Bitcoin marked a spectacular hike in its performance after election night, scaling a fresh peak of over $93,000 before settling below the $90,000 line. This rise has majorly overshadowed the alternative crypto assets, which, though generally track Bitcoin's movement, have failed to match the pace of the most prolific cryptocurrency in this bullish cycle. The Bitcoin Dominance Index (BDI), which gauges Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market value, notched a cycle zenith of 61.39% on Wednesday according to TradingView - a crest not seen since March 2021.
The BDI, although a rudimentary measure, disregards specific types of crypto assets like stablecoins tied to the U.S. dollar. To some, an alternate way to gauge Bitcoin's supremacy is the ETH/BTC trading pair - considering Ethereum is often seen as Bitcoin's main rival. Despite Ethereum's spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) showing impressive inflows recently, Ethereum hasn't maintained its post-Election Day gains compared to Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, usually the harbinger of crypto market trends, has historically seen altcoins follow its lead and sometimes outperform it. However, the current technical advancements around Bitcoin like layer-two networks and Ordinals are seen to be changing this dynamic. These allow features similar to those on alternative crypto networks like Ethereum and Solana to operate atop Bitcoin.
Institutional interest in the crypto market presently seems to be centered on the spot Bitcoin ETFs and its stature as "digital gold". This has been reinforced by campaign promises of creating a "strategic bitcoin stockpile" from the Trump administration. Further, global investment manager, BlackRock has declared Bitcoin as a unique diversification instrument.
On the other hand, Dogecoin, the meme-centric cryptocurrency has defied trends, appreciating 145% against Bitcoin over the past month, believed to be upon Elon Musk's association with a victorious Trump campaign. Musk has notably been a strong advocate for Dogecoin in the past.