Author: It’s official. The altcoin season is over. Bitcoin has returned to the driving seat reaching dominance levels last seen during the bull run in late 2017. Data from Coinmarketcap at press time showed that Bitcoin’s $112 billion market cap made up 58% of the crypto market.
You would have to go back to mid-December 2017 when 1 BTC was worth over $15,000 to see the major cryptocurrency boasting such dominance. However, there is a twist this time which has left most investors and traders worried.
Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts believe that as the industry matures, it will get to a point where Bitcoin reasserts its superiority from altcoins, break away and ‘leave them’ screeching with little to no much value left.
The latest fear then comes from the fact that the recent market performance, namely Bitcoin’s bullish move and altcoin’s not following through as in late 2017, raises a question about whether we have come to the end of the road for altcoins.
Aside from Binance Coin (BNB) which is understandably low because of the recent security breach of the exchange, all of the top ten altcoins, except Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is posting no significant gains on the 7-day chart.
Ripple (XRP) is down 2% following its over 50% crash against Bitcoin since 2019 begun, Stellar (XLM) is down 9%, Cardano (ADA) is down 8% with Litecoin only seeing 1% gain. One would usually expect Bitcoin’s bullish growth to affect the performance of altcoins positively, but that is not just happening at the moment.
Looking for the next season
The coming days will likely the answer to that question, although it seems there’s no stopping Bitcoin’s merry mode at the moment. At press time Bitcoin is trading around $6,300 after over $1000 weekly gains. Any prices above that would mean more dominance and more worry for the already bleeding altcoins.
Altcoin season usually happens when Bitcoin is calm and steady. We saw this during March-April 2019 at the recent Altcoin Season, and we also saw it during January 2018.
