Being the pioneer cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has enjoyed a significant industry share. In the early days, Bitcoin dominated as much as 96% of the market. However, as the industry evolves, newer cryptocurrencies have begun to take a substantial stake in the market.
Although 2021 has been a great year for Bitcoin, its market dominance has consistently dropped over the last 11 months. However, the December market correction has resulted in the sharpest decline in the Bitcoin market dominance.
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While Bitcoin has gained 70% year-to-date, Ethereum has gained more than 500%, Binance Coin (BNB) has gained 1,460%, Solana (SOL) has gained 10,100%, Cardano (ADA) has gained 680%, Ripple (XRP) has gained 310%, and Polkadot (DOT) has gained 240%.
Bitcoin Dominance to Lowest Point Since February 2018
At the start of 2021, Bitcoin contributed more than 70% of the global crypto market cap. However, retail and institutional interest in altcoins increased as the year unfolded. In addition, year-to-date, many altcoins outperform Bitcoin in terms of gains.
The growth of altcoins has led to the shrinkage in Bitcoin’s dominance. As the market corrected, Bitcoin’s dominance fell as low as 37.18%, the lowest since February 2018. Year-to-date, Bitcoin’s dominance is down by 43%.Â
The year-to-date Bitcoin dominance index chart. Source: Tradingview
At the time of this writing, Bitcoin’s dominance has recovered above 40.4% as the price of BTC approaches $50k.
On the Flipside
- The closest to Bitcoin’s dominance is Ethereum. However, Bitcoin’s 40.46% is significantly higher than Ethereum’s 20.1%
Why You Should Care
Although Bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency, altcoins are slowly taking over market share from Bitcoin.
