Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to ever be created, and any crypto assets created after it are referred to as altcoins. These altcoins promise to improve upon Bitcoin in a number of ways – from faster transaction speeds to a larger supply and other attributes – and to bring investors gains similar to that of early Bitcoin investors.

But not only has Bitcoin outperformed most altcoins in 2019 and historically, but altcoins may also be responsible for the asset’s bear market, and the reason why crypto winter may be returning once again.

Altcoins Responsible for 2018 Bitcoin Bear Market

2017 was the year that put crypto on the map and brought the emerging technology and budding asset class into the mainstream limelight. During that year, there was an explosion of ICOs and dozens of new altcoins were popping up by the day. Bitcoin went parabolic and set an all-time high of $20,000.

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Shortly after that, altcoins began to skyrocket and set their all-time highs in the days following Bitcoin, then the entire market began to fall. At that peak, BTC dominance – a metric used to weight the leading crypto asset against the rest of the market – was at its lowest point ever. Since then, BTC dominance has only grown.

One of the most prominent and respected crypto analysts in the space, 100TrillionUSD, says that this rise and fall in altcoins, was responsible for Bitcoin’s bear market in 2018 and not CME futures the crypto community likes to point fingers at.

Some people blame CME or Bakkt futures for #bitcoin's bear market. IMO the rise and fall of altcoins is a more likely driver of 2017-2019 btc prices. Btc dominance fell from 98% to 40% … and is now back at 70% (and counting). Bitcoin up 8x since the start of alt experiment ? pic.twitter.com/dC4ZCMuXzc — PlanB ? (@100trillionUSD) September 30, 2019

The analyst says that since the “alt experiment” Bitcoin’s value has grown 8x in value, while Bitcoin dominance rose from 40% to 70% “and counting.”

Alt Apocalypse Also May Have Caused Most Recent Crypto Crash

If altcoins were responsible for the 2018 bear market, could they also be responsible for Bitcoin’s recent collapse? Given the negativity surrounding altcoins and crypto-assets like XRP setting new bear market lows, it is quite possible.

In fact, with sentiment surrounding altcoins being so low, and assets setting fresh yearly lows, it’s possible that the bear market never ended for altcoins like it did with Bitcoin, and the sell pressure across the industry and market in altcoins has spilled over into Bitcoin markets, causing the price to break down from the multi-month triangle formation it was trading within.

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Ahead of the crash, which saw as much as 20% of Bitcoin’s value wiped out in 48 hours, altcoins began to rally, but the rally was short-lived and a rejection in Etheruem and XRP may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Now, not only could altcoins be back in a bear market – or never left it in the first place – Bitcoin’s bull run may be in jeopardy and the current downtrend could drag the leading crypto asset by market cap back into a bear market.

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