Why altcoins go down when Bitcoin goes down

The only way for Bitcoin and altcoins to go down in price at the same time is for there to be a net outflow of money from the entire cryptocurrency “ecosystem.” Otherwise, you will tend to see the price of Bitcoin and altcoins move in opposite directions when the price of Bitcoin changes.

If you have been following the cryptocurrency market, you might have noticed by now that every time Bitcoin’s price goes down, alternative cryptocurrency prices (commonly called altcoins) follow. The opposite is equally true – when the price of bitcoin rallies, we expect altcoins to go up in price shortly after .

We provide evidence on the asymmetric impact of Bitcoin on altcoins both in the short-run and in the long-run. In the short-run, a decrease in Bitcoin price has greater effect than an increase on the prices of altcoins . This asymmetry is more frequent after the 2017 cryptocurrency price crash.