At the moment of writing this article, Bitcoin is trading at around $12,300. The leading cryptocurrency broke into more than 60% market dominance, the first time in the previous 17 months.
The Bitcoin Dominance Index, a metric upheld by CoinMarketCap, the data provider, shows bitcoin’s gaining altitude when more full crypto market confidence (with the market at almost $350 billion) hasn’t yet returned.
The fresh highs are a welcome sight for 2019, particularly for bulls who want to continue enjoying their fantastic 230% gain from the start of the year. Remarkably, the rally of the price came with an uptick: the increase of $13.8 billion in 24-hour trading volume, so say CoinMarketCap’s data.
The “Real 10” volume (a measure that considers trading volume with exchanges that report realistic figures as given in a Bitwise Asset Management report) isn’t giving as positive results. It is standing up $4.09 bn at present, so say Messari.io.
The dominance of bitcoin is probably a broader story.
At the time of press, the market capitalization of bitcoin now shows $202.8 bn, an increase of $67.1 million compared with all other cryptocurrencies combined in their market capitalization, currently standing at a figure of $135.7 billion.
At the same time, other high-performing cryptos like Ether (ETH), Ontology (ONT), and NEO have made gains of between 2%-10% value over 24 hours, CoinMarketCap has quoted.
Bitcoin now has a new target in their sight: the $12,000 price tag, which was last seen in January 2018, signaling a strong uptrend toward its record high of $20,000.
The cryptocurrency market is a strange one. It has a tense atmosphere, high volatility, and all-year round-the-clock trading. Sometimes, altcoins and Bitcoin increase together, other times the opposite is exact.
Since the start of the year, altcoins haven’t managed to keep up with bitcoin. If the alts fall further behind, they could face a colossal capitulation event. As Bitcoin dominance is at 60%, anything more than 63% may be catastrophic for the alts.
They alts will also face more suffering if they cannot get back the lost ratio against Bitcoin over the next few days. But, Bitcoin shows zero signs of a slow-down. It is absorbing all alt values in addition to new money too.
