The index measuring bitcoin’s market share has finally increased above 50% range, while the price of the cryptocurrency is getting close to $2,800 level.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization surpassed 50% mark for the first time in two months, according to CoinMarketCap. The index has likely been driven by the growing bitcoin value and the declining price of other virtual currencies.
Bitcoin Dominance Index has reached 51.62% on Friday, with its market cap now amounting to $44 billion. At the time of writing, the index accounted for 51.7%.
This week, bitcoin’s price has surged to a maximum of $2825 across major exchanges. The digital currency is nearing $2,800 and is now estimated at $2726.57. The growth is mostly attributed to the rising demand from investors as well as the activation of Segregated Witness solution.
Unlike bitcoin, other virtual currencies are now losing their value. Ethereum, a crytocurrency with the second largest market cap, decreased by 5% and is now valued at $190 per coin. Ripple is falling too, with its price accounting for $0.16 at the time of writing.
Overall, 2017 has been a good year for bitcoin which more than tripled in value. Although it is now dominating the cryptocurrency market in terms of usage and market cap, some consider that other digital currencies, such as Litecoin, are a better investment due to a number of factors.
If compared to bitcoin, litecoin offers lower barriers to entry for miners. As Futurism writes, it has simpler algorithm, what makes it easier to run on graphics processing units (GPUs). The digital currency’s lifetime cap is 84 million coins, while bitcoin’s amounts to 24 million.
Besides, litecoin is more attractive to investors due to lower transaction fees. Also, the lightning network will soon be implemented on Litecoin, thus making it easier for the network to scale. Although there is a chance for litecoin to become a leading digital currency, it is difficult to predict what will happen on the market, as it is highly volatile now.
Investors became more confident about bitcoin due to the finalization of SegWit activation and the clarification of bitcoin companies’ position on the Bitcoin Cash hard fork solution proposed by ViaBTC. Most cryptocurrency businesses said they will not support Bitcoin Cash as a legitimate fork of bitcoin. Such exchanges as GDAX and Coinbase claimed they will consider it as an alternative digital currency instead. ViaBTC, however, still plans to implement the Bitcoin Cash hard fork that will create a separate version of the original blockchain.
In the meantime, digital market analysts from Goldman Sachs as well as from other financial institutions believe that bitcoin’s upward trend will continue. According to the head of technical strategy at Goldman Sachs, bitcoin will surpass $3,600 in the near future.
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