Why do altcoins follow bitcoin?

[Agapelove]

TL:DR Simply put, alt gains aren't an indication of more money moving into the market (at least right now), gains are pumped and lost because money is simply being moved around from one position to the next and not indicative of growth.

This is a really complex question and its going to take a lot to answer...  

First of all, bitcoin's stability is the entire market..... imagine it as bitcoin being the trunk, ethereum is the larger branches.. and other altcoins are the leaves... Anytime the trunk isn't healthy the branches and leaves cannot flourish, and will quickly wilt or die.. but when bitcoin's trunk is really strong it creates a healthy cycle for the alts and branches to flourish.   The analogy doesn't answer the question though but it does explain how it operates..but the real question is why?   To me, the main reason this happens is not for fear or panic, but more for an opportunity.  People think of cryptocurrency as long-term investments,, which the market doesn't honor.  As you can see recently with alts pumping then pulling back as BTC needed some support, that simply no new money is coming into this space and is simply moving around.  For example.. look at Tron for its Mainnet or Verge for its lolpornhub announcement.. no new money came into this space for those events, money frankly just moved from one place to another.  Whales and smart money know when BTC is dropping to abandon alts not because they fear having them, but because they can capitalize on the capitulation of noobs and simply just pull their money away and wait for others that don't know whats going on to panic.  But hodling isn't the answer either, since usually when alts pump alot of the gains are often lost rotating from one place simply to another.  Imagine you have like a rotating face.. alts on one.. btc in another.. tether or USD in another.  Alts are completely out of position 2 out of 3 times.. and not only will they not gain, theyll lose to people leaving them to cause a position trade.   So the only way to really deal with this is to buy alts at the bottom of a BTC trend and sell them at the top of a BTC trend.. then either hold BTC to buy alts later or switch to tether and take advantage and double dip of staying in the right facing position.....

The next thing you're going to ask is why doesn't something like TRX/USDT disconnect.. the reason is it gets corrected by arbitrage algo bots.  If there is a way to make money with an unnatural gap selling TRX to USDT and selling USDT into BTC back into TRX, the unnatural gap will be closed.. so even in this instance USDT doesn't make any sense.. on top of that USDT is just an altcoin not proven to be backed up by anything so you'd STILL have to back into BTC or ETHER to cash out back into cash on your preferred exchange.

To be fair, I know it sucks, but its just the way it is.  The best way to deal with this is to do as everyone else does and move in and out of positions that will make you the most money... fundamentally I'm really bullish on a lot of alts, but if you're here to make money you have to play the smart game like everyone else.   People position trade and do whatever makes the most money.. until it becomes a more regulated market and the speculation becomes more real use cases, I would expect it to get worse before it gets better.

I like that way you explained about this topic mate, though it was a parabolic explanation but I get what your trying to emphasize it mate.
all of them actually are true when Bitcoin down then majority of the altcoins goes down too. Because, If they didn't follow Bitcoin for sure that coins will sure die in value.

[Virtual miner]

TL:DR Simply put, alt gains aren't an indication of more money moving into the market (at least right now), gains are pumped and lost because money is simply being moved around from one position to the next and not indicative of growth.

This is a really complex question and its going to take a lot to answer... 

First of all, bitcoin's stability is the entire market..... imagine it as bitcoin being the trunk, ethereum is the larger branches.. and other altcoins are the leaves... Anytime the trunk isn't healthy the branches and leaves cannot flourish, and will quickly wilt or die.. but when bitcoin's trunk is really strong it creates a healthy cycle for the alts and branches to flourish.   The analogy doesn't answer the question though but it does explain how it operates..but the real question is why?   To me, the main reason this happens is not for fear or panic, but more for an opportunity.  People think of cryptocurrency as long-term investments,, which the market doesn't honor.  As you can see recently with alts pumping then pulling back as BTC needed some support, that simply no new money is coming into this space and is simply moving around.  For example.. look at Tron for its Mainnet or Verge for its lolpornhub announcement.. no new money came into this space for those events, money frankly just moved from one place to another.  Whales and smart money know when BTC is dropping to abandon alts not because they fear having them, but because they can capitalize on the capitulation of noobs and simply just pull their money away and wait for others that don't know whats going on to panic.  But hodling isn't the answer either, since usually when alts pump alot of the gains are often lost rotating from one place simply to another.  Imagine you have like a rotating face.. alts on one.. btc in another.. tether or USD in another.  Alts are completely out of position 2 out of 3 times.. and not only will they not gain, theyll lose to people leaving them to cause a position trade.   So the only way to really deal with this is to buy alts at the bottom of a BTC trend and sell them at the top of a BTC trend.. then either hold BTC to buy alts later or switch to tether and take advantage and double dip of staying in the right facing position.....

