Bitcoin Dominance Hits Four-Year High As BTC Price Tops $97,000

Bitcoin’s dominance of the cryptocurrency market reached 64.89% in the present day, its highest stage since January 2021, because the price of Bitcoin topped $97,000 Friday morning.

BTC’s dominance—its capitalization as a share of the whole market’s cap—has risen from round 57.90% at the beginning of the 12 months, in keeping with TradingView data.

It had dropped to 55% by early December, as euphoria following Donald Trump’s election victory pushed altcoin costs to new highs.

But this optimistic sentiment turned to concern and uncertainty when the Trump administration started imposing (and ramping up) tariffs in February and March, dampening investor urge for food for altcoins.

And whereas Bitcoin itself was damage by the tariff fallout, latest exemptions and compromises from the Trump administration have boosted the cryptocurrency, with out inviting a full restoration for a lot of main alts.

Bitcoin’s Friday surge to $97,000 places it simply 10.9% beneath its all-time excessive of $108,786 set in January, whereas the likes of Ethereum, Solana and Dogecoin are down 54%, 43% and 61% respectively on highs set in both December or January, per information from CoinGecko.

At time of publication, Bitcoin has retraced barely to $96,947, up 0.7% on the day.

Bitcoin’s first-mover benefit

For David Morrison, a Senior Market Analyst at Commerce Nation, Bitcoin has outperformed most alts in the course of the previous few months for numerous causes, together with its first-mover benefit.

He instructed Decrypt, “It has excessive acceptance relative to its friends and the extra speculative cash because of its comparatively pleasant regulatory setting, which, beneath this Trump administration, is anticipated to enhance additional.”

Morrison additionally explains that, even throughout extra bearish intervals, funding in Bitcoin stays enticing to retail and establishments as a result of its “provide is strictly restricted,” in distinction to many alts.

“It has additionally proven resilience regardless of latest market turbulence, and buyers can now see a good historical past of bounce-backs following giant pullbacks,” he added.

This will likely show key for so long as tariffs crush the U.S. and international financial system, with Bitcoin’s relative resilience throughout this era possible to assist it enhance its market cap dominance.

Investor flight boosts Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s place has additionally been helped by investor flight from U.S. treasuries and different U.S.-based property, with Bitcoin ETF flows outstripping flows for gold ETFs by $4 billion this week.

“Institutional demand may assist enhance Bitcoin’s market dominance, notably ought to it rise additional and break above 70% or so,” stated Morrison. “There’s way more confidence in Bitcoin than most altcoins, though a number of of the latter ought to profit resulting from their particular makes use of.”

However, the scenario could change or reverse if the U.S. can handle to dealer some sort of passable decision or commerce cope with China, and to not point out the remainder of the world.

There have been indicators that the Trump administration is keen to barter with its Chinese language counterpart, with Beijing at present “evaluating” a suggestion of commerce talks.

Ought to the macroeconomic image enhance, this might ultimately result in a extra bullish cryptocurrency market, which in flip may scale back Bitcoin’s dominance in time.

“Rising threat urge for food, ought to it proceed, has usually led buyers and merchants to develop their horizons past Bitcoin,” stated Morrison. “There needs to be respectable alternatives for extra speculative cash, and little doubt a few of these can outperform Bitcoin in share features.”