Q1 2025 Crypto Assets Market Review: Analysis of Decentralized Finance and NFT Ecosystem Development and Exchange Performance

At the beginning of 2025, the Crypto Assets market experienced a period of downturn, contrasting sharply with the boom at the end of 2024. In the first quarter, the total market capitalization of Crypto Assets fell by 18.6%, ending at $2.8 trillion, a significant drop from the peak of $3.8 trillion briefly reached on January 18. Market activity also declined, with the average daily trading volume decreasing by 27.3% month-on-month to $146 billion.

In the context of a general market downturn, Bitcoin has strengthened its dominance, with a market share of 59.1% at the end of the first quarter, the highest level since early 2021. Although Bitcoin reached a new high of $106,182 in January, it had fallen back to $82,514 by the end of the quarter, a decline of 11.8%.

Eight Highlights of the Crypto Assets Market in the First Quarter of 2025

1. The total market capitalization of Crypto Assets fell by 18.6%, previously reaching an annual high of $3.8 trillion.
2. The market dominance of Bitcoin has risen to 59.1%.
3. Bitcoin's quarterly decline was 11.8%, underperforming gold and U.S. Treasury bonds.
4. The price of Ethereum plummeted from $3,336 to $1,805, wiping out the gains for the entire year of 2024.
5. The Meme coin craze has cooled rapidly, with a 56.3% decrease in the average daily new token deployment on the Pump.fun platform.
6. The quarterly spot trading volume of centralized exchanges reached $5.4 trillion, a decrease of 16.3% compared to the previous quarter.
7. Solana maintains its dominance in on-chain DEX trading, accounting for 39.6% of the total trading volume in the first quarter.
8. The total locked value (TVL) of multi-chain Decentralized Finance has evaporated by 48.9 billion USD, a decrease of 27.5%.

Market Share Changes

Bitcoin's market dominance increased by 4.6 percentage points in the first quarter, reaching 59.1%. The stablecoin market share saw a slight rise, with Tether (USDT) accounting for 5.2%, and USDC surpassing Dogecoin (DOGE) to rise to seventh place. Ethereum (ETH)'s market share significantly dropped by 3.9 percentage points to 7.9%, the lowest since the end of 2019. Other altcoins saw an overall market share decline of 3.5 percentage points to 15.7%. XRP and BNB are among the few major tokens that maintained stable market shares.

Asset Performance Comparison

In the first quarter of 2025, gold became the best-performing asset class with an 18% increase. Bitcoin fell along with risk assets such as the Nasdaq and S&P 500, which dropped by 10.3% and 4.4% respectively. The US Dollar Index (DXY) fell by 4.6%, while the Japanese Yen and Euro appreciated against the US Dollar by 5.2% and 4.5% respectively.

Ethereum Market Performance

Ethereum performed poorly in the first quarter, with its price plummeting from $3,336 to $1,805, a quarterly decline of 45.3%, erasing all gains for 2024. The average daily trading volume fell from $30 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 to $24.4 billion.

Meme Coin Market Trends

At the beginning of the year, politically-themed Meme coins once sparked a wave of excitement, with the number of newly deployed tokens on the Pump.fun platform reaching a historic high of 72,000 daily. However, following a highly publicized token price crash event, the popularity of Meme coins quickly cooled off. By the end of the quarter, the daily number of newly deployed tokens on the Pump.fun platform had dropped to 31,000, a 56.3% decrease from the peak period.

Exchange Market Performance

In the first quarter of 2025, the total spot trading volume of the top ten centralized exchanges (CEX) was $5.4 trillion, a decrease of 16.3% from the previous quarter. A certain trading platform still maintains market dominance, with a market share of 40.7% in March, but its monthly trading volume has declined from over $1 trillion in December last year to $588.7 billion. HTX is the only top ten exchange that achieved quarterly growth, with a trading volume increase of 11.4%. Other major exchanges experienced a trading volume decline ranging from 1.8% to 34%.

DEX Market Landscape

Solana has maintained its dominant position in on-chain DEX trading since the end of 2024, accounting for 39.6% of the total trading volume in the first quarter of 2025. Its quarterly trading volume grew from $217 billion in the previous quarter to $293.7 billion, an increase of 35.3%. In January, driven by the political-related Meme coin craze, Solana briefly captured 52% of on-chain trading. However, as the hype faded, Ethereum reclaimed the top spot in March with a market share of 30.1%, while Solana dropped to 23.4%.

Development of the DeFi Ecosystem

In the first quarter of 2025, the total locked value of multi-chain DeFi dropped by 27.5%, from $177.4 billion at the end of 2024 to $128.6 billion, with a total locked value of (TVL). Ethereum suffered the most significant losses, with its TVL dominance declining from 63.5% at the beginning of the year to 56.6% at the end of the quarter, while its total locked value fell from $112.6 billion to $72.7 billion. Solana and Base also experienced substantial declines in TVL, down 23.5% and 15.3%, respectively. The emerging Berachain quickly rose after its launch on February 6, with a total locked value of $5.2 billion by the end of the quarter, making it the sixth largest DeFi ecosystem.