In wild crypto week, bitcoin gains and grabs bigger market share

In another wild week for digital assets, Bitcoin extended its dominance, grabbing a greater share of the cryptocurrency market as most alternative coins declined.

Bitcoin now makes up close to three-quarters of the entire crypto universe, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. Its market capitalisation is above $211 billion, 10 times that of the next-largest digital asset, Ether. And in a week when traditional financial markets were roiled, its price has held up, too: Bitcoin rose 14% over the seven days through Friday, while prices for alternative assets including Ether and XRP dropped.

“As much as Bitcoin was a risky asset class, I think alt coins are significantly riskier,” said Yoni Assia, co-founder and chief executive officer of online trading platform EToro, in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. “A lot of people got burned or had a bad experience during crypto winter,” he said, referring to a period toward the end of 2018 when digital assets…