Bitcoin Dominance at 18-Month High: The Other Cryptocurrencies Are Bleeding

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

BTC Dominance At 18-Month High

One of the important indexes to monitor on the cryptocurrency market is Bitcoin’s dominance. It shows the share of BTC amid the entire 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 chart, BTC dominance has been increasing steadily ever since the beginning of 2019. Yet, most of the increase was made during the past 3 months. Over the course of this period, Bitcoin managed to gain upwards of 12% share in the entire market.

But the last three months have also been very prosperous for its price. The cryptocurrency is up more than 135% during the same period.

The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization at the time of this writing is $332 billion while that of Bitcoin is $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 against the USD. Ethereum (ETH), for example, is up 82% against the dollar, while Litecoin (LTC) is up 50%.

However, it appears that the last few positive spikes in Bitcoin’s price have left altcoins behind. Most of them are struggling to make any serious gains in the past few weeks when trading against the USD.

At the same time, their value against BTC has been absolutely destroyed, with a lot of them marking staggering decreases. 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 from the cryptocurrency community.