Blockstream CEO Adam Back, an early Bitcoin community figure, has reiterated his long-standing belief that altcoins and memecoins are eventually headed to zero. In a tweet on May 23, Back invoked the efficient market hypothesis, stating that he expected it to price these alternative assets at $0.
"I was expecting efficient market hypothesis to kick in with alts and price them at $0," Back said, adding that he made that call a decade ago and is surprised it has taken this long for the market to catch up with what he termed "air tokens, altcoins, memecoins etc."
Back's comments come amid a bearish period for altcoins, with many trading far below their peaks. Bitcoin itself has fallen roughly 40% from its all-time high above $126,198, dropping to a low of $74,197 before rebounding to around $76,852. Despite this, Bitcoin dominance remains elevated near 59%, limiting capital rotation into smaller tokens. Crypto.news reported that nearly 40% of altcoins were trading at or near all-time lows this month, further underscoring the challenging environment for non-Bitcoin assets.
