According to the source, the hypothetical disappearance of Bitcoin focuses traders on liquidity concentration and cross-asset correlations, with BTC representing roughly half of total crypto market capitalization across 2023–2024, implying a large-cap and liquidity shock if removed, source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Dominance data. ETH has maintained a strong positive 90-day rolling correlation with BTC, frequently above 0.6 in 2023–2024, indicating ETHUSD and ETHBTC dislocations and higher basis volatility when BTC experiences regime shifts, source: Kaiko correlations research. On centralized exchanges, BTC provides the deepest order books and a large share of spot and derivatives activity, and episodes of BTC-led stress have coincided with wider spreads and thinner depth in altcoin books, implying immediate liquidity deterioration if BTC were removed, source: Kaiko Market Structure reports and CCData Exchange Review 2024. XRP exhibits a positive but lower and regime-dependent correlation to BTC, with idiosyncratic catalysts such as the July 13, 2023 SDNY ruling in SEC v. Ripple causing temporary decoupling, yet broad market selloffs have still transmitted to XRP, source: U.S. District Court SDNY order and CoinMarketCap price data. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are the dominant quote assets for altcoins, so trading would likely reroute to stablecoin pairs, but historical structural shifts have shown initial liquidity fragmentation and higher slippage, source: Kaiko stablecoin market share analyses and Binance Research liquidity studies. BTC perpetuals and futures anchor funding rates and the crypto volatility term structure; when those benchmarks dislocate, altcoin perpetuals exhibit higher funding variability and basis swings, implying heightened derivatives risk without BTC, source: Kaiko derivatives reports and CME Group market statistics.