Definition. This chart compares the relative dominance of trading volume across perpetual futures markets for BTC (orange) and ETH (blue), measuring which of the two majors is attracting the larger share of speculative flow.

Technical. Dominance is calculated as each asset's share of their combined perpetual futures volume:

• Bitcoin Dominance = BTC Perpetual Volume / (BTC Perpetual Volume + ETH Perpetual Volume)
• Ethereum Dominance = ETH Perpetual Volume / (BTC Perpetual Volume + ETH Perpetual Volume)

The two series are complementary and sum to 100% at all times.

Interpretation. Where open interest dominance describes standing positioning, volume dominance describes the day-to-day flow of trading activity — it reacts faster and is noisier. Sustained rotation of volume share toward ETH has typically accompanied phases of broadening risk appetite, in which traders reach beyond Bitcoin for higher-beta exposure; volume share swinging back to BTC is characteristic of Bitcoin-led trends and risk-off periods, when activity concentrates in the deepest market. Divergences between volume dominance and open interest dominance can be informative: volume rotating to one asset while its open interest share lags suggests short-term speculative churn rather than durable positioning.

Notes. The positioning-side counterpart is BTC/ETH Futures Open Interest Dominance. Built from Perpetual Futures Volume. See also the BTC vs ETH Funding Rate Spread for how the cost of holding leverage compares between the two assets.