Log in
By most metrics, Bitcoin is the ‘King of Crypto’.
It was the first, is the most widely known, and from its inception has maintained the mantle of largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. Indeed, it was Bitcoin that birthed the entire crypto industry. Accordingly, Bitcoin has gained many admirers over the years. Some are drawn to the coin by its first-mover legacy, others, by its elegant design, reputation for security or proven reliability over a sustained period.
Furthermore, Bitcoin is considered truly decentralised, having no central authority and a permissionless blockchain. Comparatively uncomplicated and apolitical in its function, it embodies crypto in its purest form, and while this may hinder certain innovations, it affirms reliability. Bitcoin employs a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and is highly unlikely to change, even as newer projects consider different protocols that may compromise on decentralisation.
Still, nothing lasts forever. Speculation surrounds Bitcoin as to which competitor – if any – might surpass its market dominance. At this point in time, Bitcoin’s closest rival is Ethereum which has held the title of the market’s ‘second-in-command’ for several years. Here, we examine Bitcoin’s dominance and explore what factors may impact its reign at the top, and what might have to happen for Bitcoin to fall into second place.
Is Bitcoin’s reign at risk?
Bitcoin has maintained its dominance over the crypto world since its inception and remains the crypto with the highest market capitalisation. Despite previous alt seasons, where non-BTC coins and tokens have flashed gains in the thousands of percent, Bitcoin has never really come close to being usurped.
One of the best arguments for any risk to Bitcoin’s reign is its traditional lack of ability to facilitate smart contracts. The popularity of smart contracts, and their ability to provide autonomous operations, has seen Ethereum often cited as the primary challenger to Bitcoin, and the coin with the greatest potential to win that challenge, if such a win is at all possible.
Since Ethereum burst onto the scene, Bitcoin’s role in the industry has changed. Rather than a payments coin, as originally intended, BTC has become more of a store of value, akin to gold. This can be seen in the 2025 uptick of corporate and Government treasury strategies including Bitcoin following the release of spot BTC ETFs.
Additionally, technical advancements have added smart contract functionality to Bitcoin’s blockchain – although this is somewhat of a controversial topic among the community.
Throughout the early days of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin’s dominance index hovered around the 90 per cent mark. At certain points, this figure has dipped below 40%, but for the most part BTC Dominance has maintained a reading above 50% – especially since 2023.
Ethereum achieved its highest percentage of total market cap in 2017 the closest it has come to beating Bitcoin’s percentage. While holding a strong secondary position, Ethereum has also undergone a number of developments to improve the usability and scalability of its blockchain, now hosting a wide array of decentralized applications such as NFT marketplaces, crypto games, and decentralized exchanges.
Whether Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin’s market cap is yet to be seen, but for now, history tells us that it is unlikely anytime soon.
Factors that could impact Bitcoin’s reign
While we’ve established that Bitcoin is well and truly at the top of the scene, one must consider the factors that could contribute to a decline in its primacy. From scalability issues to the effect on the environment, application and utilisation, there are multiple elements in play that might see Bitcoin fall behind or charge even further ahead.
Blockchain scaling upgrades
Bitcoin and Ethereum, being the two largest cryptocurrencies, are often faced with similar challenges inherent to their size and influence. To date, scalability has been one of the key factors hindering continued exponential growth. Scalability is vital for cryptocurrencies because they need to be able to compete with established, centralised systems. Ideally, blockchain networks would be able to handle thousands of transactions per second with minimal to no fees for transacting.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have answers to the scalability challenge. The Lightning Network is a scaling solution built on top of Bitcoin that enables cheaper and faster transactions by handling transactions off the Bitcoin blockchain.
Ethereum has addressed its scalability issues in several ways, with the most prominent being Layer 2 solutions such as Base and Arbitrum. These operate similarly to the Lightning Network. However, with Ethereum being more of a decentralised finance ecosystem, rather than a store of value, congestion on its blockchain (and therefore associated applications) is typically more impactful.
Environmental Considerations
In a world increasingly concerned with environmental degradation and energy consumption, public opinion is starkly shifting towards renewables, and away from those resources and industries deemed unecological.
Bitcoin employs a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism and is determined to continue doing so. It’s estimated that a single Bitcoin transaction uses 2-million-watt hours (Wh) of energy, which is roughly equivalent to 100,000 Visa transactions. Bitcoin mining also leads to the increased production, and subsequent discarding, of huge quantities of hardware. By comparison, Ethereum shifted to a Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism in 2022 in a transition known as the Merge, consuming an estimated 120 Wh per transaction, a minuscule fraction of the energy of Bitcoin and drastically less electronic waste.
While this is, of course, broadly popular on the part of Ethereum, and means there aren’t the enormous costs associated with mining, things could go either way. The difficulty of mining Bitcoin increases value by way of demand, and while PoW is intensive and expensive, it carries with it a lot of confidence and a sense of equality and reliability. Additionally, there are many companies in the blockchain space exploring how to ensure Bitcoin mining can become as environmentally sustainable as possible.
Emerging use cases
The crypto space is evolving at accelerating speeds. Blockchains are becoming faster and more efficient to support new use cases and meet application-specific requirements.
That said, Bitcoin’s use case is simply a peer-to-peer payment method, somewhat limiting its utility. It opens the way for other cryptocurrencies, Ethereum in particular, to fill that vacuum.
Over the past few years, Ethereum has become the most popular blockchain for developers to build DeFi, Web3 gaming, and NFT applications.
That said, BTC has cemented itself as a growth, store of value asset in the minds of most investors – meaning it is slowly becoming part of many ‘buy and hold’ strategies, even among traditionally non-crypto investors.
Summary
Ultimately, whether Bitcoin can maintain its dominance indefinitely is yet to be seen. For now, Bitcoin, the progenitor of the crypto industry and the undefeated market cap leader is rightfully referred to as the ‘King of Cryptos’. That said, like any asset or enterprise, Bitcoin will have to stay agile, particularly with respect to altcoins designed specifically for their versatility and with use cases in mind.
In any case, if a coin does in fact supplant Bitcoin, it will likely be due to a multitude of overlapping factors, including a heavy dose of luck. Right now, Ethereum is Bitcoin’s biggest challenger, but it would be unwise to rule anything out, especially when deliberating upon such mobile, innovative, and relatively novel assets.
Ted
