BTC dominance is Bitcoin's market capitalization as a percentage of the total market capitalization of all tracked crypto assets: Bitcoin market cap ÷ total crypto market cap × 100. On Oct. 24, 2026, CoinGecko's global data put it at 59.51%. Altcoin dominance is the rest of the same total, 100% minus BTC dominance, which made it 40.49% that day. The total includes stablecoins on the major data sites, so a "falling BTC dominance" can mean money moved into dollar-pegged tokens rather than into other coins.
The formula
TradingView defines dominance as "a coin's market cap relative to the total crypto market" and expresses it as:
BTC dominance (%) = Bitcoin market cap ÷ total crypto market cap × 100
Each market cap is price multiplied by supply, so both parts of the fraction move with prices. Altcoin dominance uses the same denominator:
Altcoin dominance (%) = 100 − BTC dominance
Worked example with the Oct. 24, 2026 reading
CoinGecko's global endpoint reported, on Oct. 24, 2026:
- Total crypto market cap: about $2.71 trillion
- Bitcoin: 59.51%
- Ether: 10.52%
- Tether (USDT): 6.72%
- USD Coin (USDC): 2.64%
- Active cryptocurrencies tracked: 22,485
So Bitcoin's market cap was roughly 0.5951 × $2.71 trillion, or about $1.61 trillion. Everything that is not Bitcoin, including those two stablecoins, made up 40.49%.
Why data sites show different numbers
The formula is the same everywhere. The total it divides by is not.
- CoinMarketCap says its figure covers "cryptoassets" because it "includes tokens and stablecoins, not just cryptocurrencies."
- TradingView's BTC.D chart description bases the total on "the overall market cap of the top 125 coins."
- CoinGecko divides by every asset it tracks, 22,485 on Oct. 24, 2026, and stablecoins are part of that total.
Because the denominators differ, readings from different sites can be a few tenths of a point or more apart at the same moment. Compare readings from one source only, and check which assets it counts.
How much of Bitcoin's share is stablecoin drag?
Enter a BTC dominance reading and the stablecoin share of the same total to see Bitcoin's share once those stablecoins are left out.
| BTC dominance from one data provider | Stablecoin share of the same provider's total | Bitcoin's share of the market without those stablecoins |
|---|---|---|
| 59.51 % | 9.36 % | 65.7 % |
| 59.51 % | 6.72 % | 63.8 % |
| 59.51 % | 0 % | 59.5 % |
- Both inputs must come from the same provider at the same timestamp, because providers divide by different totals.
- Removing more stablecoins than USDT and USDC raises the result further.
This only rescales one dominance reading: it cannot tell whether a change came from other coins rising, Bitcoin falling, stablecoin growth or a provider adding assets, and it is not a forecast.
How stablecoins move the number
Stablecoins sit inside the total market cap, so they shrink Bitcoin's share even though they are designed to hold a dollar value rather than compete with Bitcoin as an investment. In the Oct. 24 CoinGecko data, USDT and USDC alone made up 9.36% of the market.
If you leave those two out of the total, Bitcoin's share of what remains is 59.51 ÷ 90.64 ≈ 65.7%. That figure is derived from CoinGecko's percentages; taking out other stablecoins as well would push it higher.
In practice, this means:
- If holders sell Bitcoin for stablecoins and stay in crypto, BTC dominance falls and "altcoin dominance" rises, though no other coin gained.
- If stablecoin supply grows while prices stay flat, BTC dominance drifts lower.
- TradingView publishes a separate USDT.D chart (Tether market cap ÷ total crypto market cap × 100%), which helps separate a move into stablecoins from a move into other coins.
What a change in dominance does and does not tell you
A drop in BTC dominance means only that Bitcoin's slice got smaller. Several very different moves produce the same result:
- Other coins rose faster than Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin fell faster than other coins.
- Stablecoin market cap grew, or holders rotated into stablecoins.
- The data site added new assets to its total.
The percentage alone cannot tell these apart. Check it next to Bitcoin's dollar market cap, the total market cap and a stablecoin dominance chart from the same provider. Dominance describes how the whole market is split. It says nothing about how any single portfolio should be divided; splitting your own holdings is a separate question, covered in how to diversify a crypto portfolio.
Quick checklist for reading a dominance chart
- Which provider, and what does its total include: all tracked assets, or a top-N list?
- Are stablecoins in the denominator?
- What is the timestamp of the reading?
- Did Bitcoin's dollar market cap actually change, or only its share?
The Oct. 24, 2026 figures above are a snapshot: dominance moves with every price change in Bitcoin and in the rest of the market.
