Altcoins rushed to new highs led by Ether, which rose above $ 3,600. Bitcoin’s dominance index has dropped to 44%, the lowest since the summer of 2018.
Today, after a three-day consolidation, ether has overcome the level of $ 3,600 and continues to grow – now it has every chance of getting to $ 4,000. Over the past 30 days, the price of ETH has increased by almost 70% and continues to grow. And just a year ago, ether cost just over $ 200. Thanks to this rapid growth in Ether, its market capitalization has already exceeded $ 420 billion.
The growth of the ETH rate is primarily based on the expectations of the deployment of Ethereum 2.0 with the transition from the Proof-of-Work consensus to Proof-of-Stake. In the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. more than 4 million ETH has been blocked for staking. Ether began to grow especially quickly after the activation of the Berlin hard fork, which includes four proposals to improve the current Ethereum network and aimed at reducing fees.
Given the increased interest in altcoins, the bitcoin dominance index in the cryptocurrency market has been declining since early April, dropping from almost 70% to 44%. The last time Bitcoin was so inferior to altcoins was in July 2018. However, Bitcoin is still far from the historically minimal level of dominance. In January 2018, at the peak of the then ICO boom and on the eve of the onset of the “crypto winter”, the dominance of bitcoin fell to 32.8%.
The current situation is in many ways reminiscent of the winter of 2018: then bitcoin went into a long correction first, while ether and other altcoins grew for several more weeks. An interesting situation is observed on the market now. “Alts” one after another are pumped up to the renewal of historical maximums, and then, having lost support, they begin to slowly, and sometimes quite quickly “slide”. For example, the third in terms of capitalization Binance coin (BNB) on May 4 rose to $ 680, and the next day it lost more than 10%. Today, amid a new wave of growth in the entire market, the coin returned above $ 640. Tezos on the morning of May 7 went above $ 8.5, and then fell below $ 7 in a few hours. EOS, which more than doubled in two days, from $ 6.2 to $ 13.5, corrected to $ 10. ATOM, DOT, TRX and other large altcoins showed similar, albeit smaller “swing”.
Forgotten after a series of attacks last year, Ethereum Classic was unexpectedly among the top gainers – it hit a record $ 179, even though it traded around $ 40 just a week ago. However, the lack of support for fundamental factors led to an inevitable collapse. Now ETC has fallen to $ 115 and even the general growth of the market does not stop this decline. The “comic” cryptocurrency DOGE did not stand aside, which again broke a historical record, rising to $ 0.74 on tweets from “longtime fans” – billionaire Mark Cuban and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. From May 3 to May 5, DOGE’s trading volume tripled, exceeding $ 42 billion. Perhaps the pranksters are trying to raise the “dogs” to $ 1, knocking out Binance Coin from third place? But again, under such growth there is no any good reason, except for a protracted joke.
Such an increase in the volatility of altcoins with rather modest movements in bitcoin testifies to the high activity of large speculators, who alternately “swing” various cryptocurrencies, including frankly “junk” ones. This may indicate the expectations of major players for a new large correction.