The next thing you're going to ask is why doesn't something like TRX/USDT disconnect.. the reason is it gets corrected by arbitrage algo bots.  If there is a way to make money with an unnatural gap selling TRX to USDT and selling USDT into BTC back into TRX, the unnatural gap will be closed.. so even in this instance USDT doesn't make any sense.. on top of that USDT is just an altcoin not proven to be backed up by anything so you'd STILL have to back into BTC or ETHER to cash out back into cash on your preferred exchange.

To be fair, I know it sucks, but its just the way it is.  The best way to deal with this is to do as everyone else does and move in and out of positions that will make you the most money... fundamentally I'm really bullish on a lot of alts, but if you're here to make money you have to play the smart game like everyone else.   People position trade and do whatever makes the most money.. until it becomes a more regulated market and the speculation becomes more real use cases, I would expect it to get worse before it gets better.

I like that way you explained about this topic mate, though it was a parabolic explanation but I get what your trying to emphasize it mate.
all of them actually are true when Bitcoin down then majority of the altcoins goes down too. Because, If they didn't follow Bitcoin for sure that coins will sure die in value.

Yes the prices of Altcoins follow the price of Bitcoin. The main reason responsible for this is that the Altcoin and Bitcoin pairing is traded mostly. Bitcoin being the first ranking coin can be traded for other Altcoins. Thus Bitcoin is the centre of the crypto economy which affects all the Altcoin. In addition this, all major cryptocurrency exchanges offer Bitcoin and Altcoin trading pairs.  Bitcoin is considered as the hallmark of the whole crypto market which is also the reason of such actions.

[watchurstep45]

Why is it that the moment BTC starts to sway, the other coins follow suit. It would be hard for everyone to sell that much at the same time. It seems beyond just panic selling. They seemed to be directly linked. Inf-fact, BTC going down should increase and encourage altoins as they raise in value compared to BTC as it falls so why this uniform sell off? Something seems weird about that to me. Any real theories, or explanations?

all altcoins follow bitcoin because bitcoin is the first digital currency and altcoins want to be like bitcoin and surpass what bitcoin has done in this crypto currency world.

[dark08]

Bitcoin is the precursor of all the other altcoins. This is true because wherever  bitcoin leads the other altcoins will follow in the same direction. This has been happening even during the December rally altcoin exhibited their best outing then , just follow the trend to confirm your self.

Yup this is right because of btc pair in the market most altcoin go to the flow of bitcoin thats why we can see a good run to altcoin in last few days because bitcoin make a way again to pump up, but not all altcoin goes to the flow of bitcoin thats why you need to check carefully the price of bitcoin if you are in trading industry.

[rolleth.io]

This could be manipulative.

[forbesmining]

It is just bassed on people sentiment, it is not because the price is sticked with bitcoin's pattern, that is just a theory.
Well, the price is only affected because of the price in BTC, but it does not affect much as many people think

In my country when you will say cryptocurrency people will hear Bitcoin, so every people who are not familiar with the structural things in alternative cryptocurrencies would make their decision up on the state of Bitcoin I think this is partly the reason.

[MMnoob]

probably because bitcoin is the mother of all crypto and bitcoin currencies is also higher in terms of anything else than other coins.

[doycku]

probably because bitcoin is the mother of all crypto and bitcoin currencies is also higher in terms of anything else than other coins.

I think that recently it becomes very clear that the efirium can take a leading position in the crypto currency market. Already several times in the media there is a statement of the team of the Etherium about increasing the scaling of the block chain. the capitalization of the etherium is expected to increase, this in turn will greatly affect the alignment of forces.

[mkhadazz]

I think it would be natural for altcoin to follow bitcoin prices because bitcoin prices are at the center of all cryptocurrency prices and altcoin would not dare to do very much movement regardless of bitcoin price conditions.

