Bitcoin Forum

I have seen Bitcoin go down in the last few days. And it also affects the price of other coins. As a beginner, I would like to ask the seniors in this forum. Why does Bitcoin greatly affect the ups and downs in the price of other coins?

Thanks in advance.

Because its the main coin or the leading cryptocurrency. Almost all of these altcoins are in pair with btc or so to say that has been related to bitcoin. Its safe to say that whatever bitcoin price, all other coins will be affected to it. Its like in some stocks once a major stocks go down, some companies are also being pulled of. But this isnt always the case, its just my observation on crypto trend and so far, it is what happening when btc going down.

Not a Senior Member of the forum but been lurking around for a long time.  My opinion is that the price of altcoins change drastically due to many people choosing Altcoin investments as a strategy for multiplying their Bitcoins.

When Bitcoin drops, more experienced Altcoin traders know Altcoin:BTC ratio usually drops even worse.  As a consequence, a Bitcoin drop triggers a huge sell-off of Altcoins in order to NOT lose Bitcoin value.  When Bitcoin skyrockets, Altcoin seasons usually come and these are an amazing way of multiplying Bitcoin if you know when to take the right actions.  This is why Bitcoin always leads the markets.

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PrivacyG

Additionally to trading pairs, I think that the success of any altcoin project depends on bitcoin adoption.

As most of them share the same technology (blockchain), it is safe to say that regulations/limitations/security/etc on bitcoin will also have a direct impact over altcoins.

Nobody gets to know ethereum or ADA or binance chain before hearing about bitcoin. Bitcoin is the main reason for this whole ecosystem and all altcoins to exist.

People are speculating many factors that caused this dump. The most highlighted reason is from china's evergrande  bad credit case. The largest property conglomerate in China admits it failed to pay its debts.
China's bad news is always success to mke the market shiver.

People also linked this dump to elsavador bitcoin buying but i don't think it's true.
But in the end bitcoin's price dump is usually happen and don't sure what is the real reason, so just take it as a lesson and be careful of future dump. Investing in cryptocurrency is high risk but high return, that's where the fun lies.

I think OP is not asking why the last dump happen though. As mentioned above, BTC as the dominant pair makes it very easy to change how other coins move. Unless the BTC dominance goes down or we get stable coin as the main pairing for most coins, it won't change in the near future. That being said, we also see a lot of case where BTC pump but altcoins lose their value (in BTC).

Thats true and if btc ever reach a 2k price. Dont expect the altcoin markets to be still alive, for sure many will died out and only those major and sustainable project can survive a heavy impact like that.

Bitcoin will be the leader no matter what. So dont be shocked everyone, to see a bloody market if btc not moving well.

Maybe you could think of it as an index, too, since almost all cryptocurrencies are connected to BTC. Many other factors could affect the prices of altcoins and BTC itself, but just like others have said, it's the dominant pair when it comes to trading assets. Next would probably be USDT, but that's another kind of crypto.

If you think about it, Bitcoin is the one that is representing ALL Cryptocurrencies. Like if somebody said, crypto, it's almost always going to be BTC in that conversation. That's really how it will be that's why it will always remain at the top as well.

Because Bitcoin is the leader and the standard of other coins. Before the blossom of stable coins, the main trading pairs on exchanges are altcoin/ Bitcoin.

Even nowadays, you have many trading pairs: altcoin/ Bitcoin, altcoin/ stablecoin, altcoin/ altcoin, Bitcoin still has its dominating effects. Obviously, with the growth of Ethereum ecosystem and other chains' ecosystems, the effects of Bitcoin are decreasing but still big enough.

People will look at Bitcoin to predict what will happen with altcoins. It is like the word look at what happens in the USA. to predict the later events (politics, economics, social, etc.) on global scale.

Bitcoin is being paired to all coins in which all other coins and tokens are dependent on the satoshi price of BTC. BTC is traded against almost all coins.
If the value of BTC depreciates, all the rest depreciates as well. Most of the coins including ETH are priced base on BTC.  The ERC20 tokens are also dependent on ETH, so if the ETH price goes up or down, the movement of the price also influences the prices of tokens because ETH is their base.

In addition, to a significant extent, Bitcoin has become the barometer of the crypto market. Being the first, top, most trusted and popular, and most dominant cryptocurrency, its rise and fall could also mean the rise and fall not just of certain altcoins but of the entire cryptocurrency market as well. If there's a FUD against Bitcoin, interpret that as an attack to the whole market. If there is Bitcoin adoption, interpret that as a friendly development to the bigger market as well. 

^^ this.

The main problem is that altcoins don't have any utilities in the real world, that is why they are usually referred to as useless pump and dumps. So this lack of utility means their only purpose for existence is to be traded by traders gamblers making bets on which coin goes up and which coin is done pumping and is about to dump.

In a market like this, the "investors" don't have any faith in long term potential of what they are buying so they know very well that the only thing with actual potential is bitcoin that has actual real world utility (a currency and a store of value). Consequently they always go back to the real value dumping the short term profit making tool.

