Bitcoin Dominance on the Rise for 3rd Consecutive Year

How Has Bitcoin Dominance Evolved Over the Years?

In the last 12 years from 2013 to 2025, Bitcoin’s dominance of the crypto market has fluctuated in a wide range, between an all-time low of 31.1% and the early highs of 99.1%. During this time, daily Bitcoin dominance has recorded 50.0% or higher in 2 out of every 3 days. In other words, Bitcoin has essentially accounted for the majority of the crypto market for a combined duration of 8 years, out of these 12 years.

On an annual basis, average daily Bitcoin dominance decreased for five consecutive years, from 93.3% in 2013, to 44.6% in 2018. Average Bitcoin dominance rebounded back to 60.2% in 2019 and 62.7% in 2020, followed by another decline to 47.6% in 2021 and 39.3% in 2022. 

Since 2023, Bitcoin dominance has been rising steadily again, to an annual average of 45.6% in 2023, 51.9% in 2024 and 59.3% in 2025 to date. This means that Bitcoin dominance in 2025 is currently hovering around the 12-year daily average of 62.5%.

Key Levels in Bitcoin Dominance

Since February 2016, Bitcoin dominance has remained well below 90.0%. This reflects a turning point in the crypto market’s maturity after the ICO boom and first altcoin bull run in 2017, as the number of major altcoins expanded and their market capitalizations grew.

Similarly, after narrowly recording 70.7% on January 3, 2021, Bitcoin dominance shrank and has remained below the 70.0% level. This means that over the last 12 years, daily Bitcoin dominance has only been at 70.0% or higher for one third of the time. It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin dominance will break above the 70.0% threshold again.

Notably on April 7, 2025, Bitcoin dominance rose to reach 60.5%, crossing the 60.0% threshold for the first time in four years. Bitcoin dominance was last above this threshold when it recorded 60.6% on March 15, 2021. In total, over the last 12 years, Bitcoin dominance has been below the 60.0% threshold for just over half the time.

Bitcoin Dominance by Year (2013 – 2025)

The yearly average, low and high of Bitcoin dominance from 2013 to 2025 are as follows:

2013 to 2016: Bitcoin Monopoly of Crypto

Bitcoin dominated the crypto market from 2013 to 2016, with daily Bitcoin dominance averaging between 82.6% and 93.3% per year. During this nascent period, Bitcoin’s majority dominance of crypto reached a high of 99.1% on May 29, 2013, despite a recent Bitcoin price correction and one of the first major US regulatory actions against then-leading bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.

Despite Bitcoin holding a large majority market share of crypto, this was the period in which Bitcoin dominance experienced its 3 biggest single-day fluctuations: 

• On March 29, 2014, Bitcoin dominance decreased by 10.9 percentage points day-on-day (DoD), from 89.6% to 78.7%. This took place in the wake of the Mt. Gox collapse, and can be attributed to a jump in the total crypto market capitalization that was subsequently corrected. 

• On January 15, 2015, Bitcoin dominance fell sharply by 16.2 percentage points DoD, from 80.2% to 64.0%. The sudden dislocation was driven by Bitcoin’s price dropping from $221 the previous day, to $172, marking the bear market bottom following the Bitstamp centralized exchange hack.

• On the next day of January 16, 2015, Bitcoin dominance corrected back to 80.7% with an increase of 16.7 percentage points DoD, while Bitcoin price recovered to $211. 

2017 to 2018: ICOs & Altcoins Overshadow Bitcoin

Bitcoin dominance declined more steeply over the next two years, reaching new lows as it fell well below the 80.0% and 70.0% thresholds, amid 2017’s ICO-fuelled altcoin bull run and 2018’s bear market. On May 16, 2017, Bitcoin recorded a minority market share for the first time at 48.5%. Notably, Bitcoin dominance recorded an all-time low of 31.1% on January 16, 2018, as Bitcoin price crashed from $14,412 to $11,724 DoD.

In the last 12 years, Bitcoin dominance was arguably the most volatile in 2017, starting the year at 87.2% and shrinking by more than half to reach a minority market share of 37.6% on June 19. In the second half of the year, Bitcoin dominance briefly rose, then fell to record a yearly low of 37.5%, before rebounding again to 66.0% on December 7 and finally ending the year at 38.9%.

On the other hand, Bitcoin dominance generally followed an upward trend in 2018, increasing from 37.4% at the start, to 52.0% by year end.

2019 to 2020: Bitcoin Dominance Resurges for 3rd Halving

Bitcoin recaptured its majority dominance of the crypto market in 2019 and 2020, and maintained within a range of 48.8% to 72.5%. This period of renewed Bitcoin dominance was driven by a confluence of factors: primarily, anticipation of the 3rd Bitcoin Halving in May 2020, alongside the post-ICO flight back to quality, early institutional interest in Bitcoin as ‘digital gold’, and Bitcoin’s role as an onramp in the DeFi Summer of 2020. 

2021 to 2022: Altcoins Reassert Influence

Throughout the 2021 bull market and 2022 contagion-driven collapses, Bitcoin dominance experienced a steady decline of 30.9 percentage points, from 69.5% to 38.6%. Across these two years, Bitcoin’s dominance shrank as altcoins became more established and started to gain more influence on the crypto market. 

For 8 out of every 10 days during this period, Bitcoin represented only a minority share of the crypto market. Namely, daily Bitcoin dominance was below 50.0% for 624 of the 730 days.

Specifically in 2021, Bitcoin dominance fell from 69.5% at the start of the year, to 38.2% by year end. This was despite Bitcoin’s price rallying from $29,022 to new all-time highs and closing the year at $47,192, which represented a 62.6% increase. In comparison, the total crypto market capitalization outperformed Bitcoin by surging 200.6% from $776.4 billion to $2.3 trillion in the same period.

Whereas in 2022, Bitcoin dominance started at 37.9% and ended at 38.6%, as Bitcoin’s price correction of 64.2% was in line with the overall crypto market correction of 64.1%. In other words, Bitcoin itself was directly affected by the collapse of Terra-Luna and FTX, and investors sought to de-risk by rotating into fiat instead.

2023 to 2025: Bitcoin Goes Mainstream

In the past 3 years, Bitcoin dominance has risen steadily from a minority market share of 38.4% at the start of 2023, to 58.5% in 2025 to date. This latest resurgence in Bitcoin dominance reflects a structural shift in the crypto market, as Bitcoin gains mainstream legitimacy and institutional adoption, on the back of US spot Bitcoin ETFs approval in January 2024 and growing regulatory clarity post-FTX collapse.

Notably, Bitcoin dominance has become consistently less volatile, with smaller DoD changes ranging from -1.2 percentage points to +1.6 percentage points. In contrast, Bitcoin dominance had previously fluctuated from -16.2 percentage points to +16.7 percentage points during the 2013 to 2016 period, and from -8.8 percentage points to +7.0 percentage points during the 2017 to 2022 period.

Methodology

The study examined daily Bitcoin dominance from April 29, 2013 to July 22, 2025, based on CoinGecko data.

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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on top public companies holding Ethereum.