Bitcoin dominance, a measure of the digital asset’s market capitalization relative to the broader crypto ecosystem, tumbled to a four-month low as altcoins rallied.
Bitcoin Treads Water As Dominance Falls to Lowest Level in 4 Months
This article was published more than a month ago. Some information may no longer be current.
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Bitcoin Flatlines While Altcoins Gain Ground
Perhaps altcoin season is upon us. That’s what the numbers seem to imply as bitcoin dominance dropped to its lowest level since March while altcoins such as ether ( ETH) and XRP took off with double digit gains, siphoning market share from the dominant cryptocurrency.
Ether and XRP are currently the second and third largest coins after BTC respectively, and both have surged in price over the past two days. Ether’s 7-day performance has been roughly 21% and XRP has appreciated nearly 24% for the week, according to data from Coinmarketcap. Bitcoin returned a meager 0.45% over the same period.
Ironically, it was bitcoin that sparked what appears to be the beginning of an altcoin rally. BTC surged to $123,091.61 on Monday, a new all-time high, before traders and investors rushed in to take profits. Bitcoin dominance had been around 64.76% at the time, but after BTC slid below $118K from the selling pressure, investors sunk their capital into alts and lobbed off a 3% chunk from the cryptocurrency’s market cap, which now stands at 61.60% at the time of writing according to Trading View, its lowest level in nearly four months.
Overview of Market Metrics
Bitcoin was trading at $117,978.73 at the time of reporting, slightly down by 0.45% since yesterday, but with a small 0.53% gain for the week. The digital asset has been trading between $117,453.24 and $120,999.61 over the past day.
Twenty-four-hour trading volume fell to $58.68 billion, a 12.4% decrease. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization also edged lower by 0.57% and stood at $2.34 trillion at the time of writing. But BTC dominance has been the key metric to watch for the past couple of days. It tumbled by more than a full percentage point over 24 hours, dropping 1.02% to 61.60%.
Total open interest for BTC futures fell 1.34% to $85.71 billion since yesterday, according to Coinglass. Bitcoin liquidations for the past 24 hours jumped to $169.31 million as bulls saw $111.87 million wiped out while short position liquidations totaled $54.77 million.
