They say variety is the spice of life. But what if there were no variety? Won't life keep "lifing" without it? This brings me to the thought that popped in my head today - What if Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency? Would adoption, regulation, been relatively easier? Would the volatility be reduced and the price stable? Would have less centralized exchanges?
Sometimes, various developments both in quality and quantity will also have an impact on the popularity of something. Likewise with Bitcoin, even though sometimes we are very lazy with the thousands of altcoins (shitcoins) that are created in the crypto world, but this is also an effect of the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency in the eyes of the world, so that more concepts, coins, or other things related to blockchain and cryptocurrency are developed. . Indeed, we cannot guarantee that altcoins are indeed one of the factors why crypto has become more popular. Moreover, many people only know about Bitcoin, not altcoins. Hence, it may not be a problem with Bitcoin, but it may not be as popular as it is today. The point is that we will not know what will happen if altcoins do not exist, sometimes things are beyond our reach to predict, especially things that are unlikely to happen again and cannot turn back time. Wouldn't it be better to just focus on the present?
I agree, for sure other cryptocurrencies in particular with altcoins, contributed with the growth in this industry in general. Perhaps investors who are not into Bitcoin alone because of its too volatile market value. Also, it is a currency alone unlike with tokens of different projects that has specific utility wherein there are investors who are more into such kind of asset simply because it is where they form assumption whether something would be good holding for a long time, depending on the project itself. Unlike with Bitcoin wherein your assumption would solely depend with the majority's buying and selling behaviors.
So it is more of differences with preference as an investor. In comparison between bitcoin and altcoins; the rate of increase with altcoins are bigger most of the time because of the market cap and volume of these tokens. It is more volatile indeed but if you are having good analysis, you'd hit the right spot of investing on altcoins which could be why other people prefer it more.