Altcoins have taken over bitcoin in terms of outperformance this month. While the crypto market as a whole has suffered losses, bitcoin has declined more in a time when the digital asset would have served as safe haven for investors. Now, with altcoins taking the lead in terms of recovery, it points to the downtrend worsening over time, especially for bitcoin.

Bitcoin Fails To Hold Up

Bitcoin, for the last month, has had its fair share of ups and downs. However, despite being a market mover, the digital asset has fallen short when it comes to holding its value. It saw an overall decline of 13% in the month of August, the highest of any of the other indexes.


The Large Cap Index is the index that follows the movement of bitcoin the closes, so it comes as no surprise that it saw the second-largest decline in the same time period. The Large Cap Index fell 12% in August alone, leaving the market at the mercy of its smaller counterparts.

Bitcoin and altcoins

Altcoins outperform BTC | Source: Arcane Research

In a surprising turn of events, the Small and Mid Cap Indexes saw price declines of 10%, respectively. Normally, in a market such as this, investors would be exiting both indexes en masse, given how highly volatile they can be. However, they have proven to be a better safe haven through this market compared to Bitcoin and the Large Cap Index. Nevertheless, each index saw double-digit declines, which is never a good sign for the crypto market.

Stablecoins Regain Dominance

Bitcoin still remains the most dominant cryptocurrency in the market, but it is quickly losing this bragging right by the day. Instead, as its price has plummeted and investors fear the worst, they have moved into stablecoins to provide some much-needed cover from the market volatility. In light of this, the stablecoin dominance continues to rise.

Bitcoin dominance chart from TradingView.com

Dominance recovers to 40.18% | Source: Market Cap BTC Dominance on TradingView.com

For another week, bitcoin’s dominance is down again, this time by 0.65%, and stablecoins have been on the sidelines to soak it all up. USDT saw its market dominance grow by 0.15%, while USDC saw its dominance grow by 0.11%. BUSD, another strong contender, was able to add another 0.06% to its dominance for the same time period.

Interestingly, Ethereum also saw an increase in its market dominance despite the poor performance of the Large Cap Index. The altcoin, whose upcoming ‘Merge’ has greatly excited the market, saw its market dominance rise by 0.24%.


Bitcoin’s dominance touched a new 7-month on 30th August when it fell to 39.35%. Ethereum’s market dominance is now sitting at 19.81%. With USDT, USDC, and BUSD at 6.81%, 5.27%, and 1.94% respectively.