Crypto Assets Market Q1 2025 Review: Fluctuation Intensifies, Bitcoin Dominance Increases

In early 2025, the Crypto Assets market underwent significant adjustments, in stark contrast to the bull market peak at the end of 2024. In the first quarter, the total market capitalization of Crypto Assets fell by 18.6% to $2.8 trillion, after briefly reaching a high of $3.8 trillion on January 18. Market activity also declined, with the average daily trading volume plummeting by 27.3% to $146 billion.

During the market downturn, Bitcoin has strengthened its dominant position, with a market capitalization share of 59.1% at the end of the quarter, the highest level since the beginning of 2021, mainly due to greater impact on altcoins. Although Bitcoin reached an all-time high of 106,182 dollars in January, it has fallen back to 82,514 dollars at the end of the quarter, a decline of 11.8%.

Main Findings

1. Bitcoin's dominance has strengthened, currently accounting for 59.1% of the total market value of Crypto Assets.

The market capitalization of Bitcoin increased by 4.6 percentage points in the first quarter, reaching a high of 59.1%. This is mainly due to its relatively good performance during the market downturn, while altcoins suffered greater hits. Stablecoins also benefited from safe-haven demand, with Tether(USDT)'s market share slightly rising to 5.2%. In contrast, Ethereum's market capitalization share dropped significantly by 3.9 percentage points to 7.9%, hitting a new low since the end of 2019.

2. Bitcoin fell 11.8% in the first quarter, underperforming gold and U.S. Treasury bonds.

Bitcoin began to retreat after reaching a historic high of $106,182 on January 22, closing at $82,514 by the end of the quarter, a decline of 11.8%. In contrast, gold rose by 18%, becoming the best-performing asset of the season. Risk assets such as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 also saw declines, falling by 10.3% and 4.4%, respectively. The dollar index fell by 4.6%, while the yen and euro appreciated against the dollar.

3. Ethereum price has significantly withdrawn, erasing the gains for the entire year of 2024.

Ethereum closed at $1,805 at the end of Q1 2025, plummeting 45.3% during the quarter, having previously reached a high of $3,336. This decline not only erased all gains from 2024 but also pulled the price back to 2023 levels. Ethereum's performance significantly lagged behind major Crypto Assets like Bitcoin, Solana, XRP, and BNB. Its average daily trading volume also decreased from $30 billion in the previous quarter to $24.4 billion.

4. The meme coin craze has subsided, and the issuance of new tokens has sharply declined.

Driven by Trump-related Meme coins, the issuance of new tokens in January reached a historical high. However, after the market sentiment plummeted following the collapse of the LIBRA token promoted by the President of Argentina, by the end of the first quarter, the daily number of newly issued tokens had decreased by more than 56% compared to the January peak, down to 31,000.

5. The trading volume of centralized exchanges has declined, and Binance maintains its dominant position.

In the first quarter of 2025, the top 10 centralized exchanges had a spot trading volume of $5.4 trillion, a decrease of 16.3% compared to the previous quarter. Binance still holds a dominant position, with a market share of 40.7% in March, but its trading volume has significantly declined from a peak of $1 trillion in December last year. HTX is the only major exchange that achieved quarterly growth, while Upbit experienced the largest drop in trading volume, reaching 34%.

6. Solana maintains a leading position in DEX trading.

Solana has continued its strong performance since the end of 2024, capturing 39.6% of the market share in DEX trading in the first quarter of 2025. Its quarterly trading volume grew by 35.3% to $293.7 billion. In January, driven by a politically related Meme coin craze, Solana once held 52% of the market share, but subsequently retraced. Ethereum regained its leading position in DEX trading in March.

7. DeFi locked assets have significantly shrunk.

In the first quarter of 2025, the total locked value of multi-chain DeFi dropped by 27.5% to 128.6 billion USD from 177.4 billion USD, mainly due to a significant depreciation in the value of altcoins. Ethereum's dominance in TVL fell from 63.5% to 56.6%, with a total decrease of 35.4% to 72.7 billion USD. Solana and Base also experienced significant declines in TVL, but their market shares slightly increased. The emerging public chain Berachain rapidly rose, reaching a TVL of 5.2 billion USD by the end of the quarter, making it the sixth largest DeFi ecosystem.