[pinoyden]

for your information altcoins are not following the price of bitcoins because altcoins do already have their own price and altcoins do also have their own unique usage in which case people can only choose between alts and btc depending on their needs . alts are mainly foccuses on the other real world services while btc do only focus on online paying system .

But both alts and btc are still verry promosing when it comes to investments and other usage . however there are sometimes ( maybe a co incedence ) that alts and btc value are almost identical to each other , it is maybe a cause of market manipulation.

[jessica2020]

In my opinion bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that becomes successful. Maybe bitcoin dump its price now but it can make it to recover its price and pump up.

[ultrastructure]

Altcoins follow bitcoin most likely because of  Bitcoin is the king of crypto world. Bitcoin is the oldest Cryptocurrancy currency, and it is also the most successful currency with the highest potential and value, in addition, the Bitcoin market is the largest among the Cryptocurrancy market. So it is only natural that Altcoin follows Bitcoin and is influenced by the market and its price. All cryptocurrancy now move up and down at the same time. Just as prices are controlled by one group.

[zedicus]

Why is it that the moment BTC starts to sway, the other coins follow suit. It would be hard for everyone to sell that much at the same time. It seems beyond just panic selling. They seemed to be directly linked. Inf-fact, BTC going down should increase and encourage altoins as they raise in value compared to BTC as it falls so why this uniform sell off? Something seems weird about that to me. Any real theories, or explanations?

Theories? You don't have to think of it or any stories because it was so simple and some would know it by their own observations throughout any of this times. Bitcoin act as a leader and a leader and its fellow members supports and trust it so when it crumbles expect a big fast crumble will create a panic and loss its trust in bitcoins, the same on it way up.

[TheGreatPython]

Why is it that the moment BTC starts to sway, the other coins follow suit. It would be hard for everyone to sell that much at the same time. It seems beyond just panic selling. They seemed to be directly linked. Inf-fact, BTC going down should increase and encourage altoins as they raise in value compared to BTC as it falls so why this uniform sell off? Something seems weird about that to me. Any real theories, or explanations?

That depends, which coin are you talking about? Not all altcoins follows Bitcoin when it is going up or down some of them don’t. It’s only all these major altcoins like ETH, BCH, LTC, Monero and XRP that usually follows the movement of Bitcoin up and down. Others will likely go down if Bitcoin is going up and still even go down when Bitcoin is going down lol. The only time you will see go up is when Bitcoin price is balanced.

[forbesmining]

Personally i also do not understand why all crypto now move going up and down by the same times. Just like the price controlled by one group. A few years ago actually price action of each crypto is much different,  but now they move bullish and bearish at the same times.

Most of the people are thinking that bitcoin is something like an indicator of health of cryptocurrencies market and if it is going down they think that all the cryptocurrencies are feeling bad right now and they lose their trust and become less demanded.

[kenel]

bitcoin attracts attention and makes it clear that he is a reliable asset. but those who want to buy cheap altcoin for the more expensive bitcoin-carry away the movement of these coins up, because they have already formed oversold

[billarerghomes]

Bitcoin is a milestone for altcoin. if the price of bitcoin drop then the price of other cryptocurrency will also decrease. I think it's a natural thing that can happen anytime. price decreases and also rises in the world of cryptocurrency

[ghost14k]

I really can't give the whole technical details behind it but what I I know is this, Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency and already been attached a higher value than any altcoins in the market. All altcoins have bitcoin pairs to trade with. This simply means that altcoins are all dependent on Bitcoin whether they want it or not. So when you observe the market you will notice that alts depends on Bitcoin a lot and follow it when it moves.

[iram1011]

Market is so immature right now that people don't invest in the actual idea or use case. While utility backs the coin in long term, for traders/investors the present price influence is of more importance because they create trends. People right now invest according to bitcoin price movement because of its 40%+ market dominance. It has become a psychology that if Bitcoin moves up the market is in healthy situation, so there is an investment opportunity. Market will take time to mature when coins will be started to being valued according to their utility and use case instead of BTC price movement.

[deus030518]

For me the reason why do the altcoins follow the bitcoin is because the bitcoin is the leader of all the coins in the market the bitcoin is the leading coin of all of. It has the highest price in the market. All of the investors invest in bitcoin because it gives a good profit, it is also the altcoin that has the easiest to used even it has a high fee not like the other coins it is not easy to used. Investing in bitcoin will give you a good profit.