- Bitcoin’s market share rose to 59.1% regardless of falling 11.8%.
- Ethereum’s 2024 beneficial properties worn out in Q1 2025.
- DeFi TVL fell 27.5% throughout multichain platforms.
The worldwide cryptocurrency market began 2025 with optimism, fuelled by expectations of beneficial coverage shifts underneath Donald Trump’s presidency and a powerful rally throughout meme cash.
However these hopes have since been dashed. According to CoinGecko’s latest quarterly report, crypto’s whole market capitalisation fell 18.6% in Q1 2025, wiping out $633.5 billion in worth.
Buying and selling volumes additionally took a success. The report exhibits that common every day buying and selling quantity fell 27.3% in comparison with the earlier quarter. Spot buying and selling on centralised exchanges declined 16.3%, a drop that was partly attributed to the Bybit hack earlier this 12 months.
Regardless of indicators of energy in early January, recession considerations and fragmented investor curiosity led to a broad sell-off throughout digital property.
Bitcoin outperforms altcoins however nonetheless falls 11.8%
Bitcoin retained its dominance over the broader market in Q1, accounting for 59.1% of the full crypto market cap — its highest degree since 2021.
This shift highlights how traders have handled Bitcoin as a comparatively extra secure asset in comparison with altcoins throughout unsure durations.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin itself was not proof against losses. It declined 11.8% throughout the quarter and underperformed conventional protected havens like gold and US Treasury bonds.
The report additionally famous that Trump’s newly imposed tariffs triggered volatility within the bond market, impacting yields — a key metric carefully linked to digital asset flows.
Ethereum noticed a good sharper reversal. It gave up all of its 2024 beneficial properties, returning to ranges final seen earlier than its Shanghai improve. The report attributed this development to declining decentralised finance (DeFi) exercise and protracted considerations round gasoline charges and scalability.
DeFi TVL and Solana exercise decline sharply
Multichain DeFi protocols suffered considerably, with whole worth locked (TVL) falling 27.5% over the three-month interval.
Solana, which led the decentralised change (DEX) buying and selling area throughout the meme coin frenzy in January, noticed its personal TVL drop by greater than 20%.
CoinGecko’s information signifies that market pleasure round Trump-themed tokens, significantly the TRUMP coin on Solana, sparked a brief spike in transaction volumes. Nonetheless, this exercise didn’t maintain investor curiosity past January.
The LIBRA scandal, which emerged shortly after, added additional stress on altcoin sentiment and liquidity.
Regardless of these setbacks, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $1 billion in recent inflows in Q1.
However the whole property underneath administration (AUM) throughout these ETFs nonetheless fell by practically $9 billion attributable to declining costs, highlighting the hole between funding inflows and market returns.
Structural considerations deepen
Whereas some information factors advised restricted resilience, practically each optimistic development within the report was accompanied by a draw back danger.
The report exhibits that centralised exchanges, stablecoin volumes, and DeFi functions all registered decrease exercise in February and March. Many tasks misplaced traction as macroeconomic considerations mounted and investor warning grew.
CoinGecko famous that the primary quarter of 2025 represents one of the crucial difficult durations for crypto because the FTX collapse in late 2022.
The report displays broader market considerations that the crypto sector, regardless of structural enhancements in infrastructure and compliance, stays deeply susceptible to world financial shocks.
As recession fears take maintain and regulatory uncertainties proceed to loom in main markets, the trail ahead for crypto within the coming months stays extremely unsure.
Though Bitcoin’s rising market share alerts a flight to perceived security, the broader market may have greater than optimism and meme coin rallies to get better from this quarter’s losses.