Crypto Market Sets New High as Bitcoin Dominance Drops to Historic Low

The cryptocurrency market appears to be starting the new year off by cementing a recovery.

At press time, the total value of the more than 1,300 publicly traded cryptocurrencies, as listed by data CoinMarketCap, set a new all-time high of $667 billion. As such, it's the latest sign that the entire cryptocurrency market has recovered from a correction on Dec. 22, when the market plunged more than 30 percent from around $648 billion to $422 billion.

Still, what's most notable about the rally is that data shows the world's largest cryptocurrency may not be a large contributor. Bitcoin's dominance, or its share of the total market cap, has now dropped to an all-time-low. Data suggests the value of all bitcoins is currently accounting for 35.6 percent of the entire marketplace.

Indeed, the metric saw a rather turbulent movement in 2017, having decreased sharply from over 80 percent to 37.46 percent in June. This was followed by a six-month bounce-back to 65 percent around early December.

Data from the market's overnight session (0:01~6:00 UTC), morning session (06:01~12:00 UTC) and afternoon session (12:01~18:00) suggest part of that decline may be due to rising interest in the broader cryptocurrency markets. Just one digital asset, TRON, was a top performer in more than one session, hinting capital may be moving quickly between options in search of gains.

Hot air balloon image via CoinDesk archive