It used to be so easy. Back in 2021 and 2017, it was a case of throwing money at the wall and there was a decent chance you’d end up in profit on whichever altcoin you hit. Needless to say, times have changed.
Fast forward to today and, while the infrastructure that enables us to buy altcoins has improved beyond measure, picking winners has become much, much harder. But, for those willing to put the work in, it’s still possible to sift the gold from the dirt.
In today’s video, we take you through all the necessary steps for buying altcoins. Where to go, what to look for, what not to do and how to make sure your crypto is safe once you’ve bought it. Whether you’re at the start of your crypto journey, or you just need a reminder of best practices, this is essential viewing.
You can watch that video here.
📈 Crypto Market Forecast 📈
After a healthy serving of volatility last week, it looks like chop is back on the menu, especially for Bitcoin. Then again, some would argue that BTC has been chopping for two months already. That’s because BTC’s price is not far off from what it was in early July. This makes sense when you consider that the marginal buyers of BTC have been Bitcoin Treasury companies.
In other words, the marginal buyers of BTC have been institutional investors, many of whom probably took a nice vacation after BTC’s impressive performance earlier in the year. The result is that BTC’s price action has been muted, and the silver lining is that two months of chop has completely reset sentiment and positioning, potentially setting the stage for a bullish September.
Although most smaller altcoins have continued to bleed while BTC has chopped, some larger altcoins have been showing signs of resilience, such as ETH and SOL. Look no further than the Bitcoin Dominance chart for evidence of that. It has continued to grind lower despite the recent market volatility, suggesting that investors are doubling down on altcoins during dips.
And it’s important to remember just how quickly Bitcoin Dominance can fall when that risk-on appetite returns in full force. In 2017, it fell from 70% to 35% in just four weeks. In 2021, it fell from 63% to 40% in eight weeks. Of course, Bitcoin Dominance had been in a downtrend before that, and history is repeating in this sense - it has been in a downtrend since mid-June, 2025.
What this means is that we are likely very close to seeing a sharp leg lower in Bitcoin Dominance that has historically corresponded to an altcoin season. This begs the question of what the catalyst could be. On the crypto front, the most likely catalyst is something related to the SEC or CFTC’s rulemaking, such as the SEC’s exemptive relief framework.
If you’re skeptical, consider that Bitcoin Dominance started falling sharply shortly after US politicians announced ‘Crypto Week’ in early July. To refresh your memory, crypto week involved passing multiple pro-crypto bills like the GENIUS Act, which became law in mid-July. The result was that ETH rallied by 55%, with smaller altcoins rallying 25% on average (before dipping).
As such, one could argue that Crypto Week and the passing of the GENIUS Act was the catalyst that caused large cap altcoins to rally. In turn, it’s possible that the policy outcomes of the SEC’s Project Crypto and CFTC’s Crypto Sprint will be the catalysts that cause smaller altcoins to rally. Again, the main catalyst to watch in this regard is an exemptive relief order.
On the macro front, revisions to Q2 GDP published on Thursday and the PCE for July published on Friday could move the needle around the margins, but the echoes of Jerome’s speech at the Jackson Hole symposium last Friday are likely to drown out this data. At first glance, you might think that the Fed’s rate cut decision in September could make or break the crypto market.
Upon closer inspection, however, you’ll realize that rate cuts may not be required for crypto to rally. That’s simply because the Fed was raising rates in 2017, and crypto had no issues rallying. Not only that, but rate cuts have historically corresponded to market crashes, not rallies, because the Fed almost always started cutting rates in response to something bearish.
This is a sobering realization, because the current rate cutting cycle looks very similar to the one in 2019, where the Fed started lowering rates over the summer of 2019. In early 2020, a global pandemic was declared, and interest rates fell to zero as markets collapsed. Given this fact, some would go as far as arguing that no rate cuts would be bullish, not bearish for the markets.
In sum, the crypto market is at an interesting stage where all the crypto indicators are pointing to a massive rally, while the macro indicators are providing mixed signals at best. Absent some bullish geopolitical catalyst like peace between Russia and Ukraine, the crypto market is likely to continue chopping until it gets a more bullish signal from macro, be it rate cuts or otherwise.
🤦♂️ State of the Trenches 🤦♂️
For a brief moment in time, it seemed like memecoin launchpad pump.fun’s days were numbered.
It experienced its first dip in market dominance after holding strong for over a year – going from a market share of nearly 90% to under 15% in less than three weeks back in July. This, of course, has been reflected in the post ICO price performance of its $PUMP token - which is currently trading at a 30% discount to its ICO price and a 75% discount from its all-time high. While $PUMP hasn’t recovered just yet, the platform itself has managed to wrestle its way back to the top, now accounting for 75% of market share.
As you may know, this brief upset was largely caused by the rise of LetsBonk - a memecoin launchpad from the Bonk community. While LetsBonk’s rise showed that new launchpads could still do well, its subsequent quick decline has made it clear there is no loyalty in the trenches. This shouldn’t be too surprising since most memecoin traders are mercenary capital - capital follows attention, not innovation.
That said, the glass half-full view is that rising competition in a niche previously dominated by one incumbent is a sign of market maturity. While extractive at first, it typically leads to a better product landscape that is net positive for users. We’ve seen these rotational patterns play out time and time again – the DEX wars of 2020 (better capital efficiency); the L1 wars of 2021 (better liquidity distribution); and the NFT marketplace wars of 2023 (more trader-friendly).
In general, these rotations foster innovation by forcing incumbents to iterate, lower barriers to entry, enhance user experience, reduce costs, and increase security/resilience through diversification. In the meantime, market participants are presented with two choices: stay on the sidelines and wait for the dust to settle, or lock in and ride the current.
