Bitcoin now represents more than half of the crypto market for the first time since April 2021, suggesting the most valuable cryptocurrency may be gearing up for a pre-halving bull market.
According to TradingView, Bitcoin accounts for 50.06% of the combined market cap from the top 125 digital assets, evidence of BTC’s resilience amid the recent altcoin rout.
Bitcoin’s share of the market crashed from nearly 70% at the start of 2021 and has since oscillated between 40% and 48%.
Bitcoin Halving Approaches
Bitcoin’s relative outperformance comes as its next halving looms in ten months’ time. The rate of new BTC issued to Proof of Work miners is cut in half every four years, with the event historically foreshadowing new all-time highs for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency markets.
The Bitcoin network currently issues 6.25 BTC per block or roughly 900 BTC daily. After the next halving, predicted to take place in late April 2024, 3.125 new Bitcoin will enter circulation with each block.
BTC is the 20th-best performing cryptocurrency among the top 100 digital assets by market cap over the past seven days, with a 2.7% gain. Only 29 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies gained more than 1% in a choppy week for markets.
BTC is up 68% since the start of the year, according to The Defiant Terminal.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF
Bitcoin’s price action also follows BlackRock’s filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), a surge in on-chain activity surrounding digital tokens, and heavy accumulation from whales.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $8.6T in assets, filed for a Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 15. Coinbase, the top U.S.-based centralized exchange, would provide Bitcoin custody and price data services for the ETF, while BNY Mellon will be its cash custodian.
Shares in a Bitcoin ETF would be traded on a traditional exchange, offering retail investors exposure to BTC through a regulated platform. However, the SEC is yet to approve a Bitcoin ETF despite receiving numerous previous applications.
Bitcoin Activity Trends Higher
In April, the number of daily transactions processed by the Bitcoin network surged to all-time highs above 350,000 amid a spike of activity driven by interest in digital tokens.
Ordinals, an inscription method used to create assets resembling NFTs, launched in January, followed in March by the BRC-20 token standard, which drew inspiration from Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens, giving rise to new use cases for the Bitcoin blockchain.
On-chain activity peaked at more than 682,000 transactions per day in May and has since cooled off to 415,000 per day.
Whale Accumulation
According to Santiment, wallets holding between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC added 131,600 Bitcoin worth $3.5B since April 4. The sum of BTC held by these whales is now at a seven-month high.
ETH Posts Modest Inflationary Week
ETH posted a modest gain of 2.3% in the past seven daysafter dipping down to $1,630 on Friday. The price of ETH is up 44% since January.
On-chain activity remains low on Ethereum after the recent wave of memecoin trading appears to have subsided. NFT activity on Ethereum has also fallen 80% since March.
Ethereum’s burn rate fell just shy of offsetting new supply issuance over the past seven days, with 23 Ether added to ETH’s circulating supply, according to Ultra Sound Money. Ethereum’s supply is down 281,909 Ether ($487M) since The Merge went live 10 months ago.
