What is Bitcoin Dominance (BTCD)?

Bitcoin Dominance (BTCD) refers to the ratio of the Bitcoin (BTC) market capitalization within the entire cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency in the world. It was developed by an anonymous person (or people) known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and launched in 2009. Bitcoin was the first blockchain-based development, and its functionality is based on the whitepaper published prior to its launch.

Bitcoin is built on the concept of decentralization, though some international regulations have caused it to become more centralized than initially anticipated.

Bitcoin is the biggest and most valuable cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization. In recent years, Bitcoin has lost some of its dominance in the market due to the development of new cryptocurrencies and the rising popularity of Ethereum (ETH), the cryptocurrency with the second-biggest market cap at the time of writing.

Bitcoin’s market share in 2013 was 94%. In comparison, by 2017, it had reduced to 85.4%, while its main market competitor ETH had a 5.7% at the time. Bitcoin’s dominance has been progressively lowering over the years. At the time of writing, it stands at 43.43%, having halved in roughly five years.

Bitcoin is estimated to maintain an increasingly lower market share as new tokens and cryptocurrencies are introduced into the market, and coins using the more sustainable Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm gain more traction.

However, Bitcoin still maintains influence on the cryptocurrency market. This can be seen by analyzing the charts, as any changes to the BTC price are reflected in the other cryptocurrencies, whether they are going upwards or downwards.

Bitcoin’s global recognizability has led to increased accessibility to cryptocurrencies overall. Crypto, with Bitcoin at the forefront, has become an acceptable payment method in some online spaces. Software and hardware developments like hot and cold wallets have made crypto holding easy. Crypto has also been used as a method to pay wages.

Each BTC transaction is recorded on the network and is publicly accessible. However, the information about the parties involved in the transaction is kept completely confidential. The only information that is accessible is the transaction amount and the addresses of the wallets used. Everything else is anonymous.

The anonymity aspect has made Bitcoin very popular on the darknet. Cryptocurrencies have been used in transactions that involve narcotics, guns, or illegal goods. Bitcoin was used as the preferred payment method on the darknet black market Silk Road. This has left a dent in Bitcoin’s reputation. Despite this, crypto is becoming increasingly popular.