Bitcoin’s (BTC) capitalization has tended to overwhelm that of other cryptocurrencies in recent years. But altcoins are climbing, and the trend is reversing. 

Bitcoin’s (BTC) dominance has plummeted

As data released by aggregator CoinGecko shows , Bitcoin’s dominance was still very high last January (over 75% on 01/11/2021). But since then, the largest cryptocurrency has given way to the main altcoins, and its dominance has even fallen below 50% in recent days: it is 48.5% this morning.

Ethereum is the only cryptocurrency strong enough to display a double-digit market cap share. Its native token Ether (ETH),  represents 14.1% of the total capitalization of cryptocurrencies. It is followed by Binance Coin (BNB), which now represents 4.2% of the market cap, with Ripple (XRP) coming next (2.7%).

Altcoins at the party

ETH has gradually increased its weight in the total cryptocurrency market cap, thanks to successive increases and regularly broken price records – the last date of April 22. As for Binance Coin (BNB), it is now firmly established as the 3rd most capitalized cryptocurrency, with $81billion. Ripple’s XRP, meanwhile, is $54 billion.

Bitcoin’s dominance had also not reached such a low rate since August 2018. This clearly shows the importance of altcoins, whose combined market cap currently exceeds $900 billion.

A sign of the current euphoria?

Does this correspond to risk taking for investors? Yes, according to the chief strategy officer of asset manager CoinShares, who recently explained: “You see a lot of people chasing returns on investment by taking more risk. There are now 94 cryptocurrencies with a market cap exceeding $ 1 billion.”

It will therefore be necessary to wait until the end of this euphoric phase to determine whether this readjustment is sustainable, or if it simply corresponds to a certain opportunism in the short term.