Bitcoin Forum

It is observed that altcoin prices are depended on Bitcoin's price. What are the reasons why? Is it always like this?

The only reason I can think of is that investors continues to shift their funds around. For example, I speculate that when bitcoin is going up, most altcoins investors moved their funds to bitcoin resulting to the price of most altcoins going down, and vice versa.

In addition to that, if we see that both markets are going green, it means that new cash is pouring into the ecosystem. We have seen this trend last December when both bitcoin and altcoin enjoyed one of its best days / years.

Based on what I’ve seen, many, many alts are traded in satoshis, therefore every change in bitcoin price will be reflected in the alts that are being traded in sats.  There’s an unavoidable correlation, particularly on sites such as Trade Satoshi, where fiat value isn’t even considered.  

In summary, if the alts are being paired to btc and traded in direct relation to it, then there will always be a direct change in alt/fiat value for every change in BTC value.

I hope this helps.

I can not find a reason for that, but if you look at the facts on the ground, that's what happens
all altcoin always follow the Bitcoin movement, and when the bitcoin price drops all altcoin will come down, because I have never seen any altcoin rising, when bitcoin down. and the conclusion that can be, that bitcoin is indeed a determinant of the price increase of all altcoin

In my opinion, it is due the investors that are changing or exchanging their cryptocurrency when the bitcoin's value goes up. Or maybe it is just a coincidence that when bitcoin's price goes up the altcoin prices goes up too.

or maybe in this way the whales telling as a message that they are the one whos manipulating the market,and if they want to move the market trend they can do it easily,thats how i see this things and ofcourse im thinking of what youve said too

I am not very much into trading, I am more of a hodl type, but I always considered if one could take advantage of those situations in a way of predicting what will happen next, depending on the exact current configuration of red/green in bitcoin/altcoin grid.

if I think, Altcoin just want to synergize with Bitcoin. because some altcoins also want to have a digital relation with bitcoin. This I think is normal, because you know the reputation of bitcoin is huge nowadays.

I only think like this, people buy the altcoin and expecting the price increase and bitcoin are up and down in one range of the price. but if somehow bitcoin price is down, then the altcoin price will be down too and it makes the bitcoin estimates in their altcoin wallet will be down too. and they don't want to see their bitcoin estimates down too far and this will make them sell their altcoin although they will only getting lose. but sometimes, this action can reduce their losses and they could still buy altcoin again because the price is down.

most altcoin is dependent on bitcoin, as decreased harag bitcoin keeps the altcoin price down dramatically. but not all altcoins have decreased dramatically. this is because altcoin exchange tends to use bitcoin.

I think that all alts follow bitcoin because a lot of transaction uses BTC: you buy an alt in BTC and you sell in BTC so their price follow BTC's price.

because bitcoin is the pair of altcoins. actually if you see the alts is going up in USD, but in case, the price of the alts is not moving or maybe going down in btc pair

because altcoin lacks the power of bitcoin that many people in the world believe. Altcoin is still looking to be self, with them approaching bitcoin, altcoin hopes to have a reputation like bitcoin.

Because Fiat mostly can only be traded directly through BTC (although some also supports ETH and LTC also).
Plus exchanges will always have BTC/Altcoin pairing in their markets.

Hence for now, BTC is king.

It is just like the USD being the "standard" currency of the world atm; and why the establishment corporate controlled US government are willing to start wars and crush economies to maintain that. However into the future, things might change as China grows in economic dominance, and the government grows more willing to gradually release the tight control of their economy/currency once it is more stable and mature + and corruption have been completely weeded out.

The cryptocurrency exchanges show the value of Altcoin in Bitcoin, but the actual value of them is in dollars. So if you buy a Bitcoin at $2700 and invest it in an Altcoin, you’ll get Altcoin worth $2700 and not worth 1 BTC. If in future even if the value of Bitcoin falls or increases, you don’t have to worry, because the actual value of Altcoin is represented in dollars.

Bitcoin is like the key to the cryptocurrency world, you can exchange bitcoin to every other altcoin, trade it on every exchange.
Bitcoin is like a benchmark for every other cryptocurrency, it shows current sentiments towards cryptocurrency in general.
This is the reason Bitcoin is regarded as crypto gold and all the others altcoins are related to it.
To put things in a simple w way - the crypto world is like a self-regulating system where bitcoin is the main cog in the machine.

The reason why Altcoins are dependent to Bitcoin is that Bitcoin is widely accepted most especially on exchanges for pairing just like Ethereum and Litecoin in some cases but are dependent with Bitcoins too because of it's value. For me, I think this will be permanent as long as Bitcoin will remain the king of cryptocurrency market. It is too impossible for now if an Altcoin will replace Bitcoin on it's throne. To be honest I love Bitcoin more than any other coins because if the idea of Satoshi did not existed therefore no Altcoins have ever existed too. Let's go back to the topic where Altcoins were too affected when there is correction happening. Most Altcoins were bleeding to death during that time and from that view we can conclude on how dependent they are to Bitcoin.

I agree with you yes, this is evidence of the existence of bitcoin is very important in the crypto cycle, bitcoin value is always a reference of the price for alcoin. and if the bitcoin decreases will greatly affect the altcoin. during this cycle is irreplaceable, during which bitcoin continues to be the king of crypto

i was once joking, after china new year. Bitcoin Will return high and move quickly from the point that is now achieved.  ;D

This is because of that bitcoin still has 34.9% of the total market cap so it is not an ordinary coin, also all coins are paired with it in exchanges, it is very difficult for other coins to become independent from bitcoin in the near future.

i have stopped looking for any reasons for this dependency a long time ago. i have some weird theories and you can see a lot of them here in this topic among the answers but for the important thing is knowing this dependency and know that it will cause a trend like that.

for example if bitcoin is dropping or rising i pull out of altcoins immediately, so it always helps me prevent big losses.

The price of altcoins was always judged as depended on bitcoin's price but no, that wasn't basically the right explanation how altcoins works.
If we analyse altcoins far in, all altcoins have their own market apart from bitcoin and their market can be observed still on a strong position.
Certainly, altcoins have no relation to bitcoin when it comes to price but sometes people can down the price deliberately by making sense over false news

Currency prices on the market are dependent on each other. Currency pairs are created, which is traded. In addition, current BTC prices are converted into USD, which also affects the entire altcoins market.

bitcoin is affect the other altcoin because altcoins is circulate around the bitcoin.
bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency in the market, so it is affecting other altcoins indirectly

Because altcoins are paired to bitcoin in exchanges aside from their own market value. Altcoins originated after bitcoin. That's why bitcoin becomes the reference for altcoin prices and investors tends to shift between altcoin and bitcoin causing ups and downs on its value.