$BTC

The collapse of Bitcoin has revealed a painful truth – the cryptocurrency market still dances to the tune of BTC.

Despite thousands of alternative tokens and institutional adoption, cryptocurrency markets in 2026 will still largely move in unison with Bitcoin, offering little real diversification.

Yield-generating DeFi tokens and protocol tokens resembling traditional defensive sectors have mostly fallen alongside Bitcoin, with HYPE from Hyperliquid being a rare example of outpacing growth amid the overall decline.

Bitcoin's dominance, the rising popularity of stablecoins as a defensive asset, and increasing attention from institutional investors through spot ETFs suggest that cryptocurrencies will remain concentrated around BTC, limiting the prospects of a significant divergence between them.