Altcoins such as ETH and SOL have seen weekly trading volumes drop by more than 50% compared to last year’s holiday season.
As 2025 draws to a close, crypto trading activity has fallen to its quietest period of the year.
Two-week trading volumes for Bitcoin (BTC) and major altcoins are at their lowest since December 2024, and weekly trading volumes for assets such as Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) are down more than 50% compared to last year’s holiday period.
Trading volume falls to yearly low due to holiday lull
According to data shared by Santiment on X on December 30th, trading volumes have been steadily declining throughout the last few weeks of 2025, with both Bitcoin and altcoins posting their quietest two weeks since the same time last year.
The analytics firm said sideways and volatile price movements, coinciding with the year-end holidays, are keeping traders away from their screens and drying up liquidity across spot and derivatives markets.
The decline in altcoins is especially noticeable. Santiment noted that ETH, SOL, Cardano (ADA), and Dogecoin (DOGE) currently have weekly trading volumes that are less than half of what they were in late 2024, when speculative activity was high even during the holidays. Santiment said this year’s decline is not a panic sell, but a sign of lower short-term interest rates.
Social data tells a similar story. Oro Crypto’s post cited Santiment metrics and highlighted the steady decline in Bitcoin’s social volume since mid-November. The numbers indicate that discussions across major platforms have become thinner, less responsive to price movements, and even volatile sessions have lost traction.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s social advantage has also fallen into low single-digit territory, suggesting a fragmented focus rather than hype centered around a single asset.
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Oro Crypto said the environment is more like exhaustion than fear. Historically, major cycle peaks have coincided with loud hype and heavy retailer participation, but we are not seeing any signs of that now, even though prices are moving within a wide range.
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While near-term technicals appear to be a cause for concern, some observers point to broader macroeconomic patterns as a reason for optimism.
Recent analysis has drawn parallels to mid-2020, when gold and silver rallied violently on the back of central bank liquidity before capital rotated into Bitcoin, sparking a historic bull market. The same sequence could play out, with gold currently at an all-time high of over $4,500 and silver reaching new highs.
This view frames the metal’s strength not as a risk-off warning, but rather as a leading indicator that risky assets like BTC are likely to follow into 2026, supported by the possibility of rate cuts and clearer regulation.
Still, on the charts, Bitcoin’s future remains up for debate. The asset, which is trading around $88,000, is in a tightening pattern, with one trader pointing out that Bitcoin needs to break above $90,600 to pave the way to $107,000. However, if the support fails to hold, the market could test levels between $70,000 and $65,000.
Low trading volumes, social apathy, and a concentration of significant technical levels mean that the market’s current silence is unlikely to last. Therefore, what will determine early 2026 will be whether we break out to the upside and start a new rally, or if we head into a deeper correction to the downside.
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