The cryptocurrency market experienced a significant downturn in the first quarter of 2025, retreating from the unprecedented highs reached at the end of 2024. While altcoins faced substantial challenges, Bitcoin enhanced its market dominance, as highlighted in the latest report from CoinGecko, a prominent crypto data aggregator.
According to the findings, the total crypto market capitalization plummeted by $633.5 billion, a decline of 18.6%, bringing it down to $2.8 trillion. This decrease followed a peak of $3.8 trillion on January 18, just two days ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, after which a downward trend set in.
Researchers from CoinGecko pointed out that this decline was matched by a decrease in investor engagement. The average daily trading volume saw a quarter-on-quarter fall of 27.3%, settling at $146 billion, compared to $200.7 billion during the fourth quarter of 2024.
Despite the overall market slump, Bitcoin’s market share rose. It gained 4.6 percentage points to reach a dominance of 59.1% by the end of Q1, a level not observed since Q1 of 2021.
Crypto dominance. Source: CoinGecko
In this challenging environment, stablecoins emerged as a preferred choice for many investors seeking security amid the volatility. However, Ethereum experienced a notable decline, losing 3.9 percentage points to settle at a dominance of 7.9%, its lowest since late 2019, according to the report.
Within the major cryptocurrencies, only XRP and BNB managed to maintain their market share during this period.
Market Sees Plunging Prices, Trading Volumes, TVLs
Bitcoin reached a peak of $106,182 in January 2025 but ended the quarter down 11.8% at $82,514. Meanwhile, Ethereum saw a staggering 45.3% decline, finishing the quarter at $1,805, effectively erasing its gains from 2024 and returning to levels last seen in 2023. The report noted that Ethereum significantly lagged behind other major coins such as Bitcoin, Solana, XRP, and BNB, which experienced less pronounced declines.
Additionally, the daily trading volume dropped from an average of $30 billion in Q4 2024 to $24.4 billion in Q1 2025. CoinGecko highlighted that days marked by volume spikes coincided with sharp declines in Ethereum’s price.
Ethereum, volume and price. Source: CoinGecko
The total value locked (TVL) in multichain DeFi fell by 27.5%, dropping from $177.4 billion at the end of 2024 to $128.6 billion by the end of March 2025, primarily due to the notable depreciation of altcoins. Within this landscape, Ethereum lost a significant portion of its TVL, falling 35.4% from $112.6 billion to $72.7 billion.
Furthermore, both Solana and Base experienced considerable reductions in their TVL, declining by 23.5% and 15.3%, respectively.
CEX and DEX
The report indicates that during the first quarter of 2025, the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXs) reported a total spot trading volume of $5.4 trillion, signifying a 16.3% quarter-on-quarter decrease.
Despite this drop, Binance retained its status as the leading spot CEX, commanding a 40.7% market share at the end of the quarter. Although Binance’s market share grew, its trading volume fell to $588.7 billion in March, compared to over $1 trillion in December.
Among the top 10 exchanges, HTX emerged as the only platform to record growth in Q1, increasing by 11.4%, while the others experienced declines ranging from 1.8% to 34%, with Upbit seeing the largest drop to $371 billion.
In terms of month-on-month trading activities, Bybit faced the steepest decline, dropping 52.4% from $178.2 billion to $84.7 billion.
In the decentralized exchange (DEX) realm, Solana surged ahead, witnessing a 35.3% increase in trading volume from $217 billion in Q4 to $293.7 billion in Q1, capturing a market share of 39.6%. In January, Solana accounted for an impressive 52% of on-chain transactions among the leading 12 blockchains, fueled by interest surrounding the ‘political memecoin’ TRUMP.
This surge enabled Solana to achieve an all-time high of over $184.8 billion in trading volume, pushing Ethereum’s market share below 20% for the first time. However, in March, Ethereum reclaimed its leadership position, securing a 30.1% market share compared to Solana’s 23.4%.
In a noteworthy shift, Optimism and Polygon exited the top 10 in March, making way for newcomers Sonic and Berachain, although both chains maintained robust performance throughout the quarter.
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