It is simply because Bitcoin is the first and pioneer cryptocurrency, and as such the most popular and commonly used in all exchanges, which is usually used as a trading pair to other coins, together with Fiat currencies (i.e USD, Euro, Pounds e.t.c)

And in most exchanges, if someone wants to buy or sell any altcoins, he or she has to first buy Bitcoin and then swap it other to his desired coin, which by so doing, if the value of Bitcoin has fall, it will definitely affect the price of that coin too.

Which sometimes a fall in the price of Bitcoin may cause a panic in the crypto community as many may be afraid it may crash. And vice versa, if the price goes up, as many will be happy to buy more and more Bitcoin, thereby making other coins have more value.

So, Thanks for reading this...
I hope I was able to make some sense?
Thank you

To avoid repetition, many useful answers has been posted, but just to add, know that altcoins are not just following bitcoin price trends, during bear market, altcoins decrease more than bitcoin, they are more voaltile that bitcoin in both uptrend and downtrend direction. Also that many altcoins are just shitcoins, you can see them increased very well in value during bull run, but after bear market, you will lose all your money as a result of high volatility.

Also know that there can be bull and bear market, the price can increase and decrease, but bitcoin price will still yet reach all-time-high.

It’s quite simple man. BTC is where it all began. Without BTC, all of these cryptos right now don’t exist. Bitcoin is the freaking mother of all cryptocurrencies. It is why Bitcoin is so dominant and influenced a lot of cryptos (but not all depending on the trends, circumstances, etc.).

Wherever BTC goes up or down, most of the altcoins will follow. However, I believe that one day these altcoins would never be relying on BTC anymore.

Back in the days, when I thought of buying ETH I was thinking of making it coming from my BTCs first and not just directly buying it from my custodial wallet even if they offered holding ETH as well.

Many are pairing alts with BTC when they trade, coming from my experience when I day traded back then also.

Every asset's price depends on the demand and supply always. So the same logic is applicable for Bitcoin as well. When investors move together into Bitcoin then demand increases and as you know the supply is limited. So usually price pump then. The same reverse happens when investors start out from the Bitcoin together at the same time.

When happens this, altcoin holders either become panic or hold tight. It depends on what happens with Bitcoin. Altcoin almost always depends on Bitcoin sentiments, most of the time follow Bitcoin trends though not always. So that's how I think cryptocurrency price works.

Bitcoin is the bedrock of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has been valuable for ten years, investors have come to believe in bitcoin whereas altcoins are not as reliable as bitcoin. I think because of this reason, when Bitcoin price reduce in value, altcoin investors short their hodlings

First, alts tend to be mainly traded,  directly or indirectly, against Bitcoin, so it's natural for them to follow Bitcoin's movement. And from a point of view of very simple fundamental analysis, if something is good for Bitcoin (hype, adoption, legalization) it is "good" for alts because it increases the chance of it happening to them, and same goes for negative events. Of course if you start thinking about it harder, it doesn't make sense, because alts and Bitcoin are fundamentally very different, but people on this market don't think hard.

The bitcoin in very simple and colloquial terms without going into the details already mentioned, is the emotional support of  Alts, their behavior can benefit or harm depending on the case and all this happens without the implicit need to be an influencer. The opposite does not happen.

You are wrong. There were other attempts before bitcoin trying to create a "digital money" and they all failed. Then bitcoin came along and was successful in created a decentralized and secure money so it stuck around and grew.
There is nothing stopping a new cryptocurrency to come along and become big either, the fact that it still hasn't happened even after 12 years is because nobody has bothered to innovate!

This is a fact that altcoins bleed whenever Bitcoin bleeds. However, in rare instances some alts break loose of that grip. Last week, while Bitcoin dipped I watched keenly how Tron (TRX) continued to be on the rise. Perhaps it was because of the Tronpad launchpad that was ongoing at the time and TRX was the official staking coin for Tronpad. Based on that observation, one may be right to say then that Bitcoin crash doesn't affect tokens which are official tokens for usecase projects. Even as I type this, TRX is now above 9 cents as against 5 cents it was a few days ago.

Tronpad had a good hype at that time, several IDO projects were launched on Tronpad and also BSCPAD as the main launch. Tronpad is not the official platform of Tron ( TRX ).
Bitcoin crash time Some altcoins did survive, not only TRX, but SOLANA was also able to hit a new ATH when all the altcoins crashed. there are some moments that make them survive. but when Bitcoin crashes, the altcoins that initially survived are no longer able to and eventually crash too.

Bitcoin is the leader in cryptocurrency. Any fluctuations in Bitcoin will affect the cryptocurrency market. It is not ruled out that some people believe in FUD and panic and sell the coins in their hands.

This is because most of this many coins that get affected by Bitcoin price are built upon Bitcoin smart contracts  and as such prices of those coins gets affected by Bitcoin price since it is the primary coin in which the other coin gets it's originality from. Bitcoin remains the first digital asset and will just remain that way