Bitcoin Dominance
Bitcoin Dominance is the single most-watched indicator for crypto-market cycle positioning. The chart below plots BTC's share of total crypto market capitalisation as a monthly time series from January 2014 onwards. Hover any month for the exact percentage and one-month change. The interactive chart, the stat strip with current dominance, all-time high (93 percent, January 2014) and all-time low (33 percent, January 2018), and the methodology section below give you everything you need to read BTC dominance for cycle context.
Chart
BTC market cap as a percentage of total crypto market cap, monthly from 2014 onwards. The white circle marks the most recent month. Hover any month for the exact value and one-month change.
Bitcoin Dominance historical extremes
| Period | Dominance | Context |
|---|---|---|
| January 2014 | 93% (all-time high) | Pre-altcoin era. Bitcoin was effectively the entire crypto market. |
| September 2019 | 71% (modern era peak) | Post-ICO-crash recovery. Capital fled altcoins back into BTC. |
| April 2021 | 50% (first 2021 cycle low) | Mid-cycle DeFi/altcoin rotation peak. |
| September 2022 | 40% (post-ETH-merge low) | ETH merge narrative pulled dominance to a 2-year low. |
| January 2018 | 33% (all-time low) | ICO mania peak. ALL altcoins combined exceeded twice BTC's market cap. |
What is the current Bitcoin Dominance?
Bitcoin Dominance is currently 58 percent, down 1 percentage point month-on-month. That places Dominance in the modern era's typical 40-70 percent range and roughly in the middle of post-2020 readings. The 1-month decline reflects modest altcoin outperformance (mostly in the SOL/AI-token cohorts); the 2-percentage-point year-on-year decline suggests the rotation has been narrow and slow rather than a broad-based "altcoin season" shift.
How often has Bitcoin Dominance been above 70%?
Across 149 months of post-2014 history, Bitcoin Dominance has been:
- Above 70% for 42 months (28% of the sample) - mostly 2014-2016 pre-ICO and the 2019-2020 post-ICO-crash recovery
- 50-70% for 56 months (38%) - the dominant "normal" range
- 40-50% for 43 months (29%) - alt-led mid-cycle phases
- Below 40% for only 8 months (5%) - clustered in 2017-2018 ICO mania and the 2017 cycle top
The asymmetry is meaningful: Bitcoin Dominance has spent ~66 percent of the modern era at or above 50 percent. The "alts beat BTC by enough to push Dominance below 40 percent" scenario has been historically rare (5 percent of months) and concentrated in two specific cycles.
What is Bitcoin Dominance?
Bitcoin Dominance is a simple ratio:
BTC Dominance = BTC market cap / total crypto market cap × 100
If BTC trades at a $1.4 trillion market cap and total crypto market cap is $2.8 trillion, BTC Dominance is 50 percent.
The metric's importance comes from what drives it. Market cap is price times supply. BTC's supply is effectively fixed (the issuance schedule is deterministic), and the same is approximately true for the rest of the market in aggregate over short windows. So dominance moves are driven almost entirely by relative PRICE moves between BTC and the rest of the market. When BTC outperforms alts in price terms, dominance rises. When alts outperform, dominance falls.
How to read the chart
- Current dominance card (gold-bordered, leftmost on the stat strip): the latest monthly close value, with the data-as-of month.
- 1-month and 12-month change cards: positive = green (BTC gaining market share), negative = red (alts gaining market share). Useful for cycle-phase reading at a glance.
- All-time high and all-time low cards: anchor points for the full range. ATH is 93 percent (January 2014); ATL is 33 percent (January 2018). Most modern dominance prints fall in the 40-70 percent band.
- Hover the chart: shows the exact dominance value and the prior-month change in percentage points for that month. Useful for inspecting specific cycle inflection points (e.g., where was dominance at the November 2021 cycle top?).
- Fullscreen button: opens the chart in fullscreen for analysis. Tooltip and hover line stay active.
Historical regimes
Bitcoin Dominance has moved through three distinct historical regimes:
- 2009 to 2016: BTC-dominant era. Bitcoin was effectively the entire crypto market. Dominance sat above 85 percent for almost all of this period, briefly dipping to 80 percent during the 2016 Ethereum-DAO event before recovering.
- 2017 to 2018: the ICO boom and crash. Dominance collapsed from 87 percent in March 2017 to a historical low of 33 percent in January 2018 as ICO altcoins exploded in market cap. The crash recovered dominance back to the 50s by mid-2018 and the 70s by 2020 as most ICO alts collapsed back toward zero.
- 2020 onwards: range-bound rotation. Dominance has oscillated in a roughly 40 to 70 percent range, swinging predictably between BTC-led phases of bull markets (rising dominance) and alt-led late-bull phases (falling dominance). The pattern is repeated enough that traders treat dominance trend as a cycle-positioning input alongside price and on-chain metrics.
Methodology
- Data source. Hand-curated historical monthly values from January 2014 onwards (144 months in the seed), sourced from public TradingView CRYPTOCAP:BTC.D snapshots and CoinMarketCap historical dominance data. The most recent monthly value is refreshed live from the CoinGecko free public endpoint on every site build.
- Definition. Standard BTC Dominance: BTC market cap divided by total crypto market cap (including stablecoins), multiplied by 100. This matches TradingView CRYPTOCAP:BTC.D and CoinGecko's published dominance metric.
