Why do altcoins follow bitcoin?

[valentine401]

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?

It was because of ethereum that is tether to bitcoins and most of the altcoins today that has been released by ico's has a based price of ethereum so every altcoins in the market is affected when the price of bitcoins is dropping.

[ChristianGillies]

I have a question that bitcoin and altcoin which is appear early? If BTC is appear early, so that alts is the next generation of BTC

[fabrizoc]

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.

The ones who are familiar with the history of thee crypto currencies must be very well aware of the fact that it was none other than that of the bitcoin which was the first ever crypto coin introduced to this world and that since that time, it is at the top of the list and is more or less like the backbone of the entire crypto market because of which, every other crypto coin is somehow dependent on this coin in different ways.

[daicavung]

The market is no longer growing bitcoin, today BTC grows on its own characteristics and grows alone, no longer coin up as BTC

[Jaci]

All coins have a simple relation. As bitcoin is the biggest coins off the market so it can be influenced altcoins. Normally when bitcoin drops then altcoins also drop or rock. At the moment altcoins remain green as bitcoin going drop day by day. Another reason is that bitcoin is the strong coin ever. So it has hot effect for altcoins.

[Goodday]

because I think bitcoin has an effect on the price of altcoin and also the alternative to bitcoin and bitcoin is the first Cryptocurrency made therefore when bitcoin price increases all altcoin is also definitely increasing always following the market.

[htconem7]

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?

You can see that the market is currently in the downtrend stage, bitcoin prices are constantly fluctuating, only a small bitcoin adjustment can cause the market fluctuations very strong. You can see that the capitalization of altcoin at the moment is attributed to bitcoin, which is the main reason that bitcoin prices have increased and altcoin prices have fallen in recent days.

[fibrolit]

Bitcoin still takes half of the entire market for crypto currency. Naturally, when the main currency falls, investors panic sell altcoins.Now there are not enough altcoins which would have practical application, therefore the market is very speculative and strongly depends on the main currency. I hope that in a few years the situation will change.

[zedicus]

Bitcoin still takes half of the entire market for crypto currency. Naturally, when the main currency falls, investors panic sell altcoins.Now there are not enough altcoins which would have practical application, therefore the market is very speculative and strongly depends on the main currency. I hope that in a few years the situation will change.

It was hard to say that it can be change because bitcoin is what making cryptocurrency alive and being known. The altcoins based on bitcoin and yes, bitcoin takes all the money almost half of it that makes the capitulation in the altcoins deflates.

[anntlevel]

This could be manipulative.

Exactly this has been manipulated for so long time. I have been following bitcoin and other altcoins for so long time but this confusion is still a confusion. No one knows exactly or authentic that what is the real cause and reason behind this. What is the actual relation of bitcoin and altcoin? We need to solve this and we need to figure out what is reality that is hidden.

[GreatArkansas]

Because most of altcoins are shitcoins or not legit crypto project. But for me, it is also because, if Bitcoin is dumping,altcoins are also dumping because Bitcoin got very large market cap and most of the people nowadays are using Bitcoin to buy altcoins.

[Severne]

Beacuse Bitcoin is leader of cryptomarket. Everything is bought and sold on Bitcoin. Every coins depend on Bitcoin and this never gonna change.

[TheAndy500]

For me it is still just a theory that altcoins price is somehow connected to bitcoin downs and ups, that is only cause of whole market, bitcoin is going up when market has its recovers and that is why some altcoins "follow" price of bitcoin.

[baconlike]

No, you have misunderstood, altcoin is now at the price of ETH, so the ETH decrease, the price of the atlcoin also sharply and vice versa, BTC less impact on the price of the atlcoin.

[Asherith00]

For me, bitcoin is the center of all in the market i think that's why the altcoin follow the price of bitcoin...

[kinamotorami]

No, now you look at the market on coinmarketcap, they are now growing up contrary to each other, the current BTC price is rising but the whole market is falling, btc is blue and the remaining coin is tinged one Red. That is why many people still believe in BTC

[P_percy]

Actually the reason behind this is all the altcoins, majority of them are paired with bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
So it's obvious that when btc rises people try to gain btc profits by selling their alts.
As long as alts are paired with btc it's quite obvious we'll see this type of trend.

[LeaderAMB]

Because Bitcoin is considered a benchmark, every Altcoin is based on it to show its worth. Bitcoin is like a king, and every Altcoin is a child of it. They always considered Bitcoin as a benchmark to set their prices.

I agree with you to some extend. As I think that bitcoin is a big hit in cryptocurrency field, it’s fame would be larger than altcoins. Although bitcoin is the oldest coin, it’s the prelude of the cryptocurrency and til now it kind of popular in  most parts of the world. Especially, we can’t deny its value is  much higher than altcoins, also the price is more expensive than others. The number of people joins in bitcoin market is pretty crowded, often people focus on bitcoin closely, thus when bitcoin market has any fluctuation, altcoins may follow to bitcoin’s direction. 

[unusualfacts30]

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 think this is a great post on why altcoins follow bitcoin. Bitcoin growth is an indication that altcoins are also reliable form of investment but when bitcoin drops, it has sort of ripple effect on all altcoins. that trunk analogy is great.

[loveblack]

bitcoin is the first encryption. it is also the most important encryption. the influence of Bitcoin is too great. when the price of bitcoin rose. people will think that the encryption market is starting to rise and they start buying. The price of altcoins has also risen. this is a psychological reaction