It used to be the case that when Bitcoin rallied, alternative cryptocurrencies declined in price. However, this dynamic seems to have changed somewhat since the start of this year - at least for some of the top altcoins.
As Bitcoin has continued to set new all-times highs in February and March, the market capitalization, as well as price of several major cryptocurrencies (Ethereum, Dash & Monero) has climbed in tandem.
Data from Coinmarketcap shows the combined market capitalization of all alternative digital currencies hit a new all-time high of $4.3 billion on Sunday, March 12, 2017, with Ethereum’s market cap making up close to 50% of that figure:
Ether (ETH), the token of the Ethereum blockchain, rose to a new record valuation of $2.07 billion today.
Although Bitcoin’s 24h volume reading of $232,732,829 represents 55.14% of global cryptocurrency turnover, Coinmarketcap data says that 19.46% of all cryptocurrency trading ($82,133,476) over the past 24h took place on various ETH pairs.
Privacy-centric digital currency, DASH, was trading at record highs of $80.00+ at 6:05 p.m. EST on Sunday, further solidifying its place as the 3rd most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. The market cap of DASH rose to a new all-time high of $562.37 million.
It’s also worth noting that the DASH/BTC pair on crypto-exchange Poloniex saw close to $32 million in turnover for the past 24h, while total daily DASH volume across all pairs came in at $46,884,646 - 11.11% of global cryptocurrency turnover.
Monero, the 4th largest digital currency by market cap, did not rise to new highs today, but its current market capitalization is only $21 million away from breaking its previous record of $257.12 million, recorded on January 5, 2017.
With a few exceptions - NEM, Zcash, GameCredits and MaidSafeCoin - majority of altcoins have lost ground against Bitcoin since the start of 2017.
Dollar crates photo by imgarcade.com
