

BNB and Solana are showing more mixed signals, with waning excitement, despite some fundamentally strong developments in their ecosystems. This scattered mix of optimism, hype and caution across different assets is a reminder that crypto market sentiment doesn’t move in unison — it shifts, depending upon which narratives are catching fire at any given moment.

As we kick off May trading, stay alert to quickly evolving narratives — particularly if Bitcoin holds its position, and profits continue redistributing to various projects based on the latest news breaks. The altcoin rally may have legs if ETF hype continues, and if Bitcoin can stay strong above $90K. However, retail euphoria often leads to sharp corrections, especially when meme coins are dominating attention. In a market driven by emotions as much as fundamentals, sentiment remains one of the most telling indicators of what’s to come.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the post are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.