Get Ready for a Wild Ride: Bitcoin and Memecoins Set to Dominate Q4, Experts Predict
- According to the report, the rise of altcoins was sluggish, but the rise of BTC and Mimcoin was notable.
- BTC dominance has risen, but the size of the overall virtual asset market has decreased.
- The increased popularity of meme coins was also pointed out as a cause of polarization.
On the 30th, Dispread Research, a research organization of Web3 consulting firm Dispread, announced that it had published a report analyzing the reasons for the deepening polarization of Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin prices. Altcoins refer to virtual assets other than BTC.
According to the report, the rise of altcoins was sluggish, but the rise of BTC and Mimcoin was notable. In fact, the dominance of BTC and Ethereum (ETH) showed conflicting views this year. Dominance is an indicator that shows the proportion of the market capitalization of a specific virtual asset in the entire industry. BTC dominance has steadily risen this year, reaching 57% as of the 9th, but ETH dominance has gradually declined since last August, with a share of less than 15%.
BTC dominance has risen, but the size of the overall virtual asset market has decreased. The total market capitalization of virtual assets was about $2.6 trillion in March, but decreased to $2.3 trillion on the 25th. The explanation is that capital was concentrated on BTC or individual virtual assets rather than the entire market growing together.
The increased popularity of meme coins was also pointed out as a cause of polarization. The report said, “There was more demand for MEMCOINs listed on decentralized exchanges (DEX) than on centralized exchanges (CEXs).” According to a survey by The Block, DEX trading volume increased by about 14% this month. Trading increase in February (7.9%), this figure is almost twice as high as the Solana-based DEX ‘Radium’, which led the meme coin trend, also recorded a high trading volume.
On the other hand, the situation of newly emerged altcoins is not good. Recently released projects such as STRK, ZK, and BLAST received attention as promising projects in the market, but their price trends were sluggish. Seunghwa Lee, Head of Dispread Research Team, said, “The positive momentum in the virtual asset market continues due to the prevailing public opinion of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and the improvement of the macroeconomic environment. However, unlike previous bull markets, the impact was concentrated on BTC or some memecoins.” He said. He added, “We need to pay attention to changes in the virtual asset market following the U.S. presidential election.”