CoinGecko's Q1 2025 Overview: A Dip in the Crypto Sphere, Yet Bitcoin's Dominance Surges to 59%

A platform dedicated to compiling and analyzing data CoinGecko CoinGecko's '2025 Q1 Overview of the Crypto Landscape' reveals a significant shift in the cryptocurrency market at the beginning of 2025, moving away from the strong performance recorded in late 2024. During the first quarter, the overall market cap shrank by 18.6%, settling around $2.8 trillion—down from an impressive high of $3.8 trillion achieved on January 18th, which was just before Donald Trump's presidential inauguration. 

This decline in market performance coincided with a drop in trading activity, evidenced by a reduction of 27.3% in average daily trading volumes compared to the preceding quarter, which equated to $146 billion. 

In spite of the general decline in the market, Bitcoin's share surged to an impressive 59.1%, marking its highest point in over three years, while alternative cryptocurrencies suffered greater losses. 

Bitcoin itself demonstrated volatility during this timeframe, peaking at $106,182 in January before retreating to $82,514 by March's end, representing an 11.8% drop over the quarter. This pattern suggests that investors are increasingly viewing Bitcoin as a relatively safe asset within the often turbulent digital currency market.

In contrast, Ethereum experienced a sharper decline, closing the quarter at $1,805 after a starting value of $3,336—a staggering 45.3% drop for the quarter which erased its achievements from 2024, bringing ETH down to levels not seen since 2023. When compared to other major assets like BTC, SOL, XRP, and BNB, Ethereum notably lagged behind.  

At the start of the year, there was a brief surge in political-themed memecoins. The introduction of tokens inspired by Trump, such as TRUMP and MELANIA, sparked a speculative frenzy, particularly on platforms like pump.fun, which saw a record launch of 72,000 tokens in a single day. However, the excitement fizzled out dramatically with the advent of LIBRA—a coin pushed by Argentina’s President Javier Milei. Following a tweet from Milei, LIBRA's value plummeted after the developers executed a sudden exit scam, leading its market cap to topple from $4.6 billion to just $221 million in mere hours. This incident effectively marked the end of the brief political memecoin craze.

Centralized Exchange Spot Volume Declines; Solana Continues to Dominate On-Chain Dex Activity

In the first quarter of 2025, spot trading volumes across the leading ten centralized exchanges saw a significant downturn, falling by 16.3% quarter-over-quarter to approximately $5.4 trillion. By the end of March, Binance upheld its status as the preeminent spot exchange, securing 40.7% of the market share. Though it gradually increased its share throughout the quarter, it experienced a substantial monthly drop in trading volume, plummeting to $588.7 billion in March compared to exceeding $1 trillion in earlier periods. December 2024 .  

On the flip side, Solana further solidified its status in decentralized exchange (DEX) activities. Continuing the momentum established towards the close of 2024, Solana captured a commanding share of the DEX market, showcasing 39.6% and an impressive 52% market share in January alone. Its DEX trading volumes soared by 35.3%, escalating from $217 billion in Q4 2024 to $293.7 billion in Q1 2025. Additionally, flourishing platforms like Sonic and Bera began to carve out their niche, augmenting Solana’s expanding footprint in the ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the total value locked (TVL) across multichain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols took a hit, falling by 27.5% to $128.6 billion by the close of March. This decline was largely attributed to the diminishing valuations of altcoins. Ethereum, which had historically commanded the largest segment of DeFi TVL, saw its dominance drop from 63.5% at the year's onset to 56.6% by the conclusion of Q1. In raw figures, Ethereum’s TVL decreased by 35.4%, sliding from $112.6 billion to $72.7 billion, clearly illustrating the broader impact of market contractions on the DeFi landscape.