Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest share of the market to date, this time against several competitors.
Mid-December, Bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high of $20,000 per coin, with a market dominance percentage of about 56% and a combined cryptocurrency market of just shy of $600 billion. Now, that combined market cap ranks at $643 billion, however Bitcoin’s price has remained near $14,000 per coin as the rest of the market has grown in its stead. Bitcoin’s dominance factor has slipped to under 36%, down from nearly 88% one year ago.
The cryptocurrency ecosystem has diversified significantly
Current markets indicate that the cryptocurrency ecosystem is more diversified than at any point prior, including the previous all-time low of Bitcoin dominance in late June. At that time, its total dominance factor was 37.27%, with Ethereum comprising the majority of lost market share with 29.97%, and Ripple at 11.5%. Most other top coins remained around 1%, with all others at 14.51%. Now, with Bitcoin at 35.96%, the second contender is Ripple at 14.05%, with Ethereum at 13.2% and Bitcoin Cash at 6.9%. Compared to last time, Ethereum and Ripple together make up the market share that Ethereum alone held before, and the previous share held by Ethereum and Ripple together is now spread among half a dozen top coins. The others portion has now grown to 21.13% of the market as well.
Dash’s place in an increasingly competitive market
Dash continues to hold its own in the top coin rankings as the field becomes more competitive. In particular, the peer-to-peer payments field has become more crowded. Previously, Bitcoin was the top payments coin, with most others vying for recognition for other features such as enhanced privacy. Now that transaction fees and times have made that use case untenable, interest has flowed into Dash and Litecoin to pick up the slack, with Bitcoin Cash coming on the scene with a similar focus. Now there is a much more vigorous competition for a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency geared for cheap and efficient payments, with no single coin with an overwhelming dominance factor at this point.
