Bitcoin’s market share has reached its highest level since April 2021 as the cryptocurrency’s price continues to climb amid a muted altcoin market. 

Bitcoin’s dominance hit a three-and-a-half-year high of 58.77% during late trading on Oct. 15, the same time as it hit a ten-week high of $67,800, according to TradingView.

Bitcoin ( BTC ) retraced sharply to $64,880 before climbing back to trade just above $67,000 with a market capitalization of $1.32 trillion.

Bitcoin dominance hits 3.5-year high as altcoins get left behind image 0

Bitcoin’s market cap dominance showing its share of the crypto market. Source: Tradingview

Bitcoin’s dominance increases have historically been bad news for altcoins and BTC has gained 2.5% on the day while altcoins have traded mostly flat or have dropped. 

However, some traders think Bitcoin’s dominance will be short-lived and will soon crash, which they claim will open the market for altcoins to rise.

In an Oct. 16 X post , ICT Crypto founder Benjamin Cowen predicted that Bitcoin’s dominance would top out at 60%, while crypto investor “Coach K Crypto” claimed Bitcoin’s dominance had peaked for this cycle, telling his 129,000 X followers that Bitcoin “needs to rip” before anything else can happen.

“Soon enough, there’s going to be a breakdown in [Bitcoin dominance],” they said. “This will lead to memecoins and other major altcoins getting a taste.”

Analyst Moataz Elsayed said on Oct. 14 that Bitcoin’s dominance “is about to crash hard” and predicted the start of altcoin season .

Related: Drop in Bitcoin dominance and bullish altcoin market structure have traders predicting ‘altseason’

Ether ( ETH ) is historically one of the first assets to move when Bitcoin’s dominance declines, but the Ether to Bitcoin ratio, a conversion rate of BTC to ETH, is close to its lowest level since April 2021, falling below 0.039 again this week, according to TradingView. 

Bitcoin dominance hits 3.5-year high as altcoins get left behind image 1

ETH’s price in terms of BTC has fallen to the lowest level in three and a half years. Source: Tradingview

Since hitting a fresh all-time high of $73,738 in March, Bitcoin has been trading mostly sideways.

But it’s now approaching a key psychological level — its 2021 all-time high of $69,000, which it held for around three years.

Institutional investors are still keen on BTC with the eleven US spot exchange-traded funds seeing net inflows of $371 million for Oct. 15. The products have seen more than $1.1 billion in aggregate inflows over the past three trading days, according to Farside Investors. 

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