CoinGecko Q1 2025 Report: Crypto Market Slips, Bitcoin Dominance Climbs To 59%
In Brief
CoinGecko released a “2025 Q1 Crypto Industry Report” that indicates a shift in momentum for the crypto sector at the start of 2025, diverging from the strong performance seen in late 2024.
Data aggregation and analysis platform CoinGecko released a “2025 Q1 Crypto Industry Report” that indicates a shift in momentum for the cryptocurrency sector at the start of 2025, diverging notably from the strong performance seen in late 2024. The overall market capitalization contracted by 18.6% in the first quarter, closing at approximately $2.8 trillion—down from a temporary peak of $3.8 trillion reached on January 18th, shortly before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
This downturn also coincided with a reduction in trading activity, as average daily volumes dropped by 27.3% compared to the previous quarter, settling at $146 billion.
Despite the broader decline, Bitcoin’s market share expanded, rising to 59.1%—its highest level in over three years—as alternative cryptocurrencies faced steeper losses.
Bitcoin itself experienced volatility during the period, reaching an all-time high of $106,182 in January before declining to $82,514 by the end of March, reflecting a quarterly drop of 11.8%. This trend suggests a renewed investor focus on Bitcoin as a relative safe haven within the digital asset market.
Ethereum saw a sharper pullback, closing the quarter at $1,805 after starting at $3,336—a 45.3% quarterly drop. This erased its gains from 2024 and brought ETH back to levels not observed since 2023. Compared to other large-cap assets such as BTC, SOL, XRP, and BNB, Ethereum underperformed largely.
Meanwhile, the political memecoin trend briefly surged at the start of the year. The launch of Trump-themed tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA created a wave of speculative interest, fueling activity on platforms like pump.fun, where a record 72,000 tokens were deployed in a single day. However, the hype surrounding political tokens sharply declined after the release of LIBRA—a coin promoted by Argentina’s President Javier Milei. Following a tweet from Milei, LIBRA’s price crashed as the developers executed a rug pull, causing its market cap to collapse from $4.6 billion to $221 million within hours. This event effectively marked the end of the short-lived political memecoin boom.
Spot Trading Volume On CEXs Declines, Solana Maintains Lead In On-Chain DEX Activity
In the first quarter of 2025, spot trading activity across the top ten centralized exchanges experienced a notable decline, with volumes falling by 16.3% quarter-over-quarter to reach $5.4 trillion. Binance retained its position as the leading spot exchange, accounting for 40.7% of market share by the end of March. Although its share grew steadily over the quarter, its monthly trading volume dropped sharply to $588.7 billion in March, a fall from the $1 trillion mark it had surpassed in December 2024.
Meanwhile, Solana extended its lead in decentralized exchange (DEX) activity. The network continued the momentum it built at the end of 2024, dominating the DEX space with a quarterly market share of 39.6% and reaching 52% in January alone. Its DEX trading volume increased by 35.3%, growing from $217 billion in Q4 2024 to $293.7 billion in Q1 2025. Emerging platforms like Sonic and Bera also began making their presence felt during this period, contributing to Solana’s rising influence in the sector.
At the same time, the total value locked (TVL) in multichain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols declined, dropping by 27.5% to $128.6 billion by the end of March. This downturn was largely driven by declining altcoin valuations. Ethereum, which has historically held the largest share of DeFi TVL, saw its dominance decrease from 63.5% at the beginning of the year to 56.6% at the end of Q1. In absolute terms, Ethereum’s TVL fell by 35.4%, moving from $112.6 billion to $72.7 billion, highlighting the broader impact of market contraction on the DeFi ecosystem.
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About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
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Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
