King of the Hill
Greener Pastures! Crypto markets make modest gains on the day amid a down day for a stock market that continues to inch towards new all-time highs. The total crypto market cap (TOTAL) is green, up 3.7%, but broadly alts are struggling against Bitcoin. What's driving BTC outperformance?
Ethereum continues to demonstrate persistent weakness against Bitcoin, with the ETH/BTC ratio now at risk of breaching the absolute lows it set during the 3AC implosion. Some are attributing Ether weakness towards the Celsius estate’s persistent offloading of ETH.
We have found that Celsius has sold $243M worth of $ETH over the past 30 days.
— An Ape's Prologue (@apes_prologue) December 19, 2023
This selling activity happened despite their initial plan to redistribute those assets in kind, meaning they should not be liquidated for cash.
They still have $3.94B in digital assets remaining,… pic.twitter.com/9qRAiTfe1j
While Celsius’ sell pressure undoubtedly has some impact on the ratio, its decline follows a yearslong trend of broader altcoin attrition against Bitcoin and that cannot be simply linked to a single source.
During 2023, Bitcoin dominance increased by 14% and practically every asset found itself in BTC’s shadow. The asset rarely found itself without a compelling narrative last year, be it as an ultra-hard money resistant from banking system collapse or number one candidate for external inflows thanks to inbound spot ETF approval.
Some assets have managed to outperform Bitcoin during the year, like the heavily oversold SOL and shiny new alts with low float like TIA, but the majority continue to struggle and likely will until Bitcoin no longer has the most compelling narratives at its back.