Bitcoin (BTC) dominance has been steadily rising since 2023

The current BTC market dominance is roughly 61.6%, down from the local peak of 64.3% recorded on Feb. 3.

Bitcoin (BTC) dominance, a measure of the flagship cryptocurrency's overall share of the crypto market, has been steadily rising since 2023 amid a torrent of new cryptocurrency coins and tokens.

The current BTC market dominance is roughly 61.6%, down from the local peak of 64.3% recorded on Feb. 3. BTC market dominance broke back above 60% on Feb. 2 amid a general market downturn over fears of a prolonged trade war between the United States and its trading partners.

Macroeconomic uncertainty typically takes a toll on risk-on assets, and the recent market downturn hit altcoins harder than BTC due to their lower liquidity and higher-risk profiles.

Bitcoin market dominance has been rising since 2023. Source: TradingView

The current market cycle also features Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which silo liquidity into these financial instruments — preventing capital rotation into altcoins, which crypto traders and investors have become accustomed to.

Previous cycles were characterized by investors rotating profits from less risky assets such as BTC into progressively higher-risk investments, beginning with high market cap altcoins and eventually working their way into smaller cap tokens.

The liquidity siloed in traditional investment vehicles coupled with the proliferation of new coins and tokens competing for limited investor attention and capital has led some analysts to suggest that altcoin season is now a thing of the past and will not be a feature of the current or future market cycles.

Related: Bitcoin poised to reclaim $90,000, according to derivatives metrics

Too many tokens have saturated the market

The total number of cryptocurrency tokens and coins listed on CoinMarketCap on Feb. 8 was below 11 million unique assets, as of March 15 the number of digital assets listed on the website has surged to over 12.7 million.