Top 5 Altcoins to Buy Right Now: The Coins That Still Have Not Caught Up

Bitcoin just had its strongest week of 2026. It climbed from roughly $62,800 to more than $77,000, a weekly gain of about 22%, after the US Treasury doubled the size of its bond buyback operations and renewed momentum behind the Clarity Act pushed risk appetite higher. Roughly $2.7 billion in short positions were liquidated on the way up.BTC price in USDWhat did not happen is a broad altcoin rally. CoinMarketCap's Altcoin Season Index currently reads 33 out of 100, down from 51 a week earlier. Anything under 25 is Bitcoin season, anything above 75 is altcoin season. We are sitting in the awkward middle, where a handful of names ran hard and the rest went nowhere.That gap is the opportunity. Zcash gained 75% in seven days. XRP added 52%. Aave rose 63%. Meanwhile, dozens of established projects outside the top 10 posted single-digit gains or barely beat inflation. Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at FalconX, said this week that traders are already starting to rotate into coins that missed the move, describing it as a catch-up trade.Below are five altcoins that fit that profile. All five sit outside the top 10 by market capitalisation. All five underperformed Bitcoin over the past week...