These 6 cryptocurrencies are hinting at a small cap summer

Crypto has only two mega-cap assets and five large caps — but there are over 140 small-cap tokens jostling for higher prices

article-image

Olesia3/Shutterstock and Adobe Stock modified by Blockworks

share

Small cap summer may end up being this bull market’s final form.

Think of it like the internal waves churning thousands of feet deep beneath the ocean — ones that finally summon a real altcoin season.

“Small cap” is a stock market term. It’s possible to sort the crypto market into different categories based on established equities definitions.

  • Mega-caps are worth $200 billion or more
  • Large-caps between $10 billion and $200 billion
  • Mid-caps between $2 billion and $10 billion
  • Small-caps between $250 million and $2 billion

Riffing on those benchmarks, mostly to account for crypto’s volatility, tokens can be placed in those buckets if they spent more than 50% of their trading days over the past three years above their respective benchmarks.

Stacks, for instance, only traded in the mid-cap range for 31% of its trading days since August 2021, so it goes alongside the other small caps.

There are currently over 50 mega-cap stocks but only two cryptocurrencies: bitcoin and ether. Crypto also only has five large-cap assets — bnb, solana, xrp, dogecoin and cardano — and around two dozen mid-caps including polygon, filecoin, cronos, monero and chainlink.

143 tokens otherwise represent small-caps. Coins such as pyth, dydx, worldcoin, blur, ondo, helium, celestia and bittensor. 

Small cap summer has a sizable army in waiting. Click the dots in the middle to zoom into a particular category.

Small-caps all spent most of the past three years (or however long they’ve been on the market) trading at a capitalization between $250 million and $2 billion. They may have spent weeks or even months above the $2 billion mark, but not long enough to transcend categories.

But when does small cap summer start? Just like how there’s no real definition of what makes an altcoin season (see previous attempts here and here), what makes a small cap summer has never been formally decided.

One could say that small cap summer starts when, as a cohort, small cap tokens are altogether worth more than mid-caps.

That unfortunately hasn’t happened since April 2022. 

But we are closer now than we were this time last year — small caps are altogether worth $93.6 billion to $115.2 billion for midcaps, a difference of only 19% compared to over 30% in August 2023.

Mid-caps and small-caps are losing ground against large-caps over the year to date.

There is some hope. An overwhelming majority of small caps may have lost significant value over the past three months — but six in particular are keeping the dream alive.

Memecoins mog, brett and notcoin have all outperformed bitcoin and ether since May, and so have zcash, helium and ens. 

In the memecoins’ case, they’ve all done multiples while bitcoin and ether are slightly underwater across the same period.

All small-cap summer needs is another batch of tokens to rally this hard.

That only six out of 143 have shown real strength amid a bitcoin correction may however sound grim (it’s a strike rate of about 4%). 

But if you’re looking for green shoots to mark the start of small cap summer, these could be it.

A modified version of this article first appeared in the daily Empire newsletter. Subscribe here so you don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

REPORT_Template.png

Research

The Sonic blockchain is leveraging redesigned airdrop incentives and its FeeM program to propel DeFi activity and attract institutional capital, setting the stage for ecosystem growth. Within this environment, leading protocols Shadow Exchange and Silo are poised to asymmetrically benefit due to innovative features and favorable valuations, despite facing ecosystem dependency and competitive pressures. This positions them as compelling, potentially shorter-term, investment opportunities contingent on Sonic's sustained success.

article-image

Bitcoin needs a price, but its magic runs deeper

article-image

Circle had a pretty successful first day of trading, but what’s next for the stablecoin issuer?

article-image

Solana’s USDC caught a boost after being paired with the TRUMP memecoin

article-image

The stablecoin issuer’s successful first day of trading is likely to spur more crypto IPOs, industry watchers say

article-image

Job openings rallied and continuing claims stalled ahead of May’s employment report

article-image

A group of Twitch streamers battle for bitcoin. Will their chats help them?