Bitcoin dominance.
Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market cap, live. The same measure the Fear & Greed Index weights at 10%.
Bitcoin dominance
59.71%
Bitcoin-led (> 55%)
Reference bands used on this page — a descriptive label, not an industry standard.
Updated October 15, 2026
What the market is made of
Bitcoin's market cap divided by the total crypto market cap. "Everything else" is the remainder, so the three shares always add up to 100%.
Bitcoin market cap
$1.62T
Total market cap
$2.72T
-6.20% 24h
Market cap excluding Bitcoin
$1.10T
Ethereum dominance
10.58%
Total market cap minus the Bitcoin market cap shown here. Includes Ethereum and stablecoins. The ‘Everything else’ share above excludes both BTC and ETH.
Dominance inside the Fear & Greed Index
Bitcoin dominance is one of the six inputs to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, weighted at 10%. That index reads a rising dominance as fear: when traders get nervous they tend to rotate out of altcoins and back into Bitcoin, so Bitcoin's share of the market climbs while the mood sours.
Open the Fear & Greed IndexWhat Bitcoin dominance measures
Bitcoin dominance is Bitcoin's market capitalisation expressed as a percentage of the market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies combined. If the whole crypto market is worth 2 trillion and Bitcoin accounts for 1.1 trillion of it, dominance is 55%.
It is a purely relative measure, and that is the part most often misread. Dominance says nothing about whether Bitcoin went up or down — only about how Bitcoin performed compared with everything else. Bitcoin can fall 10% and gain dominance, provided altcoins fell further.
Two separate forces move the number. The first is price: Bitcoin rising or falling against the rest of the market. The second is the denominator itself, which is not fixed — new tokens get counted, stablecoin supply expands and contracts, and projects appear and die. A dominance change is always some mix of the two.
The reading on this page divides Bitcoin's market cap by the whole-market total, both refreshed from the same market data feed. It is not the sum of the coins listed on this site, which would give a smaller denominator and a flatteringly high dominance figure.
How to read a move in dominance
Rising dominance means Bitcoin's market capitalization is growing faster, or falling more slowly, than the rest of the market. In drawdowns that can reflect a flight to safety, with traders selling riskier altcoins and holding Bitcoin, which is why the Crypto Fear & Greed Index treats rising dominance as a fear signal. The ratio alone cannot confirm that anyone moved money, though: altcoin prices falling faster than Bitcoin's produce the same reading.
Falling dominance means the rest of the market is gaining share against Bitcoin. People call strong periods of this "alt season" and often read it as rising risk appetite, but the ratio cannot tell rotation from relative performance: dominance also falls when Bitcoin sells off harder than altcoins, and when stablecoin supply grows, without anyone selling Bitcoin.
Because of that ambiguity, dominance says little on its own and becomes more informative next to the direction of total market cap. Total cap up with dominance up is consistent with Bitcoin leading a rally; total cap up with dominance down, with broader gains elsewhere. Total cap down with dominance up is consistent with a defensive shift toward Bitcoin; total cap down with dominance down means Bitcoin is falling faster than the rest of the market combined. These combinations describe relative capitalization; they do not show where any particular money moved or which assets fell most.
Treat the number as a description of market structure, not as a trade signal: it shows how market capitalization is currently distributed, not where money is moving or will move next.
Limitations worth knowing
Stablecoins sit in the denominator. A large share of total crypto market cap is dollar-pegged tokens, so when stablecoin supply grows, Bitcoin dominance falls even though nobody rotated out of Bitcoin. Some data providers publish a dominance figure that excludes stablecoins, which is one reason the number differs between sites.
The denominator is not comparable across years. Thousands of assets have been added to market-cap indices since 2017, and each one mechanically dilutes Bitcoin's share. A dominance reading from an earlier cycle is not measuring the same universe as today's, so long-horizon comparisons overstate how much genuine rotation occurred.
Wrapped and bridged Bitcoin is counted separately. Tokens that represent Bitcoin on other chains carry their own market cap line, so a slice of what is economically Bitcoin exposure sits outside the Bitcoin figure.
Finally, market cap is circulating supply times price, and circulating supply is an estimate. Locked, lost and unissued tokens are treated differently by different providers, which moves the denominator before any trading happens.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal level for Bitcoin dominance?
There is no official normal. Across cycles the figure has swung roughly between 35% and 70%. Readings in the low 40s and below have historically coincided with altcoin-heavy phases, and readings in the high 50s and above with Bitcoin-led ones. The bands shown on this page are descriptive labels for those ranges, not a standard anyone else follows.
Does falling dominance mean alt season has started?
Not by itself. Dominance falls whenever altcoins outperform Bitcoin, and that includes periods when everything is falling and Bitcoin is simply falling faster. Check the direction of total market cap at the same time: a genuine rotation shows falling dominance while total cap holds up or rises.
Why does Bitcoin dominance differ between websites?
Because the denominator differs. Providers disagree on which assets to include, how to estimate circulating supply, and whether to count stablecoins at all. Excluding stablecoins alone can move the figure by several percentage points. Compare a site against itself over time rather than comparing two sites on the same day.
How often does the figure on this page update?
Both the Bitcoin market cap and the whole-market total come from our market data cache, which is refreshed continuously. The page does not read it on every request: a reading can be reused for a short time, and if a read fails the last good reading stays on the page. The timestamp under the reading shows the oldest provider observation behind it, across the market total and the Bitcoin and Ethereum market caps.
Can Bitcoin dominance predict the next move?
No. It is a description of how capital is currently distributed, and it is backward-looking by construction. It is most useful as context for a decision you are already making for other reasons — for example, understanding whether the altcoin position you hold is fighting a broad rotation into Bitcoin.