Among the top 50 tokens by market capitalization, merely six altcoins have surpassed Bitcoin (BTC) performance this year, as Bitcoin dominance surged to a three-year peak over the weekend.
Leading the pack is Dogecoin (DOGE), a memecoin, boasting a remarkable year-to-date surge of over 77%. Its price escalated from $0.09 on January 1st to $0.15 at present, according to TradingView data.
Other standout performers include fellow memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB), Bitcoin smart contract network Stacks (STX), Binance’s BNB, Ethereum layer-2 network Mantle (MNT), and GPU-sharing blockchain network Render (RNDR).
Bitcoin itself has exhibited substantial growth, climbing from $44,100 on January 1st to $65,000 currently, translating to a year-to-date gain of 54%.
Many attribute this surge to consistent institutional investments flowing into the ten US-traded spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved earlier this year, amassing over $12 billion in cumulative net inflows, as per Farside Investors data.
Noteworthy is Bitcoin’s dominance, which reached a new three-year high of 56.5% on April 13th, rebounding strongly from a marketwide downturn triggered by escalating tensions in the Middle East.
While Bitcoin regained momentum thereafter, most smaller altcoins struggled and experienced significant price declines.
According to an investment note from IG Market analyst Tony Sycamore dated April 14th, Bitcoin seems poised for its fourth consecutive weekly decline, with investor sentiment dampened by the absence of further U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes.
Despite prevailing pessimism towards risk assets, Sycamore anticipates a gradual ascent for Bitcoin, potentially reaching around $80,000 in the coming months, contingent upon its ability to maintain support above key levels.
“Should Bitcoin hold above the [$60,000–$58,000] support range, we anticipate a resurgence towards $80,000,” Sycamore stated.
