According to the ChainCatcher report, based on Coingecko's quarterly report, the total cryptocurrency market value dropped 18.6% to $2.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2025. Bitcoin further consolidated its dominant position amid market decline, with market share rising to 59.1% (reaching a new high since 2021), while Altcoins generally showed weak performance. Stablecoins USDT and USDC increased their share, while Ethereum's market share fell to a five-year low of 7.9%.
1. Bitcoin Outperforms Traditional Risk Assets
Bitcoin once broke through $100,000, creating a historical high in January, but closed at $82,514 at the end of the quarter (a drop of 11.8%). Its performance was better than the Nasdaq index (down 10.3%), but inferior to gold (up 18%) and US Treasury bonds. Analysts pointed out that the strengthening of the yen and euro, monetary policy adjustments, and increased geopolitical uncertainty intensified market volatility.
2. Ethereum and Altcoins Under Pressure
Ethereum's price plummeted 45.3% to $1,805, wiping out all gains in 2024, with daily trading volume shrinking to $2.44 billion. Top Altcoins like Solana (SOL), XRP, and BNB had relatively smaller pullbacks, highlighting Ethereum's relative weakness. Meme coins were severely impacted by the LIBRA project's runaway incident related to Argentine President Javier Milei, with Pump.fun's daily token deployment dropping by 56.3%.
3. Exchange Landscape Changes
Centralized exchanges (CEX) spot trading volume decreased 16.3% to $5.4 trillion, with Binance maintaining a 40.7% market share; HTX was the only platform among the top ten to grow (+11.4%), while Bybit's trading volume was halved due to a hacker event in February. In decentralized exchanges (DEX), Solana led Q1 with a 39.6% share, but Ethereum briefly reclaimed the top spot in March. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi dropped 27.5% to $12.86 billion, with the new public chain Berachain's TVL rising against the trend to $5.2 billion.
