Dominic Williams, founder of DFINITY, took to X to propose changes to CoinMarketCap, urging the platform to differentiate between market cap and fully diluted market cap to account for pending insider sales. He also suggested transparency around off-market sales, specifying the percentage of market cap sold above and below the current price. His proposals come amid increasing concern over liquidity dynamics in the crypto industry, with many feeling that alternative tokens (alts) are at a disadvantage due to existing market frameworks.
A user, @BlockRebirth, responded with a broader critique of the way dominance is measured in crypto. Comparing the crypto market to traditional financial markets, they pointed out that assets like oil or gas do not dominate other commodities, nor do Apple stocks control the entire equity market. Instead, these sectors rely on indices that reflect a collection of assets, such as the Coinbase 50 and CMC 100. The user called for an end to Bitcoin dominance, arguing that altcoins constantly lose liquidity to prop up Bitcoin’s price—a situation they described as unhealthy competition.
They further argued that Internet Computer (ICP) should not be subjected to the same price dependencies as other altcoins, asserting that its market dominance should be above 1%. Frustration over this dependency ran deep in the comments, with the user expressing their disillusionment, stating they would leave crypto entirely if not for their belief in ICP’s potential. Williams echoed the sentiment, agreeing that the crypto market had long since divorced itself from reality, and suggested that reconnecting it to rational economic principles would be beneficial.
Beyond market dominance concerns, another user, @HAMpng, raised a separate issue related to neuron controllers in the ICP ecosystem. They questioned whether users could eventually change the controller of a neuron, particularly in cases where Internet Identity is not linked to a ledger and relies only on a recovery phrase. Williams replied that adding a Ledger as an additional Internet Identity device was possible but uncertain about whether neuron control reassignment would be allowed. He noted that such a change would raise serious security considerations.
Regulatory concerns also surfaced in the conversation. @ClearThruTh asked about the role of market makers like Wintermute and whether decommissioning them would reduce price manipulation by central exchanges. Williams pushed back on the idea of outright removal, arguing that market makers play a crucial role in the industry. Instead, he pointed to projects engaging in financial engineering and paying key opinion leaders (KOLs) to manipulate prices as the real issue.
The timing of these discussions was brought into question by @cryptofrontio, who speculated that the renewed interest in these topics might be tied to ICP’s upcoming full vesting. Williams dismissed this, clarifying that ICP’s unlock schedule was nearly complete. He explained that DFINITY last raised off-market in 2018 and that the ICP distributed in its 2017 seed round had been gradually unlocking since launch in May 2021, with only three months remaining in the process.
Among the many suggestions floated, @dahnke_liminal proposed an alternative to CoinMarketCap, humorously suggesting that someone should create a competing platform “with caffeine.” In response, Williams revealed that he had considered developing a “Crypto Trust Index.” Unlike current rankings, this new index would require projects to disclose key technical information, including details about their development teams and the amount of source code written.
This exchange highlights growing frustration within the industry over market transparency, dominance structures, and tokenomics. The lack of clear, equitable mechanisms has led many to question whether existing frameworks are serving the interests of the broader crypto economy or merely reinforcing Bitcoin’s supremacy. While Williams’ proposals reflect a push for greater openness, the broader discussion suggests that there is still significant work to be done to achieve a more balanced and fair crypto market.
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