On November 17, the price of bitcoin touched another 2020 all-time high (ATH) when the crypto asset surpassed the $17k price zone on Tuesday. Bitcoin dominance has risen higher during the last few months and currently hovers at 65% this week. Despite the massive rise in bitcoin value during the last few months, altcoins are not performing as well as they did when bitcoin was at this price range three years ago.
Back in 2017, bitcoin (BTC) touched an all-time high (ATH) on December 17, when it reached $19,600 per coin that year. Bitcoin’s dominance index was slightly different in 2017 than it is today, as numerous altcoins saw significant increases in value three years ago. Bitcoin dominance is essentially the recorded metric of BTC’s market capitalization paired against the 7,000+ other altcoin market valuations in existence today.
The altcoin value increases seen three years ago, continued into the next year and on January 14, 2018, Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to an all-time low of 32%. With BTC holding a 65% dominance level today, the crypto asset’s dominance increased 103% since the second week of January 2018.
On Tuesday, bitcoin’s (BTC) price is hovering just above the $17k zone and the crypto asset’s market cap is around $315 billion at the time of publication. Historical price charts show that when BTC was priced at $17k or above three years ago, altcoins were performing much better than they are today. The trend has given traders and speculators the opinion that the infamous ‘altcoin season’ has not started, and some believe it never will. For instance, history shows on December 17, 2017, ethereum (ETH) was swapping for $719 per unit. Today, even though ETH has gained 256% this year, the crypto asset is still down 34% from that price range on December 17.
ETH also touched an ATH of $1,431 and the crypto asset still needs to gain over 67% to get to that position again. Another historical snapshot from the same day in December indicates that XRP was swapping for $0.72 on the 17th, and it is still down 58% from that position. In fact, XRP is down considerably from the $3.84 ATH, as it remains 92% below that point today. Another interesting change during the last three years is how tether (USDT) has grown massively since December 17. On that day, USDT the notorious stablecoin was of course swapping for a dollar, but in terms of market cap, the stablecoin sat in the 24th market cap position.
Today, tether (USDT) is the third-largest blockchain in terms of market valuation with $17.9 billion under the hood. That means that tether’s market cap has increased a whopping 1,527% since the 17th of December 2017. If any market cap in 2020 is stopping bitcoin (BTC) from capturing a much higher dominance percentage it is tether’s valuation. Interestingly, back in December 2017, litecoin (LTC) was also hovering in the fifth-largest market cap position and just the other day, LTC managed to capture the position again.
Still, on the 17th of December 2017, LTC was swapping for $318 per unit, and it’s still down 77% from that range. In fact, LTC needs to gain over 80% to reach the $375 ATH it touched years ago. Bitcoin cash (BCH) also held the third-largest position on the 17th of December 2017, and was trading for $1,862 per unit. The crypto asset BCH needs to climb more than 86% to capture that price range again, as the digital currency trades for $252 today.
The rest of the coins in 2020’s top ten rankings were not present in the top ten back in 2017, except for cardano (ADA). The three coins that were present in the top ten on the 17th of December 2017, were IOTA, dash, and monero. Today in 2020, those positions have been replaced by polkadot, chainlink, and binance coin. At that time three years ago, cardano (ADA) was trading for $0.51 per unit. On November 17, 2020, ADA is still down 78% from that point and 91% behind the $1.33 ATH.
Despite the statistics, traders are still waiting for the notorious point in time referred to as ‘altcoin season’ or ‘altseason.’ On crypto-related forums and social media, the altcoin season topic is trending and a number of crypto proponents are waiting for it to arrive. The other day one individual tweeted:
The same day, another crypto proponent wrote about how “it looks like BTC dominance is rising, while the price is not rising so much.”
“I think the money is leaving Alts —> BTC —> USDT which keeps BTC up for a while,” the individual tweeted. “Until Alts without USD pairs exit into BTC to then dump in USD.” The Twitter account dubbed ‘Altcoin Sherpa’ agreed with the analysis and said: “Money definitely seems to be leaving [altcoins] in general. The high time frame trends on those are still bearish IMO, not altseason quite yet,” he added.
What do you think about bitcoin (BTC) dominance reaching 65% and people’s opinions about another altcoin season? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
