Despite large numbers of cryptocurrency fans and investors clamoring for a so-called “alt season,” the gulf between the market capitalization of Bitcoin and that of all other cryptoassets combined is widening.

Some experts in the industry have long been confident that such a decoupling is vital if Bitcoin is to avoid another spectacular 80 percent (or more) drop in price.

When Bitcoin prices rise as sharply as they have been of late, it’s only natural that you’re going to check on the day’s gains and losses across the crypto-asset market more frequently. If you have been, you may have noticed a curious phenomenon when loading up your chosen price index.

When Bitcoin goes up, most altcoins also rise. The inverse is often true, too. This year, however, the synchronicity between BTC and the rest of the cryptocurrency market has been dropping. Essentially, the market leader appears to be decoupling from altcoins.

Portfolio Manager at Robeco Asset Manager, Jeroen Blokland, highlighted this via Twitter earlier today.

In the above Tweet, Blokland observes that the relative value of the altcoin market is down almost 40 percent this year, alone, versus that of Bitcoin. This has put Bitcoin back up to almost 63 percent dominance — a high not observed since December 2017.

Bitcoin continuing to decouple from (and outperform) altcoins may be an indication of the market maturing.

Civic (CVC) CEO and founder, Vinny Lingham, has argued that there is no good reason for the synchronicity in price moves often observed in the cryptocurrency markets. Earlier this year, he put down his musings on the subject in a Twitter thread:

In the thread, the South African entrepreneur argues that the fact that almost all crypto assets frequently move in tandem with Bitcoin shows that the market is not sophisticated enough to discern the merits of different projects and remains content to pour money into anything related to blockchain or cryptocurrency.

Lingham did speculate that if Bitcoin could pass $6,200, it would likely trigger another massive speculative mania. However, he warned that, if altcoins continued to rise without merit alongside Bitcoin, the situation is “likely not going to end well again.”

What do you think? Will there be gains across the altcoin markets like in 2017 or will investors need to be more selective this time around? Let us know what you think in the comments below.