Following a robust fourth quarter in 2023, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency sector continued its upward trajectory, reaching a peak of $2.9 trillion on March 13. CoinGecko analyzed the trends of the past three months and highlighted seven key points reflecting the industry’s state.
Bitcoin Surge
From January to March, the leading cryptocurrency rose by 68.8%, setting an all-time high at $73,098, according to the analysts’ report.
Immediately after the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, the coin’s price corrected by 16% to a quarterly low of $39,505. Subsequently, prices rose by 85%, only to retreat again by 18%.
Digital gold closed the quarter at $71,247. At the time of writing, the asset’s price had fallen by 12% to $62,370.
During the reporting period, the average daily trading volume of Bitcoin increased by 89.8% to $34.1 billion.
Exchange-Traded Funds
As of April 2, the total assets under management (AUM) of spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $55.1 billion.
IBIT from BlackRock accumulated over $17 billion and established itself as the second-largest Bitcoin fund. In Q1, the product had the highest trading volume among its competitors.
The AUM of the largest GBTC from Grayscale was $21.7 billion. The net outflow from the instrument since its conversion exceeded $6.9 billion. Analysts attribute this to early investors locking in profits and high management fees.
Restaking
The total amount of funds locked in Ethereum restaking protocols grew by 36% to 4.3 million ETH (~$13.1 billion).
The majority of assets (52.6%) are in liquid restaking protocols. The largest was EtherFi (21%), whose volume grew by 2616% over the quarter, reaching approximately 910,000 ETH (~$2.77 billion) by the end of March.
Solana Memes
The top 10 meme coins on the Solana network grew by 801.5%, with their capitalization reaching $8.32 billion.
Among the most popular meme tokens, only two — Bonk (BONK) and Samoyedcoin (SAMO) — existed before Q4 2023. Over three months, BONK ceded leadership to Dogwifhat (WIF), whose capitalization exceeded $3 billion.
NFT Metrics
Trading volumes of NFTs on the 10 largest marketplaces in Q1 2024 amounted to $4.7 billion.
Blur remained the leading trading platform with a turnover of over $1.5 billion, holding a market share of 27.6%.
Magic Eden managed to surpass Blur in trading volume in March ($760 million) thanks to the introduction of the Diamond rewards program and the launch of an Ethereum-based marketplace in collaboration with Yuga Labs.
CEX
Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges (CEX) grew by 95.3% over the past three months, reaching $4.29 trillion, the highest level since Q4 2021.
Binance remained the largest CEX, ending March with a market share of 50%, gradually restoring its dominance throughout the quarter. During the same period, there was a notable increase in the number of new listings and project launches on the exchange.
DEX
Ethereum’s share in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume fell below 40% in Q1 2024.
In February, the figure reached a record low of 30%. Despite the decline in market share, Ethereum-based DEXs still dominate the sector.
Protocols on Arbitrum managed to increase volumes thanks to the STIP incentive program aimed at maintaining activity. Base and Solana also showed positive dynamics, driven by the hype around meme tokens.
Earlier, CoinGecko analysts calculated the total number of cryptocurrencies. Today, there are over 2.52 million assets, which is 5.7 times more than their number at the end of 2021 — 440,000.