Wednesday, Sept. 18 — Bitcoin (BTC) was still staying close to $10,200 as the largest cryptocurrency left it to altcoins to produce investor gains.

Market visualization. Source: Coin360

Another day, another Bitcoin pump delay

Data from Coin360 showed BTC/USD had entered yet another day of flat performance, slowly eroding support above $10,000.

Such sideways trading has characterized Bitcoin for almost a week since a push to local highs above $10,400 ran out of momentum.

At press time, BTC/USD circled $10,190, putting in zero progress since Tuesday as the altcoin market conversely surged.

Bitcoin seven-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Despite the uninspiring market landscape, analysts believe Bitcoin is ripe for a return to form of its own.

As Cointelegraph reported, sentiment is building around a fresh bullish uptrend, something which has failed to materialize so far this week.

“Soon we’re going to get the move,” regular Cointelegraph contributor Filb Filb told followers of his Telegram trading channel in a fresh update on Wednesday.

For Filb Filb, the current altcoin bounce could yet preclude a Bitcoin resurgence. Nonetheless, the apparent buoyant state of the market could also echo the start of 2018, which marked altcoin highs but preceded a year-long crypto bear market.

“Had many discussions with people about how alts could be a leading indicator. It is true that historically they do tend to show fingerprint for a bigger move, however, dont ever forget them pumping the alts at top of 2018,” he added.

Traders show little faith in altcoin prospects

Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at trading platform eToro, polled the cryptocurrency Twitter community over the outlook for alt markets.

Out of roughly 700 respondents, opinions were split as to whether the future had further gains in store.

Mati Greenspan’s altcoin quiz results. Source: Twitter

Daily altcoin returns hit 20%

There was cause for celebration across altcoin tokens on Wednesday. Far from modest gains, some coins in the top 20 by market cap appreciated as much as 20%.

Leading the charge was Stellar (XLM), which hit $0.07 for the first time since late August. Other strong performers were XRP, Tron (TRX) and Tezos (XTZ).

Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, gained 8% on the day, taking it to $214 and its best rate since early last month.

Ether seven-day price chart. Source: Coin360

The overall cryptocurrency market cap passed $271 billion, while Bitcoin’s share fell to 67.5% in the wake of altcoins’ successes.