‘Altcoin season’ anyone? Bitcoin dominance tumbles after XRP victory

Bitcoin (BTC) dominance has taken a tumble in the wake of Ripple’s partial victory against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, with a surge in altcoin prices briefly causing BTC dominance to fall under the 50% mark.

Bitcoin dominance — the measure of how much Bitcoin makes up of the total crypto market cap — fell to 49.76% during Asian trading on July 14, according to Tradingview.

Just weeks earlier, BTC market dominance finally managed to rachet above 50% after a dry spell of two years, amid a slew of applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs from major financial firms. Over the last 24 days, Bitcoin dominance had been hovering around 51% and 52%.

BTC market cap dominance. Source: Tradingview

The recent dip in Bitcoin dominance comes as the crypto community is chanting the return of “altcoin season.”

Boosted by Ripple’s court victory the XRP token skyrocketed 83% to top out at an intraday high of $0.866, and briefly became the fourth-largest crypto asset by market capitalization. It is currently sitting at 5th place after a tussle with Binance Coin (BNB).

ALTCOIN SEASON

— Carl From The Moon (@TheMoonCarl) July 13, 2023

The move was also noticed by members of the crypto community who were avidly celebrating the Ripple triumph.

Several of the altcoins also alleged to be securities by the SEC surged double digits on July 14.

XRP declared not a security.

Bitcoin dominance: pic.twitter.com/veZDJTHQlu

— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) July 13, 2023

Ethereum (ETH) gained an impressive 8% to top $2,000 for the first time in three months while Cardano (ADA) pumped a massive 25% to reach $0.357 at the time of writing.

Solana (SOL), another token deemed a security by the SEC, was up 34% to reach $29 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Polygon (MATIC) had pumped 20% to trade at $0.854.

Stellar Lumens (XLM), a payments network launched in 2015 as a fork of the Ripple codebase, cranked over 50% on the news.

However, it remains to be seen if this altcoin rally is sustainable as the longer-term view still shows that crypto markets are range-bound.

At the time of writing, BTC dominance is back to around 50.11% just above its 50-day moving average. The asset only managed a 3.5% daily gain to top out at $31,686 and was outperformed by its altcoin brethren.

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