Bitcoin dominance is the share of the total cryptocurrency market value that belongs to Bitcoin. If every coin in existence is worth $3 trillion in total and Bitcoin alone is worth $1.8 trillion, Bitcoin dominance is 60%. It is one of the simplest numbers in crypto and one of the most quoted, because it shows in a single figure whether money is concentrating in Bitcoin or spreading out into other coins.
Latest reading: in our most recent weekly crypto market wrap, captured on September 20, 2026, Bitcoin dominance stood at 59.0% with the whole market valued at $2.74 trillion. This line updates every Sunday.
How Bitcoin dominance is calculated
The formula is short:
Bitcoin dominance = Bitcoin market capitalisation ÷ total crypto market capitalisation × 100
Market capitalisation is price multiplied by the number of coins in circulation. Data providers such as CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap and TradingView each publish a dominance figure. Their numbers differ slightly, usually by a percentage point or two, because they do not track exactly the same list of coins and do not always agree on circulating supply. When you compare dominance over time, stay with one source.
What a rising or falling number means
- Dominance rising while prices rise: new money is going mainly into Bitcoin. This is common early in a market upswing, when buyers choose the largest and most liquid asset first.
- Dominance rising while prices fall: smaller coins are dropping faster than Bitcoin. Traders often describe this as a move to relative safety inside crypto.
- Dominance falling while prices rise: smaller coins are outperforming. This is the pattern people call an altcoin season.
- Dominance falling while prices fall: unusual, and normally short lived. It can happen when money moves into stablecoins, which count toward the total market but not toward Bitcoin.
The key point is that dominance is a ratio. It says nothing about whether prices are going up or down. It only tells you who is winning the race between Bitcoin and everything else.
A short history of the number
For its first years Bitcoin was almost the entire market, so dominance sat above 90%. That changed in 2017, when the boom in new tokens pushed it sharply lower, and in January 2018 it dropped below 40% for the first time. It recovered during the long decline that followed. At the start of 2021 it was back near 70%, then fell to roughly 40% within five months as Ether and other large coins surged. From 2023 onward it climbed again and moved back above 60% in 2025, helped by demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States.
Two lessons come out of that record. Dominance moves in long swings that last months or years, and sharp falls have tended to arrive late in bull markets, not at the beginning.
Bitcoin dominance and altcoin season
There is no official threshold that starts an altcoin season. Traders watch the direction more than the level: a steady decline over several weeks, together with most large coins beating Bitcoin, is the usual description. Our weekly wrap reports both pieces, the dominance figure and how many of the top 50 coins outperformed Bitcoin over seven days, so you can see whether the two agree.
The stablecoin problem
Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are now worth several hundred billion dollars combined, and most dominance charts include them in the total. Because a stablecoin is designed to hold $1, it does not compete with Bitcoin for returns, yet its growth still pushes Bitcoin dominance down. Some analysts therefore prefer a version that excludes stablecoins, which gives a higher reading for Bitcoin and a cleaner comparison with other volatile coins. Neither version is wrong. You only need to know which one a chart is showing.
Limits of the metric
- New tokens are created constantly, which adds to the total market value and mechanically lowers Bitcoin’s share even if no money leaves Bitcoin.
- Market capitalisation can be misleading for thinly traded coins. A token with a tiny float and a high price can show a large value that could never be sold at that level.
- Lost or permanently inactive bitcoins still count toward Bitcoin’s market capitalisation.
For these reasons dominance works best as context next to price, volume and breadth, not as a signal on its own.
Frequently asked questions
What is a high Bitcoin dominance?
In recent years readings above 60% have been considered high and readings near 40% low. In Bitcoin’s early history dominance was above 90%, so the scale has shifted as the market grew.
Does low Bitcoin dominance mean Bitcoin is falling?
No. Bitcoin can rise in price while its dominance falls, as long as other coins rise faster. That is what happened in the first half of 2021.
Where can I check Bitcoin dominance today?
Live prices for the 50 largest coins are on our Markets page, and the dominance figure is recorded each Sunday in the weekly crypto market wrap. TradingView publishes a continuous chart under the ticker BTC.D.
Is Bitcoin dominance the same on every website?
No. Each provider tracks a different set of coins and may treat stablecoins or wrapped tokens differently, so figures usually differ by a point or two.
This guide is educational. It describes how a market measure works and is not investment advice. Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose money.
