Bitcoin's 'Market Dominance' Climbs Above 50% For First Time Since May

Bitcoin's market capitalization relative to the rest of the cryptocurrency market has risen above 50% for the first time in two months, according to a popularly used metric.

CoinMarketCap's Bitcoin Dominance Index has climbed as high as 51.62% today, the site reports. The last time this metric was above the 50% mark was on May 27.

Back in early March, the dominance index was above 80%, though it began to decline over the following months as prices increased in other cryptocurrency markets, falling below 40% last month. At press time, the index is at 51%.

Market data suggests that the index shift is being spurred by a rise in the price of bitcoin and declines for some of the world's other major cryptocurrencies, including ether and XRP.

At press time, the price of bitcoin is up more than 3% since the day's open, trading at about $2,791 after markets hit a high of $2,833.24, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). By comparison, ether prices are down nearly 5% on the day, trading at around $194.

Screen capture via CoinMarketCap

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