Bitcoin's share of the crypto market hits an all-time low as 'alt-coins' go wild

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January 2, 2018 9:51 PM

The cryptocurrency market hit an all-time high above $660 billion on Tuesday as so-called alternative coins, or "alt-coins," charged upwards.

Crypto's total market cap hit an all-time high above $660 billion on Tuesday as so-called alternative coins, or "alt-coins," charged upwards.
Meanwhile the largest crypto, bitcoin, lagged behind small rival coins.
Bitcoin's share of the total cryptocurrency market cap hit an all-time low on Tuesday below 36%.

With a market share of nearly 90%, bitcoin's dominance over the cryptocurrency space appeared unshakable at the start of 2017.

As the year progressed, and new coins came onto the market, bitcoin's position dwindled. That trend has continued into 2018.

Bitcoin's market capitalization as a percentage of the total crypto-market hit an all-time low below 36% on Tuesday as smaller so-called alternative cryptocurrencies rallied, according to data provider CoinMarketCap.com. That's down from 65% at the start of December.

Ripple's XRP, for instance, is designed to improve international money transfers. As for Dash, it seeks to act as a convenient vehicle of exchange in ecommerce. Those use-cases, according to Taylor, have been attracting investors to alts.

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"I believe 2018 will be the year where crypto has to prove its utility beyond a speculative asset, and bitcoin cannot do that today," Sønstebø said. "I don't even like calling projects 'alts' anymore, rather bitcoin was a prototype and now we are seeing the future incarnations being built."

Still, not everyone thinks market capitalization is a meaningful indicator. Jimmy Song, a bitcoin developer, said the data is unreliable and doesn't paint a precise picture of what's going on in the cryptocurrency market.

"ost things, Bitcoin Dominance is a very crude metric and one that’s unfortunately very easy to manipulate," he said in a Medium post.

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