Bitcoin Dominance Falls Below 50% After 30 Months And These Cryptocurrencies Are Responsible

Bitcoin’s (BTC) market capitalization dominance stood below the 50% mark in the early hours of Wednesday at press time after 30 months of staying above that level.

What Happened: The apex cryptocurrency’s market dominance was 49.5% at press time, as resurgent altcoins brought an end to its majority dominance of the crypto market. Ethereum (ETH), which touched an all-time high of $2,702.91 on Tuesday, was second in terms of market dominance at 14.7%.

BTC traded 2.65% higher at $54,886.41, while ETH traded 5.51% higher at $2,634.94 at press time.

At the beginning of the year, BTC enjoyed a market dominance of over 70%, while ETH was nearly at the 11% level.

Dogecoin (DOGE), a cryptocurrency often discussed by Tesla Inc TSLA chief Elon Musk on social media, had a market dominance of 0.16% at the start of the year.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

DOGE’s market dominance is currently 1.67%. The cryptocurrency has soared a whopping 5,563.55% since 2021 began and is currently trading 0.23% higher at $0.27.

Why It Matters: It was reported earlier that Bitcoin’s loss of market dominance could usher in an altcoin season. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe has predicted a “bullish summer” for altcoins.

Some of these altcoins have meanwhile seen their own market dominance rise even as Bitcoin’s declined.

Binance Coin (BNB) now has a market dominance of 4.18%, while Polkadot (DOT), and Cardano (ADA) enjoy dominance of 1.5% and 2% respectively.

At the beginning of the year, BNB and ADA had a market dominance of 0.7%, while DOT’s hovered around the 1% mark.

These cryptocurrencies have also risen considerably in price buoyed by the white-hot Decentralized Finance or DeFi arena.

Price increases in YTD terms are: 1,338.81% for BNB, 624.25% for ADA, and 256.62% for DOT.

Even smaller coins in terms of market capitalization have managed to gain in terms of market dominance.

PancakeSwap (CAKE) now has a market dominance of 0.27%, Dent (DENT) of 0.05%, and Stellar (XLM) of 0.55%.

Gainers among altcoins are primarily either compliments or competitors to Ethereum. Smart contract platforms enjoy a combined market cap of $474 billion, while DeFi related coins have one of $76.10 billion, as per Messari data. This has ushered in an era of so-called Ethereum killers.

Read Next: Ethereum Killers Are Advancing At Record Pace This Year: What You Need To Know