Altcoins Gain Ground as BTC Stalls at $80.9K, Derivatives Volume Doubles

Bitcoin and Ethereum stalled near $80,900 (−0.06%) and $2,315 (−0.66%) on May 11 as select altcoins like XRP, BNB, and SOL advanced, with total crypto market cap at $2.69T and altcoin cap (ex-BTC) reaching $1.07T. The story began May 6 with BTC dominance peaking at 61.3%—its highest since November 2025—amid early altcoin recovery signals like TOTAL3 up 15% and Binance alt volume share jumping to 49%. May 8 showed mixed data with dominance breaking out to 60.9% but Altcoin Season Index at 35; by May 10, dominance declined with bearish MACD and alts like SUI (+15.8%) outperforming, confirmed now by doubled derivatives volume to $901B signaling rotation.