Bitcoin Dominance Widens as Altcoins Wipe Out Three-Quarter Value
The cryptocurrency market's two-year rally has been marked by a stark divergence in performance between Bitcoin and altcoins. According to a new report from Glassnode and crypto exchange Bybit, Bitcoin rose 28% over the past two years, while the median mid-cap altcoin posted a negative return of 74% during the same period.
This concentration of gains is visible not just in price performance but also in how leveraged positions are distributed across the market. Bitcoin futures open interest amounts to roughly 2% of its market capitalization, while speculative small-cap tokens carry significantly heavier leverage, such as meme coin PEPE with open interest near 24% of its market cap.
Institutional money has reinforced this top-heavy structure, with spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States accumulating $55.2 billion in cumulative net inflows, more than four times the approximately $13.1 billion that has flowed into Ethereum funds.