Prominent Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) advocate Scott Melker warned that prediction markets, tokenized equities and pre-IPO perpetuals may be pulling speculative capital away from altcoins, leaving much of the sector trapped in a prolonged bear market.

Why Altcoins Are Losing Attention

"Everything's a casino now," Melker said during an interview on CoinDesk's Markets Outlook on Thursday.

According to Melker, crypto's original appeal was simple, it was the only 24/7 global speculation venue available to retail traders.

Now, traders can gamble on nearly everything from oil to elections to SpaceX IPO pricing without leaving crypto-native platforms.

Melker compared the early altcoin market to the only casino in town.

"If you wanted to speculate 24/7 without KYC or AML, you went into the altcoin casino," he said.

But today, crypto traders have access to prediction markets, tokenized equities, commodities trading on crypto rails, pre-IPO perpetual futures and traditional market exposure through platforms like Hyperliquid.

That expansion has fragmented speculative capital across far more assets and markets.

"There's no reason to trade altcoins anymore," Melker said. "They're just one of the games in the casino that's pretty unpopular."

Bitcoin Still Stands Apart

Despite his criticism of the broader crypto market, Melker maintained a bullish long-term outlook on Bitcoin. His base case remains:

  • $60,000 likely marked the cycle low
  • Bitcoin could remain rangebound for months
  • A move back above $100,000 remains possible by year-end

He called Bitcoin "forever underrated" and said he remains a heavy buyer during current weakness.

Melker separated Bitcoin from the broader altcoin market, arguing BTC has effectively moved beyond crypto's speculative narrative into a more mature macro asset class.

Image: Shutterstock