Bitcoin’s dominance of the cryptocurrency market is taking a massive hit in recent weeks. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap saw a massive price tank over the weekend which continued earlier today but the Bitcoin market share remained largely constant at around 40-40.5%. Currently, it is around 40.1% and not looking to rise anytime soon.
Hardly two months ago, Bitcoin’s share was above 60% and even rose to above 62% at one point in the middle of the current bull run. This is because while the premier cryptocurrency underwent a massive price increase in January and February, the rest of the market was slow to respond. However, later on, the altcoin market did catch up and overtook Bitcoin’s rise itself and took away its majority share of the proceedings. It remained just below 50% for a while before dropping further in the last few weeks to 45% and even below. Now Bitcoin’s market share went 40% and slightly below it. Overall, the cryptocurrency has lost over 35% of its market dominance since April alone.
Image source: Coinmarketcap
Bitcoin has historically been the first to enter a bull phase after a new halving. Other cryptocurrencies usually follow it but later on. After the altcoins post increases, Bitcoin generally claws back control and rises above 50% once again one way or another. This time, several altcoins came late to the party but did very well overall. Dogecoin especially raised the stakes and came out as an ironically serious cryptocurrency and is now worth above $50 billion alone. Ethereum, Polkadot, Binance Coin and others also posted considerable price appreciations.
This is the lowest market share of the cryptocurrency for the past 3 years and may signal either a strong comeback from Bitcoin or a huge price tank for the altcoins themselves according to historical price trend. However, last time around, Bitcoin’s market share dropped even lower than this and reached 36% at one point before rebounding strongly. So, we may see Bitcoin rising with respect to altcoins later on after further losses.
Alternatively, Bitcoin could continue to remain around this level for some time as the market comes down proportionately. The market is very unpredictable right now and altcoins are closely following Bitcoin’s index but only when it comes to index crashes. When they rise, the outpace Bitcoin completely, thus lowering its market share consistently.
Image source: pixabay.com
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