The crypto market has emerged from its end-of-year hibernation, experiencing a surge of 48.9% from a total market cap of $831.8B on January 1st, 2023, to $1.238T on March 31st, 2023, according to the Coingecko 2023 Q1 Crypto Industry Report. Bitcoin and Ethereum are currently hovering around $28,000 and $1,800, respectively, with BTC performing exceptionally well, posting a close to 72% gain this quarter.
The report covers everything from the crypto market landscape to a deep dive into the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystems, analyzing Bitcoin and Ethereum, and reviewing how centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) have performed.
The crypto market started the year on a strong note, with a total market cap of $1.2 trillion, reflecting a gain of $406 billion in absolute terms. Trading volume also saw an upswing, increasing by 30% QoQ from $33% in Q4 2022 to $77 billion in Q1 2023. Trading volume spiked in January 2023 when the market started rallying, and it momentarily surged in early March due to increased volatility from the banking crisis before tapering off towards the end of the quarter.
Bitcoin outperformed traditional asset classes, posting a 72.4% gain, followed by the NASDAQ index (15.7%) and gold (8.4%). All major asset classes, except crude oil, ended the quarter in the green. The US Dollar Index (DXY), along with other fiat currencies, remained relatively flat throughout the quarter.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, saw a market cap fall of 4.5% ($6.2 billion), with USDC and BUSD being the biggest losers. Tether (USDT) further strengthened its position as the largest stablecoin, adding 20.5% ($13.6 billion) to its market cap. True USD (TUSD) entered the top 5 stablecoins, overtaking FRAX.
The DeFi sector market cap jumped 65.2% in Q1, translating to $29.6 billion in gains, mainly driven by the liquid staking governance token performance. The NFT trading volume also saw a resurgence, rising 68% from $2.1 billion in Q4 2022 to $4.5 billion in Q1 2023, with Blur flipping OpenSea as the top NFT marketplace.
Read more:
- Digital Asset Investment Products Experience Outflows Of $30M: CoinShares
- Binance Introduces WBETH: A New Liquid Staking Token To Enhance DeFi Accessibility