FTX.US President Backs Ethereum, Solana to Steal from Bitcoin’s Market Share, Avalanche (AVAX) Hits a Six-Week High

Partially due to its first-mover advantage, Satoshi's creation Bitcoin has enjoyed an unchallenged spell at the top in the market over the years. Though the flagship cryptocurrency has maintained a considerable market share with respect to other cryptocurrencies, its dominance has gradually been decreasing.

Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin currently has a marginally over 42% dominance. While this figure is still astounding (more than double its closest rival, Ethereum, at 19%), it represents a falling curve.

As per statistic platform Statista, Bitcoin's market capital relative to others has been falling inchmeal. The share in the crypto market stood at 66% in January 2020, dropping to 61.65% in January 2021. By May last year, Bitcoin dominance had fallen to its lowest level since mid-2018 when it struck a bottom of 37%.

PoS ecosystems like Solana have a case, FTX.US boss suggests

On Monday, FTX.US president Brett Harrison became the latest name to talk about the growing dominance of alts like Solana. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box program, he noted that Ethereum and other altcoins would keep biting out of Bitcoin's market share.

The FTX.US boss explained that the underlying Proof of Stake mechanism in alts gives them an edge over the OG cryptocurrency. Specifically, Harrison earmarked Ether and Solana as two of the proof-of-stake tokens whose market share will continue growing as Bitcoin's declines.

“Assets like Ether, other alternatives assets like Solana, and these other coins are all picking up in terms of total market cap. Over time, we're just going to see less and less of the total market share come from just one asset, from bitcoin alone,” he said.

Proof-of-Stake tokens recorded their biggest growth last year as concerns around Bitcoin's energy-intensive Proof-of-Work model heightened. Statista data shows that altcoins' dominance increased from 38.35% in January 2021 to 61.76% at the end of the year.

Last month, Binance shared a post on Bitcoin's shrinking dominance, detailing that altcoin are mounting a serious challenge. The post referenced a report from BitPay highlighting the share each crypto represented in the crypto payments space. Bitcoin topped the list, albeit its dominance had reduced by about 27% from 92% to 65% between 2020 and 2021. Another report from the Financial Review painted a similar picture.

To learn more about Ethereum and Solana, check out our Ethereum and Solana guides.

AVAX, one of the top gainers on the day, up 5% in the last 24 hours

Now, into the market, most cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Solana, are trading sideways on Wednesday. Contrastingly, AVAX, the native token of the fast smart contract blockchain platform Avalanche, is flying high in the market.

The token has recorded approximately 5% of gains in the last 24 hours, while the majority of coins are struggling to gain ground. No other crypto-asset among the top 20 has seen a bigger green candle than AVAX, which is currently trading at $93.05.

AVAX/USD 24-hr trading chart

Earlier today, AVAX/USD notched a six-week high of $97.02 as per data from CoinMarketCap. Despite seeing a mid-week rally, the token is trading 35.47% below its November record high of $146.22.

Avalanche's recent upsurge has also been reflected in the DeFi sector. The chain has gotten back on its feet following a weekend TVL slump. Avalanche's total value locked (TVL) figure fell to $10.44 billion on Friday before plunging further to $10.6 billion on Monday. Since then, the TVL has increased by 6.88% to $11.18 billion at press time.

The leading projects on Avalanche have all posted positive 1-day changes. Aave, which dominates the chain with 29.51% of the TVL, leads in gains with 3.50% in the last 24 hours. The third-ranked native protocol Benqi has similarly seen its TVL jump by 3.12%. Second place Trader Joe has the lowest increase among the top three with a 1.62% 1-day change.

It is worth noting that Avalanche only reclaimed the $10 billion mark at the start of last week. Avalanche's 4.57% 1-day change has also helped narrow the gap between Avalanche and third-place & newly rebranded BNB Chain by $0.5 billion.

To learn more about Avalanche, visit our Investing in Avalanche guide.