Spoils Of The Merge: Bitcoin Proof Of Work Dominance Rises To 94%

With the Ethereum Merge successfully completed, bitcoin has seen its biggest proof of work competitor network eliminated. While the pioneer digital asset had maintained the largest share of the proof of work networks prior to the Ethereum Merge, it is now in almost complete control of all the market cap of these coins. So while the crypto market celebrates Ethereum’s latest upgrade, it gives the bitcoin community something to celebrate too.

Bitcoin Now At 94% Dominance

After the exit of Ethereum as a proof of work network, the top 10 proof of work coins now share a combined market cap of $403 billion. Bitcoin alone commands a massive market cap of $378 billion, which makes it not only the largest proof of work coin but the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Given this, bitcoin now commands approximately 94% of the market cap of all the proof of work coins. 

The second-largest proof of work coin by market cap is now Dogecoin at $7.8 billion. The meme coin, which had grown to prominence back in the bull run of 2021, continues to see favorable growth in the crypto market, although its price is currently down more than 90% from its all-time high.

Ethereum Classic comes in 3rd place with a market cap of around $5.2 billion. Interestingly, Ethereum Classic had grown to this market cap by capitalizing off the hype from the Merge. Additionally, Ethereum miners who were being kicked off the network began transferring their mining capacity to what is referred to as the ‘Original Ethereum,’ causing a surge in its price.

Coming in at 4th and 5th place are Litecoin and Monero, with market caps of $4 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. The latter is interesting in the fact that it is a privacy coin that is untraceable, making it popular among cryptocurrency investors who wish to keep their dealing completely secret.

Struggling With Market Domination

Although bitcoin is now showing significant strength across the proof of work coins, it is still having a hard time maintaining its dominance over the larger crypto market. Interestingly, just five years ago, bitcoin’s crypto market dominance was higher than 95%. However, this has changed as altcoins gain favor among investors. 

From 2017 until now, bitcoin’s market dominance has declined by more than 50%. It is currently sitting just above 40% at the time of this writing, a level that it has struggled to maintain over the last couple of months. The bear market has also played significantly into the decline of bitcoin’s crypto market dominance.

The market crash has triggered a flee to safety on the part of investors, and they have been taking refuge in stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, and BUSD. As a result, the market dominance of these stablecoins has been growing. 

Ethereum’s dominance, on the other hand, has grown significantly in the last five years. It is now the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a market dominance of 19.58%.

Featured image from NewsBTC, chart from TradingView.com

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