Bitcoin Dominance at 18-Month High, Other Cryptocurrencies Bleeding

It’s safe to say that Bitcoin has dominated the cryptocurrency markets throughout the past couple of months. At the time of writing, the BTC dominance index, which measures Bitcoin’s relative share of the overall market, sat at 63% – a number last seen in December 2017. 

BTC Dominance at 18-Month High

One of the more important market indexes to monitor is the Bitcoin dominance index. It indicates the market share of BTC relative to the entire crypto market. Presently, it sits at 63%. This is the highest it has been since back in December 2017 when the cryptocurrency hit its all-time high (ATH) value of around $20,000. 

As seen on the above chart, Bitcoin’s dominance has been increasing steadily since the beginning of 2019. Yet most of the increase occurred in the past 3 months. Over the course of this period, Bitcoin managed to increase its share of the market by upwards of 12%.

But the last three months have also been very fruitful with respect to Bitcoin’s price. The cryptocurrency is up more than 135% in the same period. 

The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization at the time of writing was $332 billion, while that of Bitcoin was $208 billion. 

Where Does This Leave Altcoins?

The surge in Bitcoin’s price has also caused a lot of other large-cap altcoins to increase in value in USD terms. Ethereum (ETH), for example, is up 82% against the dollar, while Litecoin (LTC) is up 50%. 

However, it appears that the last few spikes in Bitcoin’s price have left altcoins behind. Most alternative cryptocurrencies have struggled to make any serious gains in the past few weeks in dollar terms.

At the same time, many of their values against BTC have been absolutely destroyed. ETH, for instance, is down 25% against BTC in the past three months, while LTC is down around 40%. 

At times like this, it’s challenging to see where the altcoin market is going, and that seems to be the prevailing sentiment among many in the cryptocurrency community.