- Resilience. If the upstream source is unreachable during a build, the previous static data file is preserved unchanged so the chart continues to render with the last-known-good data.
- Update cadence. Once per site build (typically daily). The monthly close value updates once per month; intraday dominance changes do not appear on this chart by design (this is a long-run cycle tool, not an intraday trading chart).
Limitations
- Denominator-dependent. Adding a large new altcoin to the market drops BTC dominance even if BTC's price doesn't change. Historical dominance comparisons across regimes (pre-2017 vs post-2017) are imperfect because the universe of "altcoins" has changed dramatically.
- Lagging. Dominance is a current snapshot but the price moves driving it have already happened. It is a confirmation indicator, not a leading one.
- Stock measure, not flow. Dominance tells you where capital sits now, not which direction it is flowing. Use alongside the Altcoin Season Index for the flow read.
- Stablecoin inclusion. Standard dominance includes stablecoins in the denominator. A growing stablecoin float mechanically depresses BTC dominance even when no rotation is happening between BTC and risk-bearing alts. The effect is meaningful in late-bear-market periods when stablecoin float grows faster than risk-asset prices recover.
Related tools
- Altcoin Season Index (AUD) - flow-based companion to Dominance; shows percentage of top-50 alts outperforming BTC over 90 days.
- BTC Dominance vs Altcoin Season Index - how the two indicators relate, with side-by-side reading guide.
- Bitcoin Log Regression Bands (AUD) - long-run BTC fair value. Combine with Dominance to position cycle phase.
- Bitcoin Rainbow Chart (AUD) - same regression math as the log bands tool, presented with sentiment-labelled bands.
- Bitcoin Risk Metric (AUD) - 0-1 cycle score. Cross-reference with dominance trend.
- Bitcoin Pi Cycle Top Indicator (AUD) - top-zone signal that often coincides with dominance peaks.
- Crypto CGT Calculator - apply the ATO 50 percent discount to any rotation that triggers a CGT event.
Frequently asked questions
Bitcoin Dominance is the ratio of Bitcoin's market capitalisation to the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies, expressed as a percentage. If BTC has a $1.4 trillion market cap and total crypto is $2.8 trillion, BTC Dominance is 50 percent. The metric started near 100 percent in 2009-2010 when Bitcoin was effectively the entire crypto market, sat above 85 percent for most of 2014-2016 before the ICO boom, dropped to a historical low of around 33 percent in January 2018, and has since oscillated in a 35 to 70 percent range.
It is a stock measure of where capital currently sits in the crypto market. Rising dominance means BTC outperforming altcoins in price terms (capital is concentrating into BTC). Falling dominance means alts outperforming BTC (capital is rotating into the broader market). Long-term holders use dominance trend to position cycle phase: BTC-led bull phases (rising dominance) typically precede the alt-led late-bull phases (falling dominance) before the cycle top. Combine with the Altcoin Season Index for a flow-based read on the same rotation.
Approximately 93 percent in January 2014. BTC's market share has trended down over time as the altcoin universe has grown, but with substantial cyclical reversals. Notable peaks since: 88 percent (June 2016, pre-ICO boom), 71 percent (September 2019, post-ICO crash), 68 percent (April 2021, mid-bull-market BTC-led phase).
Approximately 33 percent in January 2018, at the height of the ICO mania. BTC's market cap fell to roughly one-third of total crypto market cap as ICO altcoins exploded in market value. The trough recovered to the 50s by mid-2018 and the 70s by 2020 as most ICO alts collapsed back toward zero.
BTC market cap divided by total crypto market cap, multiplied by 100. Market cap is calculated as circulating supply times spot price. The chart on this page uses monthly close values from January 2014 onwards, with the most recent monthly value refreshed live from a public market-data endpoint on every site build. The historical seed comes from public TradingView CRYPTOCAP:BTC.D snapshots and CoinMarketCap historical dominance data.
Not as a standalone signal. Dominance trend is a cycle-positioning input alongside price action, on-chain metrics, and other cycle indicators (Pi Cycle Top, Mayer Multiple, Risk Metric, log regression bands). Historically, dominance peaks have coincided with alt-rotation opportunities (alts about to outperform), and dominance troughs have coincided with BTC-rotation opportunities (BTC about to outperform). But neither signal is reliable in isolation. Use dominance as confirmation alongside fundamental conviction.
Same data series (BTC market cap as percentage of total crypto market cap), different presentation. TradingView's BTC.D chart updates intraday and is interactive with TradingView's full charting toolkit. This page's chart updates monthly with a focus on long-run cycle context (12 years of monthly closes, all-time-high and all-time-low markers, one-month and twelve-month change indicators). Use TradingView for active analysis, this page for long-term cycle reading.
Standard BTC Dominance (the version shown here) does NOT exclude stablecoins. The denominator is total crypto market cap including stables. Some analysts use a stablecoin-excluded version (sometimes called 'true BTC dominance') which strips out USDT, USDC, DAI, etc. The standard version is more widely used and is what TradingView, CoinMarketCap, and CoinGecko publish by default. The stablecoin-excluded version typically reads roughly 5 to 10 percentage points higher than the standard version.
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