Bitcoin Dominance Surges to Three Year High on Growing Trade War Fears

Bitcoin’s dominance, its share of the cryptocurrency market, has surged more than 4.25% over the past week to now stand at 61.5% amid a widespread market sell-off over concerns of a trade war between the United States and its major trading partners including China, Canada, and Mexico.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced late Friday that the country was imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, with 10% applying to Canadian energy, and a 10% tariff on China. This led to the other countries announcing retaliatory measures, which sparked fears of a full-blown trade war.

These fears saw traditional markets plunge, and affected the cryptocurrency space significantly with various top altcoins including Ethereum, XRP, BNB, and ADA seeing double-digit declines in just 24 hours, while BTC itself dropped to a $92,500 low before recovering. The cryptocurrency is now trading at $98,500.

As it significantly outperformed the wider cryptocurrency market over the past 24-hour period, BTC’s dominance surged to a 64% high before retreating to its current level above 60% and at a three-year high, TradingView data shows.

Trade war concerns have eased significantly over the last few hours after Mexico’s president revealed tariffs will be halted for a month after discussions were held with Trump. To secure the halt, Mexico committed to deploying 10,000 national guard troops to secure the border and work with the U.S. on “security and business.”

Bitcoin, Crypto Prices Could Benefit From Trade War

Despite thee ongoing concerns surrounding a potential trade war some analysts have suggested such an event could be bullish for cryptocurrency prices. Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at financial services firm Bitwise, has argued that tariffs could weaken the U.S. dollar.

In such a scenario, Park suggested Bitcoin could be a significant beneficiary and could rise “higher, violently faster” given its neutral position as an alternative asset. The cryptocurrency has nevertheless behaved like a risk asset on the announcements, dropping amid escalating fears of a full-blown trade war, and recovering when these started easing.