Is the altcoin season here? How to trade small-cap coins amid high volatility

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin might have pulled the crypto market from its multi-month sluggishness, but the big winners right now are altcoins, as many cryptocurrencies have outperformed BTC during the last few weeks. Does the crypto market ignite the engine for another altcoin season? How to benefit from this rally? We’re about to figure it out in this post.

Altcoins – digital assets other than Bitcoin – have demonstrated great returns in the last quarter of the year, and some of them took off earlier than that.

While Bitcoin has gained over 40% since mid-September to consolidate above $35,000, Solana’s (SOL) value has tripled, while Injective (INJ) and Chainlink (LINK) have surged by 150%. Avalanche (AVAX), Aave (AAVE), Polygon (MATIC), and Cardano (ADA) have also outperformed Bitcoin during the last 60 days.

Bitcoin and Altcoin’s recent performance. Source: TradingView

More importantly, while Bitcoin has found support at $34,000 and has been moving sideways in November, many altcoins continue to extend their gains or start to compete with BTC fiercely. Filecoin (FILE), Uniswap (UNI), and Cosmos (ATOM) have been active particularly in the recent days.

Major price increases for Filecoin, Uniswap and Cosmos. Source: TradingView

Altcoins are now having a great time, but the truth is that Bitcoin is still the main driving force, and it holds the key to the current rally. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap accelerated its bullish mood in mid-October on investor excitement about a potential approval of one or more BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Besides that, the digital asset has become a refuge amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

Since the crypto market tends to follow Bitcoin