Bitcoin dominance

Bitcoin dominance is bitcoin's share of the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies, expressed as a percentage. If the whole crypto market is worth $3 trillion and bitcoin's market cap is $1.8 trillion, dominance is 60%.

Traders watch dominance to judge where money is flowing. Rising dominance often means investors are favouring bitcoin, which tends to happen during uncertain periods or early in bull markets. Falling dominance can signal money moving into altcoins, the pattern sometimes called "altcoin season".

The figure has limits. Different data providers count different coins, and the inclusion of stablecoins matters: when stablecoin supply grows, bitcoin dominance falls even if no one is buying altcoins. Thousands of small tokens with inflated, thinly traded market caps can also distort the total. Some analysts therefore look at dominance excluding stablecoins, or compare bitcoin only against ether.