More often than not, staying sidelined is the best choice for the average trader. Not everyone can afford to stay perma-glued to their screen, nor can they stomach the emotional rollercoaster of watching their capital rise and then disappear within days (minutes when it comes to memecoins). That said, any market participant looking to play these rotations needs to be mindful of the newest and hottest horse in the race. Gamblers, often whales, like betting on untested runners since they offer the highest risk and thus highest upside.
And currently, the three hottest new horses in the memecoin launchpad race seem to be: Bags, Heaven, and Token Mill.
Bags, a Solana-based memecoin launchpad launched by Finn, saw some success in early August. It recently recorded $1 billion in trading volume in less than 30 days – a feat it claims has made it the “fastest growing launchpad” in the world. From a product standpoint, Bags sets itself apart from competitors by prioritizing ‘meme’ creators rather than ‘memecoin’ creators. To be specific, Bag allows anyone to create a memecoin on a popular meme while reserving royalty rights to be “claimed” by the original creator of the meme itself. In other words, its USP is financially incentivizing web2 content creators to accept/endorse a memecoin modelled on their viral moment. The idea is that this would add legitimacy and staying power for popular meme coins while onboarding more reputable creators.
As part of the marketing push, Bags founder Finn recently spent $800K to acquire the original knitted hat associated with the popular meme coin dogwifhat. That said, public sentiment for Bags has been mixed. Critics see it as extractive, with web2 creators choosing to claim fees while doing nothing to publicly endorse the memecoin in question. Others point out that it reeks of desperation when token creators beg web2 creators to claim the fees from the memecoin.
In more recent days, this has caused attention to flow to Heaven – the second memecoin launchpad on our list. Data from Adam Tehc’s Dune dashboard shows that Heaven has claimed an average market share of 15% over the past week. Like the other launchpads on our list, Heaven is based on Solana. It was founded by Peace - an anonymous developer backed by the Solana Foundation's hackathon arm, Colosseum.
Heaven’s primary USP is its revenue model which redirects 100% of platform revenue towards token buybacks of its native $LIGHT token. The platform charges 0.25–0.5% per swap, depending on token type. This buyback mechanism is implemented programmatically, allowing token buybacks and burns to occur every five seconds. Its custom AMM structure also allows for a “thicker” starting LP than on other platforms. Not to mention, its programmable flywheel allows creators to set up addresses where fees automatically buy back and burn their token's supply, reducing circulating supply and potentially driving price appreciation as activity increases. Overall, public sentiment for Heaven’s DEX is largely positive – traders seem to love the buyback flywheel. It’s worth noting though that tokens launched on Heaven (besides $LIGHT) are yet to break above $10M in market cap – possibly hinting that most demand flows are for $LIGHT itself.
The final launchpad, Token Mill, is also Solana-based and from the Trader Joe (popular Avalanche DEX) team. Apart from its association with Trader Joe, it sets itself apart through an innovative buyback scheme that focuses on creating “god candles.” Dubbed ‘King Of The Mill’ (KOTM), the mechanism directs platform revenue to conduct buybacks and burns on the top tokens by trading volume every 30 minutes. This creates a gamified flywheel that incentivizes communities to rally around tokens to win KOTM and capture value. From a platform standpoint, this drives volume and fee collection up. It also allows creators to opt-out of KOTM anytime to receive standard creator fees instead. Given Token Mill launched less than a week ago, it remains to be seen if it can usurp pump.fun or Heaven’s share of the market. Nevertheless, it’s definitely one to watch.
That’s it for now. We wish you all the best trenchers!
🔥 Hot Deal Of The Week 🔥
With Jerome Powell hinting at dovish rate cuts, this could be the perfect moment to lock in your altcoin positions before the next leg higher. But why gamble blind when you can dive in with real insight?
Inside the Coin Bureau Club, you’ll find in-depth mid and small-cap reviews, direct discussions with our team and advanced members in our private Discord, plus an exclusive look at what’s actually sitting in Coin Bureau portfolios.
All that and more awaits in the Club. Prices are rising soon—so if you want in at today’s rate, now’s the time to secure your spot.
👉 Secure your spot in the Coin Bureau Club before prices increase!
🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮
* Trump Insiders: How Cabinet insiders hold massive stakes in crypto!
* Crypto Treasury Firms: Who funds them and what risks do they pose to the market?
* CeFi Ethereum Killers: How stablecoin issuers are launching their own chains!
* Coinbase Vs Robinhood: Which is the financial super app?
* Ethereum Risks: The biggest long term threats to ETH?
🏆 What's New at CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆
* When to Trade Cryptocurrency: Insights on Crypto Trading Hours
* Exploring Pionex: A Detailed Review of The Trading Bots-Focused Exchange in 2025
* Explore the Top MEXC Alternatives in 2025
* Discover the Top Crypto Exchanges for Trading in August 2025
* Start Your Crypto Trading Journey: A Beginner's Guide
* Is Dogecoin A Good Investment?
📖 Quote of the Week 📖
Prices don’t go up in a straight line. There’s always a moderation with high volatility tempering our animal spirits. But over time, the returns are worth it.
"Volatility is the price you pay for performance." - Nick Murray
Team Coin Bureau
Disclosure: Authors may own cryptoassets named in this newsletter. These are unqualified opinions, and a Coin Bureau newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor.
The Coin Bureau Editorial Team are your dedicated guides through the dynamic world of cryptocurrency. With a passion for educating the masses on blockchain technology and a commitment to unbiased, shill-free content, we unravel the complexities of the industry through in-depth research. We aim to empower the crypto community with the knowledge needed to navigate the crypto landscape successfully and safely, equipping our community with the knowledge and understanding they need to navigate this new digital frontier.
