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Market meter

Ethereum dominance

Ethereum's share of the whole market, and why it moves for different reasons than Bitcoin's.

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By the Orca Crypto teamUpdated 2026-09-14How we check this4 min readContext
The short answer

Ethereum's market capitalization as a percentage of the market capitalization of every crypto asset. Same arithmetic as Bitcoin dominance, applied to the second largest asset. It is read differently, though, because Ethereum sits at the center of a much larger dependent ecosystem. A great many tokens live on Ethereum or on a network settling to it, and their fortunes are correlated with its own in a way that Bitcoin's are not.

Ethereum dominance11.51%
0%100%
Share of all crypto market cap that is Ethereum.

Live. The figure above updates in your browser while this page is open, and the page was built with a real one in it rather than a blank.

What it measures

The plain description

Ethereum's market capitalization as a percentage of the market capitalization of every crypto asset. Same arithmetic as Bitcoin dominance, applied to the second largest asset.

It is read differently, though, because Ethereum sits at the center of a much larger dependent ecosystem. A great many tokens live on Ethereum or on a network settling to it, and their fortunes are correlated with its own in a way that Bitcoin's are not.

How it is worked out

Stated so you could reproduce it

Ethereum market cap divided by total crypto market cap, times 100.

The same denominator caveat applies as for Bitcoin dominance: "all crypto" is whatever the provider lists, so figures differ slightly between sites.

How to read it

The bands, and what each one actually means

ReadingWhat it indicates
Rising against a flat Bitcoin dominanceCapital is rotating toward Ethereum and usually toward what is built on it, rather than out of the market.
Falling while Bitcoin dominance risesThe classic risk-off rotation: out of the application layer and into the oldest, most liquid asset.
Both falling togetherMoney is spreading into assets outside the two majors. Check the alt season reading before calling it anything.
What it does not tell you

The part that gets left out

  • Ethereum dominance understates the Ethereum economy. A large share of what a layer 2 token, a DeFi token or a liquid staking token is worth depends on Ethereum, and none of that is inside this number.
  • Staked and bridged derivatives are counted as their own assets by most providers, so the same underlying ether can appear in the denominator more than once under different names.
Before you act on any of it
Every meter on this site is context for a decision, never the decision. None of them predicts anything, and the ones that look most like signals are the ones worth trusting least.

Common questions

Why is Ethereum dominance so much lower than Bitcoin dominance?
Partly because Bitcoin is larger, and partly because Ethereum's value is spread across the things built on it. Tokens for layer 2 networks, DeFi protocols and staking derivatives all count as separate assets in the denominator, even though they exist because of Ethereum.
Does the ETH to BTC ratio say the same thing?
It is close and often more useful. The ratio compares the two assets directly without a denominator made of thousands of other tokens, so it is not affected by new listings or by stablecoin supply.
Is a rising Ethereum dominance bullish for altcoins?
Often it precedes broader interest, because much of the altcoin market is built on Ethereum. "Often" is not "reliably", and there is no threshold at which it becomes a signal.

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