Q1 2025 Crypto Assets Market Review: Fluctuations and Trends

At the beginning of 2025, the Crypto Assets market experienced a significant correction, in stark contrast to the high sentiment at the end of 2024. In the first quarter, the total market capitalization of Crypto Assets fell by 18.6%, closing at $2.8 trillion, a sharp decline from the peak of $3.8 trillion on January 18. Market activity also decreased, with the average daily trading volume dropping by 27.3% month-on-month to $146 billion.

Against the backdrop of an overall sluggish market, Bitcoin's dominance has strengthened, reaching a market share of 59.1% at the end of the quarter, a new high since early 2021. Although Bitcoin hit a historic high of $106,182 in January, it had fallen back to $82,514 by the end of the quarter, a decline of 11.8%.

Here are the main highlights of the Crypto Assets market for the first quarter of 2025:

1. The market capitalization has significantly retraced, falling from the year's high of $3.8 trillion to $2.8 trillion.

2. The market share of Bitcoin has risen to 59.1%, demonstrating strong resistance to Fluctuation.

3. Bitcoin's quarterly decline was 11.8%, underperforming gold and U.S. treasuries.

4. The price of Ethereum has plummeted by 45.3%, falling from $3,336 at the beginning of the season to $1,805.

5. The Meme coin craze has subsided, and the issuance of new tokens has dropped by 56.3%.

6. The spot trading volume of centralized exchanges decreased by 16.3% month-on-month, to $5.4 trillion.

7. Solana maintains a leading position in decentralized exchange trading, accounting for 39.6% of the total trading volume in the first quarter.

8. The total locked value (TVL) in cross-chain DeFi evaporated by $48.9 billion, a decrease of 27.5%.

Market Structure Changes

The enhanced dominance of Bitcoin is accompanied by a significant drop in other crypto assets. Ethereum's market share decreased by 3.9 percentage points to 7.9%, marking a new low since the end of 2019. Stablecoins benefited from the market turmoil, with Tether (USDT)'s market share slightly rising to 5.2%, and USDC returning to the seventh position in market capitalization. XRP and BNB performed relatively stable among major crypto assets, essentially maintaining their market shares.

Main Crypto Assets Performance

Although Bitcoin reached a new high during the quarter, it ultimately fell by 11.8%. In contrast, traditional safe-haven asset gold performed excellently, with a quarterly increase of 18%. Risk assets were generally under pressure, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices falling by 10.3% and 4.4%, respectively.

Ethereum has suffered a heavy blow, with a quarterly decline of 45.3%, erasing the gains for the entire year of 2024. Its daily average trading volume dropped from 30 billion dollars in the previous quarter to 24.4 billion dollars.

Exchange Landscape

The total trading volume of centralized exchanges (CEX) in spot trading decreased by 16.3% month-on-month to $5.4 trillion. A certain trading platform still maintains market dominance, with a market share of 40.7% in March, but its monthly trading volume fell from over $1 trillion in December last year to $588.7 billion. HTX is the only major exchange that achieved trading volume growth, with a growth rate of 11.4%.

In terms of decentralized exchanges (DEX), Solana has continued its strong performance since the end of 2024, with a market share of 39.6% in the first quarter. In January, driven by the political-related Meme coin craze, Solana once accounted for 52% of on-chain transactions. However, as the excitement faded, Ethereum reclaimed the top position in DEX trading volume in March.

DeFi Ecosystem

In the first quarter of 2025, the total locked value (TVL) of cross-chain DeFi fell sharply by 27.5%, from $177.4 billion to $128.6 billion, mainly due to the significant devaluation of altcoin values. The Ethereum ecosystem was particularly hard hit, with TVL declining by 35.4%, and its market share dropping from 63.5% to 56.6%.

The TVL of Solana and Base has also seen a significant decline, dropping by 23.5% and 15.3% respectively, primarily due to the price drop of SOL and ETH. The emerging public chain Berachain rapidly rose after its launch in February, reaching a TVL of 5.2 billion USD by the end of the quarter, making it one of the top six DeFi ecosystems.

Overall, the cryptocurrency market experienced significant adjustments in the first quarter of 2025, with Bitcoin demonstrating relative resistance to decline, while other crypto assets and the DeFi ecosystem generally faced pressure. There were also some noteworthy changes in market structure and trading patterns.