The cryptocurrency market has been experiencing a tumultuous period, with altcoins taking a significant hit since March. However, this downturn may present an opportunity for investors to diversify their portfolios and explore the mid and small-cap space.

RealVision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts notes that smaller cap crypto assets have been trading down since Bitcoin's all-time high in March. If this is a regular mid-cycle correction, then investors can expect some opportunities to emerge in the mid and small-cap space once the market settles.

The top 200 equal weight index, which assigns weight equally to cryptocurrencies regardless of market capitalization, has fallen over 30% against the Market Cap index. This indicates that smaller cryptocurrencies have shown weaker performance against larger ones that dominate the market cap index.

Bitcoin and Ether have experienced relatively smaller declines of 11% and 5%, respectively, over the same period. Metaverse-related tokens have recorded the lowest returns within the index, with a negative 44.13% return.

In the under $1 billion market cap category, metaverse tokens like The Sandbox (SAND) and Decentraland (MANA) have both declined by over 15% in the past week. This comes as institutional interest beyond Bitcoin and Ether continues to grow.

Franklin Templeton is exploring a new crypto fund for institutional investors to expose them to altcoins. Although the fund's composition is unknown, it has recently praised the Solana network.