Despite weekend drop, Bitcoin’s market dominance reaches highest level since April 2021
While the stock market was closed this weekend and unable to react to the news that Israel had been targeted by an Iranian drone attack, the cryptocurrency market was ready to respond.
Assets across the board fell as traders rebalanced their portfolios and cut back on risky bets. Bitcoin itself fell from over $70,000 on Friday, April 12 to just over $63,000 by the end of April 13, a decline of approximately 11.6% from Friday’s high to Saturday’s low.
Bitcoin was actually one of the least affected cryptocurrencies. According to Coinglass, there were $757 million worth of buys and liquidations on centralized exchanges last Saturday, but only $261 million in Bitcoin positions.
While most cryptocurrency assets fall into the “risky” category for traders, Bitcoin is the least risky cryptocurrency, boasting the largest market capitalization and significant institutional adoption history. On the other hand, something like Dogecoin is more speculative, with DOGE falling nearly 30% from Friday’s high to Saturday’s low.
Most assets appeared to have hit relative bottoms by the end of Saturday and showed some bounce.
In theory, Bitcoin had the potential to soar under these circumstances, given that it should be a “safe haven” because it is not tied to any one government or country. Gold has recently been on a downward trend due to concerns over conflict in the Middle East, which could lead to the spread of what is often referred to as “digital gold.”
However, with the stock market not open, Bitcoin and its cryptocurrency peers were forced to take the brunt of the decline.
Even though Bitcoin took a huge hit, it was still the best performer.
Bitcoin’s dominance, or the ratio of Bitcoin’s market capitalization to the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, surged to 52.86% on Sunday, the highest since April 2021.
Bitcoin’s dominance fell as low as 43% in February as altcoins surged amid a broad rally, taking Bitcoin’s dominance to its lowest level since March 2023.
With Bitcoin showing more lukewarm heat over the weekend, things have now turned around and it has taken the largest market share in three years.
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