Altseason started? Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), and Ethereum (ETH) course shoots up

The cryptomarkt turns green! Altcoins in particular are doing well, for example Ripple (XRP) has risen by nearly 19 percent in the last 24 hours. Other crypto coins such as Stellar (XLM), Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) also made substantial gains. Has the altcoin season started?

The price of Ripple (XRP) has been fluctuating between 23 and 24 cents for months. Not all that exciting. But from Tuesday morning around 7:00 am the price of XRP shot up. At the apex, XRP reached a value of 28 cents. In absolute numbers, that seems a small difference, but since Tuesday morning the rate of XRP has already risen by 18.6 percent. Quite a nice profit!

Stellar (XLM) the biggest climber of the last 24 hours

At Stellar (XLM) the exchange rate differences in absolute numbers are even smaller than XRP. On a daily level, the rate has risen from 0.054 to 0.06 euros. That seems a huge difference, but since Tuesday afternoon at 12:00, XLM has risen by no less than 19.6 percent!

Ethereum (ETH) leads the altcoin market

The advance of Ethereum (ETH) started earlier than that of Stellar (XLM) and Ripple (XLM). The price of ETH has been in a rising trend since Saturday 14 September. But from Tuesday at 6:00 pm things went fast. In five hours, the rate rose by six percent to a pinnacle of almost 194 euros!

What is altseason?

Are you still fairly new to the world of crypto? Then you may not have heard the term altseason. Altseason refers to the period in which altcoins increase considerably in value. With altcoins is meant any cryptomint other than bitcoin.

Now that we still throw jargon, bitcoin dominance is also an important term to remember. Bitcoin dominance means the market share of bitcoin in the cryptomarket. Up to and including early 2017, the entire cryptomarket consisted of around 95 percent of bitcoin.

The chart below shows this bitcoin market share, from 2017 to now. You can use this to estimate whether the altseason has begun:

Bitcoin dominance plummeted in early 2017. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were extremely popular at the time, with an ICO you could be one of the first to own a new altcoin. Investors speculated strongly on the price of altcoins, and as a result the value of altcoins also increased considerably.

At the beginning of 2018, bitcoin dominance (as far as you can still speak of dominance) was only 35 percent. But after the beginning of 2018 the altseason was over again, bitcoin again took the upper hand.

This year, bitcoin achieved the highest market share in two years, when there was already speculation on a new altseason. Altcoins are now gaining considerably in value and the dominance of bitcoin is falling. Has the new altseason really started?