Glassnode: Bitcoin increased by 28% over two years, while the median market value of altcoins dropped by 74%

According to a report by Decrypt, a report jointly released by the crypto analytics company Glassnode and the exchange Bybit shows that Bitcoin has increased by 28% over the past two years, while the median market cap altcoins have averaged a decline of 74%, and Ethereum has remained basically flat. The report views this divergence as a hallmark of the current market cycle, contrasting sharply with the previous "altcoin season" model where capital rotated from Bitcoin to smaller coins as the market matured.

The distribution of leverage also shows a trend of centralization. The report points out that the open interest in Bitcoin futures accounts for about 2% of its market cap, while this ratio for speculative small coins like PEPE is close to 24%, indicating that risk bubbles are accumulating in the most dangerous corners of the market. The data is as of the settlement close on August 23, and since Glassnode covers a limited number of trading platforms, the relevant figures only reflect the venues it tracks.

Institutional fund flows are also clearly leaning towards Bitcoin. The cumulative net inflow into spot Bitcoin ETFs is about $55.2 billion, far exceeding the approximately $13.1 billion for Ethereum ETFs, which have recently experienced several days of net outflows. Earlier this week, after the Federal Reserve released a dovish forecast, Bitcoin climbed back above $80,000, driving the total crypto market cap to rise by 4.6% in a single day to about $2.85 trillion, with coins like Solana, NEAR, and Uniswap seeing even larger gains that day.