Bitcoin dominance back at 2021 high, boosted by ETFs

Bitcoin’s prominence in the cryptocurrency sector has reached a three-year peak, primarily influenced by strong interest in U.S. ETFs.

According to CoinMarketCap, it accounted for almost 55% of the $2.4 trillion market for virtual currencies, a level last seen in April 2021. The major coins following Bitcoin (BTC) in market share are Ether (ETH), stablecoin Tether, Binance’s BNB, and Solana (SOL).

Recently launched U.S. spot ETFs from companies such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments have quickly become notable successes, accumulating nearly $56 billion in assets. The influx of investment briefly pushed BTC to a record high of $73,798 in mid-March.

Although the coin’s price has since fallen by approximately 6%, smaller digital assets have experienced a sharper decline of over 30%, influenced by diminishing prospects of a looser U.S. monetary policy that typically encourages speculative investments.

“Allocations to the U.S. ETFs by institutional investors have resulted in Bitcoin performing very strongly relative to the rest of the market,” said Benjamin Celermajer, director at digital-asset investment manager Magnet Capital.

Additionally, introducing Hong Kong-listed ETFs for BTC and Ether has fueled a rise in their values, with BTC increasing by 4.3% to $66,575 and ETH by 6.2% to $3,260. The surge has also uplifted cryptocurrencies like Polygon, Cardano, and Dogecoin.

The market is also focused on the upcoming halving event around April 20, which is expected to cut the new supply of the token by half. While past halvings have spurred price increases, the impact of the upcoming event remains uncertain, given the coin’s recent peak performance.