Bitcoin’s crypto market dominance has hit its highest point in two and a half years, weighing in at 54%. With the world’s leading cryptocurrency strengthening ahead of the impending Bitcoin halving event, it could lift investor sentiment towards the crypto market.
Bitcoin’s crypto market dominance rises ahead of halving
With a market capitalization of a whopping $678.63 billion, Bitcoin has further pushed back on Ether and other smaller altcoins. The overall crypto market capitalization stands at $1.3 trillion.
For perspective, Bitcoin halving is an event in which the mining reward is periodically cut in half. It occurs every four years. The total supply of Bitcoin is fixed at 21 million—of which over 19.5 million coins have already been mined and are in circulation.
The lesser the number of coins left to be mined (supply), the greater the demand, causing an uptick in the price of Bitcoin. The next Bitcoin halving is scheduled to happen in 2024, which will see the mining reward tumble to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC.
Bitcoin investment sentiment turns bullish amid spot ETF buzz
Bitcoin’s market dominance refers to its m-cap relative to the total crypto market capitalization — and it is an indicator of its strength. A market dominance of above 50% signals investors are bullish on Bitcoin. It also marks the asset’s highest level of market dominance since April 2021.
Bitcoin’s rise in crypto market dominance began at the beginning of this month, climbing from under 49% to 54% — the highest in the last two and half years.
Will ‘Uptober’ be the dawn of the next bull run?
October is often referred to as “Uptober” in crypto circles as the price of Bitcoin has historically risen in October. This is evident from Bitcoin’s roaring rally over the past week — with the asset breaching the $35,000 level, a 16-month-high — on prospects of exchange-traded funds getting regulatory approval in the US.
While Bitcoin’s market dominance has reached 54%, it’s still well below the 80% mark that it commanded in 2017. Over the years, Bitcoin prices have plunged, with new tokens sprouting up. In September, Bitcoin spot exchange trading volumes hit the lowest level in almost five years amid macroeconomic uncertainty.