Despite weekend dip, bitcoin’s market dominance hits highest level since April 2021

 While the stock market was closed this weekend and unable to react to the news of Israel being the target of an Iranian drone attack, the crypto market was ready to respond.

Assets across the board took a dip as traders recalibrated their portfolios and scaled back risky bets. Bitcoin itself fell from over $70,000 on Friday, April 12, to just over $63,000 at the end of April 13, dropping roughly 11.6% from its high on Friday to its low on Saturday.

Bitcoin was actually one of the cryptocurrencies least impacted. According to Coinglass, there were over $757 million worth of long liquidations on centralized exchanges on Saturday, but only $261 million worth were on bitcoin positions.

While most crypto assets do fall into the “risk” category for traders, bitcoin is arguably the least risky cryptocurrency, boasting the largest market capitalization and a decent track record of institutional adoption. On the other hand, something like Dogecoin is more speculative, and DOGE fell almost 30% from its high on Friday to its low on Saturday.

Most assets seemed to have hit a relative bottom towards the end of Saturday and have seen a slight rebound.

In theory, bitcoin had the potential to surge in this situation, given that it's also supposed to be a “safe haven” since it's not tied to any one government or country. Gold has been on a tear recently due to fears over the Middle East conflict, which could have spread over to what is often referred to as “digital gold” as well.

But, without the stock market open, bitcoin and its cryptocurrency companions were forced to take the brunt of the fall.

Even with bitcoin taking a hit, it still was a top performer.

Bitcoin’s dominance, or the share of bitcoin’s market cap relative to the total market cap across cryptocurrencies, jumped to 52.86% on Sunday, the highest since April 2021.

Bitcoin’s dominance dropped as low as 43% in February as altcoins surged amidst a broader rally, pushing bitcoin to its lowest level of dominance since March 2023.

That has now all been reversed as bitcoin took more tepid heat over the weekend, allowing it to claim its most sizable market share in three years.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry’s most thought-provoking trends.