Bitcoin dominance, the ratio of the market capitalization of bitcoin to the market cap of the entire cryptocurrency market, has risen above 50%, a level not seen since April 2021. This change comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has labeled several major altcoins as securities. At the same time, its chair Mr. Gary Genlser has previously stated that the flagship cryptocurrency is a commodity.
Bitcoin Now Accounts for More Than Half of Crypto’s Market Cap
According to data from TradingView, bitcoin dominance currently sits at 50.06%, up by 0.16% over the past day. This means that the leading cryptocurrency alone accounts for over half of the crypto’s total market cap of $1.1 trillion.
The surge in bitcoin dominance started in November last year when investors flocked to the flagship crypto asset as a haven in the wake of the FTX crisis. The mounting regulatory scrutiny of crypto assets in the United States further drove investors toward Bitcoin.
Specifically, the SEC has categorized multiple altcoins as securities in its high-profile lawsuits against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange. These include Binance’s native token BNB, Solana’s SOL, Cardano’s ADA, Polygon’s MATIC, Filecoin’s FIL, Cosmos’ ATOM, Sandbox’s SAND, Decentraland’s MANA, Algorand’s ALGO, Axie Infinity’s AXS, and Coti’s COTI tokens.
According to JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, the SEC did not take action against Ethereum’s native token ether because of the Hinman documents. In a Thursday research report, he said the documents suggest ETH “is not a security because there is no controlling group (at least in the Howey test) yet there may be a need for regulation to protect purchasers.”
The SEC’s unwillingness to target ETH has allowed the token to steady its market dominance around the 20% mark. In comparison, other altcoins targeted by the SEC, like SOL, ADA, and Polgon’s MATIC, have seen their market dominance shrink.
BlackRock Files For Spot Bitcoin ETF
Last week, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, applied with the SEC to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. Dubbed the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the fund is intended to securely allow investors to get direct exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency.
According to CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill, the move resulted in minor inflows into digital asset funds last week. “The end of the week saw minor inflows following the news that one of the world’s largest asset managers has applied for Bitcoin ETP in the U.S., although these inflows were not enough to offset outflows seen earlier in the week,” he wrote in a report Monday.
MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor is even more bullish on Bitcoin; he believes regulatory clarity in the US would catalyze a surge in the price of the leading cryptocurrency. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Saylor predicted that BTC would increase by 10x in value after the public realizes Bitcoin’s true potential.
“Regulatory clarity is going to drive Bitcoin adoption by eliminating the confusion and anxiety that has been holding back institutional investors,” the Bitcoin bull said. He added that much of that confusion stems from other “crypto securities” for which regulators “don’t see a legitimate path forward” in the United States.
“They have a view of crypto exchanges which is far constrained. Their view is crypto exchanges should trade and hold pure digital commodities like Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin is trading at 26,762.15, up 1.4% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency has a market cap of more than $519 billion, according to data from Coingecko, more than Ethereum’s market cap of $207 billion. BTC is up 2.3% over the past week and 61% YTD.
This article originally appeared on The Tokenist
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