Despite being one of the most amazing periods of sustained gains for bitcoin, 2017 ends with the first cryptocurrency losing market share to altcoins. After falling as low as 37.9% in the last two days of 2017, the market dominance of bitcoin now stands at just 38.2% as of this writing on the first day of 2018.
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BTC Dominance Is Declining
Bitcoin’s current total market capitalization is more than $234 billion, an incredible figure by itself but one that falls in comparison to the grand ecosystem it has birthed. The original cryptocurrency is currently comprising approximately less than 40% of the $615 billion cryptocurrency markets. This is only the second time ever that the dominance of BTC has fallen below this low threshold, the first time being in June of 2017.
Bitcoin has been gaining ground since its June low recently, reaching over 60% market share by early November. The end of 2017 however brought an onslaught of raising contenders to upset BTC’s dominance. Ripple’s XRP is now worth about $88 billion by itself after a massive rally in December. Ethereum’s market cap follows very closely now at over $74 billion. Bitcoin cash (BCH) is also not too far behind with an overall market value of $43 billion.
34 Billion Dollar Coins
Contributing to the market share loss of bitcoin, there are now 33 altcoins and ICO tokens that are worth over $1 billion by market cap each. These start with ripple, ether and bitcoin cash, but reach all the way down the list to dogecoin.
Incredibly, there are now also about 129 altcoins and ICO tokens that are worth between $100 million to $1 billion by market cap each.
With a total 1,374 coins now comprising the over $600 billion crypto ecosystem, it should perhaps be no surprise that the long tail of the market is becoming ever fatter today and weighing down its head. Looking at it this way, this development might not be a bad thing for bitcoin but rather a sign of maturity by the market. Unless of course you think most altcoins and ICO tokens are scams anyway.
Do you think that bitcoin will continue to lose its market dominance to altcoins in 2018? Share your predictions in the comments section below!
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