Bitcoin Dominance
Bitcoin Dominance is BTC's share of total crypto market capitalisation. The chart plots it monthly from January 2014, using CoinMarketCap's daily history (month-end value per month, latest reading for the current month). It is 59.1 percent as of October 2026. The all-time high is 93.4 percent (July 2014) and the all-time low 33.8 percent (January 2018). Hover any month for the exact value and one-month change.
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
| Month | Dominance | Context |
|---|---|---|
| July 2014 | 93.4% (all-time high) | Pre-altcoin era. Bitcoin was most of the crypto market. |
| January 2018 | 33.8% (all-time low) | ICO boom peak. Altcoins combined worth nearly twice Bitcoin. |
| September 2019 | 67.8% | Post-ICO-crash recovery. Capital moved back into BTC. |
| December 2020 | 70.4% (highest since 2017) | BTC-led start of the 2020-21 bull market. |
| April 2021 | 48.2% | Altcoin rally at the first 2021 peak. |
| November 2022 | 37.9% | FTX collapse; the 2022 bear-market low. |
| June 2025 | 64.5% | Highest month-end since 2021, as BTC led the ETF-driven 2024-25 cycle. |
| October 2026 (latest) | 59.1% | Latest reading. |
What is the current Bitcoin Dominance?
Bitcoin Dominance is 59.1 percent as of October 2026, up 0.5 percentage points on the month. Since 2019 month-end readings have ranged from 37.9 to 70.4 percent, so the current level sits in the upper half of the modern range. BTC still makes up most of the crypto market; in past cycles a broad altcoin season has come with dominance falling well below 50 percent, as in 2021.
How often has Bitcoin Dominance been above 70%?
Across 154 month-ends since January 2014, Bitcoin Dominance has been:
- Above 70% in 39 months (25%) - almost all in 2014 to early 2017, plus December 2020
- 50-70% in 74 months (48%) - the most common range, including most of 2019-2020 and 2023 onwards
- 40-50% in 32 months (21%) - alt-led phases such as 2021 and much of 2022
- Below 40% in only 9 months (6%) - in 2017, 2018, 2022
Dominance has been at or above 50 percent in 73 percent of months. Readings below 40 percent, where altcoins together outweigh Bitcoin by a wide margin, have been rare and short-lived.
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. The all-time high is 93.4 percent (July 2014) and the all-time low 33.8 percent (January 2018). Since 2019 readings have stayed between 37.9 and 70.4 percent.
- 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:
- 2014 to 2016: BTC-dominant era. Bitcoin was most of the crypto market. Month-end dominance stayed between 77.5 and 93.4 percent.
- 2017 to 2018: the ICO boom and crash. Dominance fell from 85.9 percent in February 2017 to 33.8 percent in January 2018 as ICO tokens soared, then recovered to 51.6 percent by December 2018 as most of them collapsed.
- 2019 onwards: range-bound rotation. Dominance has moved between 37.9 and 70.4 percent, 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. CoinMarketCap global-metrics history (daily BTC dominance) from January 2014. Each month shows its last daily reading; the current month shows the latest one. Refreshed automatically every day, with CoinGecko's global endpoint as a fallback for the current month.
- Definition. Standard BTC Dominance: BTC market cap divided by total crypto market cap (including stablecoins), multiplied by 100. TradingView CRYPTOCAP:BTC.D and CoinGecko use the same definition with slightly different coin universes, so their readings can differ by a point or two.
- 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. Daily. The current month's point moves with each day's reading until the month closes; intraday moves are not shown, by design (this is a long-run cycle tool, not an intraday 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 - 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 Bitcoin's market capitalisation divided by the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies, as a percentage. If BTC is worth $1.4 trillion and all crypto is worth $2.8 trillion, dominance is 50 percent. It sat between 77.5 and 93.4 percent from 2014 to 2016, fell to 33.8 percent in January 2018 during the ICO boom, and has ranged between 37.9 and 70.4 percent since 2019.
59.1 percent as of October 2026, up 0.5 percentage points on the previous month and down 0.1 points on a year earlier. The figure comes from CoinMarketCap's global market data and updates automatically every day.
It shows where capital sits in the crypto market. Rising dominance means BTC is outperforming altcoins; falling dominance means altcoins are outperforming. In past cycles, BTC-led phases with rising dominance came before alt-led phases with falling dominance late in the bull market. Pair it with the Altcoin Season Index for the flow-based view of the same rotation.
93.4 percent at the end of July 2014, when Bitcoin was most of the crypto market. Later highs have been lower as the altcoin universe grew: 85.9 percent in February 2017 before the ICO boom, 67.8 percent in September 2019, and 70.4 percent in December 2020, the highest month-end since 2017.
33.8 percent at the end of January 2018, at the height of the ICO boom, when altcoins combined were worth nearly twice Bitcoin. It recovered to 51.6 percent by December 2018 as most ICO tokens collapsed. Month-ends below 40 percent have only occurred in 2017, 2018, 2022; the most recent was 37.9 percent in November 2022, the month FTX collapsed.
BTC market cap divided by total crypto market cap, times 100, with market cap as circulating supply times price. This page uses CoinMarketCap's daily global-metrics history from January 2014, taking each month's last daily reading, and refreshes automatically every day. If CoinMarketCap is unavailable the current month updates from CoinGecko's global endpoint instead.
Not on its own. Dominance is a cycle-positioning input alongside price, on-chain measures and indicators such as the Pi Cycle Top, Mayer Multiple and log regression bands. Dominance peaks have tended to come before stretches of altcoin outperformance and troughs before BTC outperformance, but neither is reliable in isolation.
Same concept, different data provider and presentation. TradingView's BTC.D is intraday and built from TradingView's own coin universe, so it can differ from CoinMarketCap by a point or two. This chart shows month-end values from CoinMarketCap for long-run cycle context. Use TradingView for active trading and this page for the cycle picture.
Yes. Standard dominance, as published by CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and TradingView, includes stablecoins such as USDT and USDC in the total market cap. A version excluding stablecoins reads several points higher, and the gap widens as the stablecoin float grows.
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