Bitcoin Serves As Gateway to Altcoins: Studies

Coinbase, one of the top crypto exchanges out there, has recently issued out a study, one that showed some impressive results. According to the research done by the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, only 24% of investors that invest into the Bitcoin System as a whole, stay in Bitcoin exclusively.

Bitcoin Serving To Guide To Other Crypto

The research concluded that Bitcoin, more often than not, only served as a rabbit hole to other forms of altcoins. When you look at the numbers, it shows that 60% of all investors buying crypto for the first time, buy Bitcoin or buy Ethereum as their first purchase. However, only 24% of the total first-time investors into crypto have managed to stay exclusively in Bitcoin due to wallets like Bitcoin Profit.

The data further demonstrates that investors are more willing to take altcoins into consideration should there be a bull run in play. A prime example of this would be the Ethereum run and ICO craze that occurred back in 2017, which saw the market dominance of Bitcoin drop below 30%. For that brief length of time, Ethereum had managed to achieve the title of the dominant asset within the Coinbase exchange, and had just about 50% of the trading volume dedicated to it.

Good Results Breed Good Sentiment

In Around the Block, a publication Coinbase hosts on the crypto space that had revealed this trend, to begin with, Justin Martin gave comment on the matter, as well. Martin, coming from Coinbase Corporate Development, stated that the reason for this behavior could be due to a variety of reasons, but estimates that the primary reason is psychological. He explained that when people feel good about their initial Bitcoin up investesments, Bitcoin being the example, they decide to branch out into other possible winners in the category.

Bitcoin Seen As A Crypto Gateway Drug

As one would imagine, Bitcoin has been likened to the crypto equivalent of a “gateway drug” into the industry at large. Nick Colas, a Bitcoin analyst, stated through an interview that the 2017 bull run’s enthusiasm had morphed itself into a general craze. According to Colas, this craze causes Bitcoin to act as a type of gateway drug into the industry at large.

Further mention of the “gateway drug” functionality came in June of 2019. There, Bloomberg Markets had Ryan Selkis, the co-founder and CEO of Messari, suggested that the Libra coin, facebook’s proposed stablecoin, could serve as a gateway to further crypto investment.