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Bitcoin Dominance Rate Hits 50% For First Time in 2018
Bitcoin (BTC) now makes up 50 percent of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization.
By Sam Ouimet
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:16 a.m. Published Aug 11, 2018, 4:02 a.m.
Bitcoin now makes up 50 percent of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization.
Shortly past 03:00 UTC on August 11, CoinMarketCap's bitcoin dominance rate – an indicator that tracks the percent of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization contributed by the leading cryptocurrency – reached 50 percent for the first time since December 19th, 2017.
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At press time, bitcoin's market capitalization now records $105,785,552,545, which is about $901 million more than the market capitalization of every other cryptocurrency combined.
The above chart shows bitcoin's dominance rate has been on a steady incline over the past few months, currently representing a 14 percent increase from May 1st. In the same time period the market dominance of all other cryptocurrencies have largely been on the decline.
Conditions were much different the last time bitcoin's market dominance was above 50 percent.
On Dec. 19th, the average price of BTC was $17,605.81 across exchanges - an 65 percent higher price than the cryptocurrency's value today, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index.
Image via Shutterstock
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- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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ICP pushed above the $3 level on rising activity, holding recent gains as traders reassess near-term direction.
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