Bitcoin has long been at the forefront of the crypto market, dominating this 10-year old industry with an iron fist and no holds barred. While it maintained its unquestioned hegemony over the cryptosphere for nearly a decade, as 2017 began, it became clear that something was amok. More specifically, in an industry first, altcoins began to drastically gain in terms of market dominance.
By the end of April 2017, altcoins made up 40% of crypto’s entire market capitalization, up from the 12% seen in January. And just eight months later, at the peak of the so-called “Crypto Bubble,” altcoins held 66% dominance over the crypto market, which, in turn, sent Bitcoin’s share to a measly 33%. At this point, some “altcoin maximalists,” known for their use of buzzwords to laud assets, claimed it was all over for Bitcoin, which was chided as an antiquated blockchain with little-to-zero use cases.
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However, the original cryptocurrency’s fortunes took a relative turn for the better in early-2018, with altcoins showing signs of weakness after months of non-stop up-and-up. Now, just eleven months after Bitcoin market dominance, the first figure from the right on CoinMarketCap, hit an all-time low at the aforementioned 33%, the figure has stabilized in the 52% to 55% range.
A.T. Kearney Expects Bitcoin To “Reclaim” Two-Thirds Of Crypto Market Cap
Although noise regarding the Bitcoin’s dramatic tumult has recently begun to block out discussion regarding market dominance, a chief fundamental indicator, a recent piece from Forbes indicates the subject remains a hot topic in some circles.
Forbes contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas, whose work NewsBTC has covered in the past, noted that A.T. Kearney, a multinational management consulting firm, expects for Bitcoin market dominance to “nearly” reach two-thirds of the aggregate capitalization of cryptocurrencies. Citing reasons for this ~66% target, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility, the American firm purportedly stated that altcoins have “lost their luster” due to growing risk aversion tactics enlisted by retail investors.
Investors’ growing penchant for liquidating their altcoin positions for Bitcoin can potentially be chalked up to the U.S. SEC’s renewed crackdown on ICO-funded tokens. Just recently, the American financial regulator fined AirFox and Paragon, two lesser-known ICOs, in a precedent-setting case, instilling fear throughout the crypto investor base as a whole. As is common practice, if there aren’t enough rewards to justify the risk, investors won’t allocate capital to the asset class in question. This case with altcoins, a majority of which were parented by ICOs, is undoubtedly no different.
However, A.T. Kearney says this isn’t exactly the case, with the firm drawing attention to the ever-growing complexity of the nascent altcoin subset. Courtney Rickert McCaffrey at A.T. Kearney wrote:
“Our prediction is that Bitcoin will regain its dominance is supported by the ever-growing complexity among altcoins, most recently demonstrated by the ‘hash war’ that occurred in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem.”
Although this isn’t a well-documented issue, a number of crypto-centric consumers took to Twitter during Bitcoin Cash’s hard fork to express how confusing the whole fracas was. This, of course, only legitimizes the aforementioned firm’s report, albeit only be a smidgen.
A.T. Kearney isn’t alone in touting this train of thought. As reported by NewsBTC in early-August, when Bitcoin market dominance forayed above 50% for the first time in nine months, Tom Lee, head of research of Fundstrat, claimed that investors have decided “Bitcoin is the best house in a tough neighborhood.” He added that with the SEC’s classification of BTC as a commodity, and the focus institutions have placed on Bitcoin in mind, the asset’s return to higher dominance levels is rationalized.
Lee’s comments, issued in August, came just 10 days after Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, claimed that he didn’t expect for “BTC dominance to pull back any time soon,” also drawing attention to institutional-focused products centered around Bitcoin.
I don’t see $btc dominance pulling back any time soon. Lots of cool institutional projects coming and most will start with bitcoin. Stay long.
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) July 31, 2018
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