There were more stablecoin transactions in the first quarter of 2025 than VISA transactions, says the latest Bitwise Crypto Market Review for Q1 2025.
The report, which examines various metrics, describes the period as “The Best Worst Quarter in Crypto’s History.”
Bitwise is a cryptocurrency investment firm specializing in the management of crypto index funds.
“We saw the first pro-crypto president take office and immediately sign an executive order making the growth of digital assets a national priority. The U.S. created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the SEC dropped nearly all of its lawsuits against the crypto industry, and Operation Choke Point 2.0 – which nearly cut off crypto from the traditional banking sector – was shut down,” said CIO Matt Hougan.
“Crypto dreamed of these developments for years, and they finally all happened. And yet, despite all the good news, crypto prices fell. Sharply. The Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index dropped 18%, crypto equities tumbled 27%, and Ethereum – the second-largest crypto asset – fell an astonishing 45%.”
On to the key statistics from the quarter, first, we see that stablecoin transactions narrowly surpassed those of Visa, marking a significant jump in stablecoin usage compared to previous years.
Hougan highlighted that stablecoin transaction volume rose by more than 30%. He also noted that stablecoins’ assets under management (AUM) reached an all-time high of over $218 billion, reflecting a 13.5% increase quarter-over-quarter.
Since then, the total market capitalization of stablecoins has climbed to $237 billion. As we reported earlier, the total stablecoin supply also surged by over $30 billion reaching nearly $250 billion, a new all-time high, even as the overall crypto market cap fell by 19%.
MILESTONE | #Stablecoin Supply Skyrockets by $30B in Q1 2025 Reaching New All-Time Highs – #Ethereum Remains the Epicenter
Ethereum processed over $3 trillion in stablecoin transactions on its mainnet in Q1 2025 alone.https://t.co/yYw5KP11os @ethereum @Tether_to pic.twitter.com/XAkoD7rQud
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 5, 2025
Another sector that is rising is tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) also jumped, rising from around $14 billion to $19 billion – more than double the $9 billion recorded in Q1 2024, Bitwise’s report said.
In particular, demand for tokenized U.S. Treasuries has surged, pushing the sector’s value from just over $2 billion in Q4 2024 to nearly $4.5 billion this quarter, said the report.
Finally, venture capital funding grew at its fastest rate in the past six quarters. Notably, DeFi projects attracted their second-highest level of investment, following Q1 of 2022.
Two of the top 10 venture funding deals were DeFi-focused:
The Trump family-connected World Liberty Financial raised $590 million, and
Ethena secured $100 million to develop infrastructure for synthetic yield-bearing stablecoins.
In total,
DeFi projects represented 18% of Q1 2025 fundraising, matching infrastructure projects.
Crypto financial services led with 58%, while
Tokenization projects garnered 5%.
REPORT | Nigeria’s Web3 Infrastructure Startups Dominated 2024 Nigeria Web3 Funding By Raising $11 Million Out of $20 Million
Much of this was fueled by grants from Layer 1 and Layer 2shttps://t.co/pkCSrFrHsg @HashedEM @QuidaxGlobal @Web3Bridge @InfusionLawyers @ethereum pic.twitter.com/4Ji7lN3srZ
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) April 15, 2025
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