Bitcoin Dominance ‘Crash’ Sparks Altcoin Frenzy, But Traders Spot One Major Problem

Bitcoin’s share of the crypto market appeared to collapse from 60% to 24% on TradingView on Monday. It did not happen. The charting site’s own market total had broken.

The glitch gave the impression that a huge altcoin rally would begin. Altcoins are every cryptocurrency except Bitcoin (BTC), and their holders were reading a false signal.

How A Broken Chart Looks Like an Altcoin Boom

Bitcoin dominance is Bitcoin’s slice of the whole crypto market’s value. When it falls, money is usually flowing into other coins. Traders call that altcoin season.

TradingView builds its market total from the 125 largest coins, according to its support page. Dominance is Bitcoin’s value divided by that total.

On Monday, that total suddenly jumped above $6 trillion. A bigger total shrank Bitcoin’s share on paper. Bitcoin itself never moved.

“Are the parameters glitched, or are market makers hinting at a MASSIVE altseason?” Crypto Rover remarked.

What the Real Numbers Say About Altcoins

CoinMarketCap still put Bitcoin dominance at 60.3%. Its Altcoin Season Index read 40 out of 100. CoinGlass showed 44.

The index counts how many of the top 100 coins beat Bitcoin over 90 days. Altcoin season needs a score of 75. Most altcoins are still losing to Bitcoin.

This is not new. BeInCrypto reported a year ago that dominance passed 60% while fewer than 5% of altcoins beat Bitcoin. Analysts were already split on altcoin season months earlier.

When Will TradingView Fix It?

TradingView had not explained Monday’s error publicly at the time of writing. Its help page says a large coin entering or leaving its top 125 can jolt the total. Whether that happened here is unconfirmed.

The same page says big spikes can be smoothed out by hand later. Until then, the viral posts ask whether altcoin season has arrived. The index built to answer that question says no.