- Bitcoin’s market share rose to 59.1% regardless of falling 11.8%.
- Ethereum’s 2024 features worn out in Q1 2025.
- DeFi TVL fell 27.5% throughout multichain platforms.
The international cryptocurrency market began 2025 with optimism, fuelled by expectations of beneficial coverage shifts below Donald Trump’s presidency and a powerful rally throughout meme cash.
But these hopes have since been dashed. According to CoinGecko’s latest quarterly report, crypto’s complete market capitalisation fell 18.6% in Q1 2025, wiping out $633.5 billion in worth.
Trading volumes additionally took a success. The report exhibits that common day by 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 yr.
Despite indicators of energy in early January, recession issues 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 stage since 2021.
This shift highlights how buyers have handled Bitcoin as a comparatively extra steady asset in comparison with altcoins throughout unsure intervals.
However, Bitcoin itself was not proof against losses. It declined 11.8% through 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 in the bond market, impacting yields — a key metric carefully linked to digital asset flows.
Ethereum noticed an excellent sharper reversal. It gave up all of its 2024 features, returning to ranges final seen earlier than its Shanghai improve. The report attributed this pattern to declining decentralised finance (DeFi) exercise and chronic issues round fuel charges and scalability.
DeFi TVL and Solana exercise decline sharply
Multichain DeFi protocols suffered considerably, with complete worth locked (TVL) falling 27.5% over the three-month interval.
Solana, which led the decentralised alternate (DEX) buying and selling house through 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, notably the TRUMP coin on Solana, sparked a short lived spike in transaction volumes. However, this exercise did not maintain investor curiosity past January.
The LIBRA scandal, which emerged shortly after, added additional stress on altcoin sentiment and liquidity.
Despite these setbacks, Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $1 billion in contemporary inflows in Q1.
But the full property below administration (AUM) throughout these ETFs nonetheless fell by practically $9 billion on account of declining costs, highlighting the hole between funding inflows and market returns.
Structural issues deepen
While some information factors advised restricted resilience, practically each constructive pattern in the report was accompanied by a draw back threat.
The report exhibits that centralised exchanges, stablecoin volumes, and DeFi purposes all registered decrease exercise in February and March. Many initiatives misplaced traction as macroeconomic issues mounted and investor warning grew.
CoinGecko famous that the primary quarter of 2025 represents one of the difficult intervals for crypto for the reason that FTX collapse in late 2022.
The report displays broader market issues that the crypto sector, regardless of structural enhancements in infrastructure and compliance, stays deeply weak to international financial shocks.
As recession fears take maintain and regulatory uncertainties proceed to loom in main markets, the trail ahead for crypto in the approaching months stays extremely unsure.
Although Bitcoin’s rising market share indicators a flight to perceived security, the broader market might have greater than optimism and meme coin rallies to get better from this quarter’s losses.
