On July 18, CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency platform providing real-time and historical data, published a report on the crypto market’s performance during the second quarter of 2023 (April, May, and June). Here are the main takeaways and highlights from the report.
Bitcoin and Ethereum
In Q2, the crypto market saw slight growth, with a mere 0.14% increase in a market cap from $1.238 trillion to $1.240 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) remained generally stable during this period. The coins’ prices were roughly $30,000 and $1,900, respectively. Bitcoin experienced a 6.9% rise, closely followed by Ethereum with a 6% increase.
Notably, Bitcoin managed to outshine the overall market this quarter, reaching a yearly peak of $30,694 following the announcement of BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF filing. It seems now the CEO of BlackRock has changed his mind about Bitcoin and blockchain technology.
However, the good news was somewhat dampened by a significant 58.7% quarterly decrease in daily trading volume.
For Ethereum, one of the most important events of the quarter was the Shapella upgrade. It allowed for the withdrawal of ETH from the staking, resulting in a 30% increase in the amount of Ether staked. It is worth noting that more than 20% of the ETH supply is locked in staking.
Stablecoins
The report also sheds light on the performance of stablecoins. The top 15 stablecoins collectively experienced a 3.5% drop in market cap, primarily due to significant losses by USDC and BUSD. However, Tether (USDT) managed to increase its market cap by 4.4%, and True USD (TUSD) enjoyed an impressive 50% surge after being adopted as Binance's default stablecoin.
The reduction of BUSD supply has been an ongoing trend since February 2023 when The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered Paxos to stop issuing tokens.
As for the outflow from the USDC, it can be associated with trust problems following its depegging from the US dollar due to the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, where the reserve was held.
NFT
NFT trading volumes took a hit, decreasing by 35.0% overall, although Bitcoin Ordinals gained popularity from none other than Buterin. Despite the drop in interest, Ethereum remained the most utilized platform for NFT trading.
CEX and DEX
When it comes to exchanges, centralized platforms witnessed a 43.2% decrease in spot trading volume, causing Binance's market dominance to slip to 52%. Similarly, decentralized exchanges also saw a downturn in spot trading volume, falling by 30.8%. However, Uniswap sustained its lead in this segment of the market. With new updates on the horizon, Uniswap is expected to maintain its position.
