Dominance refers to the percentage of cryptocurrency market share held by Bitcoin. In other words, it compares the total market cap of Bitcoin to the total market cap of the rest of the cryptocurrency market combined.

Bitcoin dominance is officially measured by the Bitcoin Dominance Index or BTC.D which can be found on most Bitcoin and cryptocurrency chart and data sites.

What is Bitcoin’s current market dominance?

Bitcoin currently holds approximately 45% of the total cryptocurrency market at the time of writing. Historically this is on the lower end of the scale as dominances tends to range between 40-80%.

What does the Bitcoin Dominance Index help with?

Many believe that the cryptocurrency market corresponds to the BTC.D index. When Bitcoin dominance reaches a certain percentage that is considered high (70% +) it generally means that BTC has gone on a bull run and it is likely that alternative coins will follows in its wake. This period of other coins raising in value to keep up with Bitcoin is generally referred to as alt-season. A common belief is that alt-season has reached its peak once Bitcoin occupies less than 50% of the market, at which time it is natural for momentum to swing back into Bitcoin’s direction.