Bitcoin is almost at a 50 percent dominance level of the cryptocurrency market, according to data from Coinmarketcap. The top-ranked cryptocurrency last recorded a 50 percent market share back in mid-December 2017 and January 2018.
Bitcoin Market Dominance at Almost 50 Percent
Since the early weeks in May, Bitcoin has begun to control a more significant share of the cryptocurrency market. This control is measured based on the percentage of BTC’s market capitalization to the total market cap of the over 1,600 virtual coins in existence.
After peaking at 45 percent in late March, the Bitcoin market dominance slipped to 36 percent in the first week of May. Since then, BTC’s market share has consistently climbed upwards. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin controls 48.94 percent of the cryptocurrency market share. The last time the top-ranked cryptocurrency had such dominance of the market, its price was in the mid $19,000 region.
Altcoins Lagging Behind
One major contributing factor to BTC regaining a significant market share is based on the struggles of the altcoin market. 2018 began with the devastating Coincheck hack which resulted in the theft of half a billion dollars’ worth of NEM tokens. Notable altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash have also suffered stagnation in 2018.
Despite the hype surrounding the EOS main net launch, the project has been hit with several problems that have negatively affected the price of the token. Meanwhile, the bulk of the institutional interest has been on Bitcoin
Price Recovery to Follow Current Slide
Despite the increase in the BTC market share, the price of the asset continues to struggle. After the mini-resurgence experienced in July where BTC price reached $8,400, August has brought with it another dip. On Tuesday, the SEC announced its decision to delay the approval/rejection of the VanEck – SolidX BTC ETF pulling prices further downward.
However, experts like Tom Lee believe that the increase in BTC market share will soon have a noticeable positive impact on its price. The Fundstrat chief believes that another price rally is imminent and continues to hold firmly to his $25,000 end-of-year BTC price forecast. At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is trading at $6,523, having declined by more than seven percent in the last 24 hours.
Do you think the return of Bitcoin’s market dominance will translate to a positive price growth soon? Let us know your views in the comment section below.
Image courtesy of Coinmarketcap, Shutterstock
