Although 2017 has been a banner year for bitcoin, it ended the year losing market share to altcoins.

After falling to a low that went down to 37.9% in the final days of 2017, the market dominance of bitcoin is now just at just 38.2% as of press time during the first days of 2018.

Bitcoin’s current total market capitalization is over $234 billion, a massive figure by itself but one that pales in comparison to the ecosystem it has created.

The original cryptocurrency is comprising an estimated less than 40% of the $615 billion cryptocurrency markets.

This is only the second time ever that the dominance of BTC has dropped below this threshold.

The first time was in June of 2017.

Bitcoin has been gaining ground since its June low, reaching over 60% market share by early November.

The end of 2017 however brought a flood of raising contenders to challenge BTC’s dominance.

Ripple’s XRP is now worth about $88 billion after a massive rally in December.

Ethereum’s market cap follows very closely now at over $74 billion.

Bitcoin cash (BCH) is also not too far behind with an overall market value of $43 billion.

Adding up to the market share loss of bitcoin, there are 33 altcoins and ICO tokens that are worth over $1 billion by market cap each.

These begin with ripple, ether and bitcoin cash, but reach way down the list to dogecoin.

There are now also about 129 altcoins and ICO tokens that are worth between $100 million to $1 billion by market cap each.