Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Dominance Falls Below 60% as Altcoins Rally

By MRM · 27 September 2026

Bitcoin dominance fell below 60% this week, a shift that historians of the metric say has happened only four times before. The drop, recorded for the week ending September 26, 2026, came even as bitcoin’s own price rose 3.3% over the same stretch, trading near $84,000.

Bitcoin dominance measures bitcoin’s share of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. A falling reading usually means capital is rotating into smaller tokens rather than fleeing the market altogether, and that pattern held true this week. According to data reported by 24/7 Wall St, several mid-cap coins posted sharp weekly gains: Litecoin rose 23.7%, Cardano climbed 12.7%, Dogecoin added 12.0%, Chainlink gained 11.9%, Stellar rose 11.2%, XRP advanced 10.4% and Solana added 9.3%.

Separately, research site CryptoBriefing put bitcoin dominance at roughly 58.5% as of September 26, with the broader altcoin market — excluding bitcoin — now valued between $1.17 trillion and $1.19 trillion, up 33% since mid-August.

Bitcoin dominance drop looks different this time

Analysts flagged one detail that separates this episode from the three prior times bitcoin dominance broke below 60%: bitcoin itself kept attracting fresh money rather than being sold down. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in roughly $2.4 billion between September 21 and 25, according to 24/7 Wall St, even as altcoins outperformed on a percentage basis.

That combination has made forecasters cautious about calling a full “altcoin season.” Glassnode’s Altcoin Cycle Signal reached 81.25 on September 22, but the widely tracked Altcoin Season Index remained in the 45-to-53 range, short of the 75 threshold typically used to confirm a broad altcoin rally.

The key risk analysts are watching is a reversal in ETF flows. If daily inflows into bitcoin ETFs turn to outflows while altcoins keep climbing through October, that pattern would echo conditions seen in 2021.