The cryptocurrency giant, Bitcoin, has been boosted by recent developments involving Blackrock’s ETF filing and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s intensifying scrutiny of digital currencies.
Bitcoin, currently priced at $26,937, has reestablished its position as the top dog in the crypto world, its dominance representing half of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. As of June 19, 6 pm UTC, the dominance of Bitcoin breached the 50% threshold, although it slightly adjusted to 49.9% at the time of writing, as per TradingView data.
What this suggests is that Bitcoin solely accounts for half of the total $1.1 trillion digital currency market capitalization. Bitcoin’s individual market cap currently sits at $519 billion, as per Coingecko data.
Interestingly, since November 27, 2022, Bitcoin’s dominance has seen a notable upsurge of more than 10.5%. This increase has largely been propelled by investors who perceive Bitcoin as a safe harbor amidst the FTX crisis and the mounting oversight of digital currencies in the United States.
Even though Bitcoin’s supremacy has significantly spiked over the past eight months, Ether’s market dominance, currently priced at $1,736, has remained relatively stable around 20% for the majority of the past year. At present, the combined value of Bitcoin and Ether encompasses approximately 70% of the overall crypto market.
Michael Saylor, the co-founder of MicroStrategy and a renowned Bitcoin advocate, predicts that Bitcoin’s dominance will surpass 80% in the upcoming years. This is anticipated to occur as escalating regulatory pressure from the SEC causes stablecoins and most other digital assets to “disappear.”
He further declared, “We can expect the entire industry to be streamlined into a Bitcoin-centric sector, with only around six to twelve other Proof of Work tokens remaining.”
Saylor attributes the absence of any “mega institutional money” in the crypto sphere to the “uncertainty and nervousness” introduced by the over 25,000 other cryptocurrencies posing as Bitcoin alternatives.
“Bitcoin is globally recognized as the sole digital commodity in this industry,” Saylor affirmed. This is a nod to the fact that Bitcoin is the only digital currency labeled a commodity by SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Up until now, the SEC has classified a total of 68 cryptocurrencies as securities.
At the moment, Bitcoin is trading at $26,746, marking an increase of 1.5% over the last 24 hours, as per data from the Cointelegraph Price Index. Despite the peak in “fear” within the crypto market over the past three months, the value of Bitcoin has appreciated by more than 3% over the last week.
Cryptocurrency research firm Santiment also identifies investment titan Blackrock’s filing for a Bitcoin spot ETF as one of the key factors propelling Bitcoin’s recent price ascension.
For those unfamiliar, a spot ETF or Exchange-Traded Fund is an investment fund that operates on the stock exchange and aims to replicate the performance of a specific asset, like Bitcoin in this case. A Bitcoin spot ETF, as filed by Blackrock, would allow investors to buy into Bitcoin without having to directly own the asset, further expanding the ways through which people can invest in the cryptocurrency.
This represents a significant development in the crypto world, and as more big names such as Blackrock consider Bitcoin for their investment strategies, this is expected to further consolidate Bitcoin’s dominance and increase its appeal among investors. However, it’s important for investors to understand the risks associated with crypto investments, as they can be highly volatile and unpredictable.