Hey people of steem,
This is more of an opinion piece than a market analysis.
When swings of bitcoin happen in the market we see the alts follow. It is usually a day or two after. When one goes up so do a lot of the others. There is probably several reasons for this, one being that bitcoin is still the main crypto that people associate with and it could be litmus test for the rest of them. It is also the majority of the market (though that is changing). But I think there is a bigger that bitcoin is controlling the market.
Bitcoin is the gate in and out of crypto. When people want to buy an alt they usually use bitcoin and when they want fiat they sell bitcoin. Etherreum and litecoin are started to be that as well but bitcoin is still the main player. And as we are still in a world of "how do I spend it" changing it for fiat is very important. Unless we see a new stable coin replace it bitcoin will always by the flagship that moves the market.
For steem we would need to be able to buy and sell it directly for it to be less affected when bitcoin swings. This could be done through the site but I am sure there a lot of legalities that we need to follow. But it might be worth it in the future when steem goes big.