The first quarter of 2025 was a landmark for the industry, as global economic changes opened up both new opportunities and challenges for cryptocurrencies. There is a noticeable trend away from meme coins and speculative hype around stablecoins towards projects with more fundamental developments. In their new report ‘Crypto Market Recap: Q1 2025’, CryptoRank analysts have summarised the key events and trends of this period. We will discuss the main findings of the report in today's article.

The first quarter of 2025 was eventful and volatile for financial markets. In particular, Bitcoin demonstrated strong volatility: at the beginning of the year, the asset rose sharply, updating its all-time high, but ended the quarter with a drop of -11.7%. This dynamics was to some extent driven by political events in the US, namely the return of Donald Trump to the presidency.

To better understand the geopolitical impact on the markets, CryptoRank analysts analysed the behaviour of three key assets: Bitcoin, the S&P 500, and gold.

After Trump's election victory in November, Bitcoin began to rise sharply, peaking at $108,824 on the day of the inauguration. However, since February, the situation has changed and the asset has begun to decline, settling in the range of $96,000-$84,000. The situation deteriorated after the announcement of new tariffs, which triggered a collapse to $74,781. But, as CryptoRank analysts emphasise, the market partially recovered its losses after the news of a 90-day freeze on these measures.

The S&P 500 was able to demonstrate a similar trajectory - growth after the election, a slight correction at the end of 2024, and then a new impetus before the inauguration. In February, the index came under pressure due to concerns about new economic policies, which led to a large-scale sell-off on 19 February. However, as with Bitcoin, the S&P 500 stabilised on 13 March, and on 2 April, the asset fell after news of tariff policy - and recovered with the announcement of a temporary pause in tariffs.

Gold, on the other hand, demonstrated the classic behaviour of an asset in the face of such instability. After a slight decline in November 2024, it stabilised and began to grow steadily in early 2025. On 3 April, the price of gold hit an all-time high of $3,162, indicating rising demand amid political uncertainty.

In general, CryptoRank analysts have identified the following key findings:

  • Despite the downturn, Bitcoin outperformed the S&P 500 but lost ground to gold;

  • Bitcoin's correlation with the stock market increased, while its correlation with gold remained weak, despite its status as ‘digital gold’;

  • US political decisions had a direct impact on all key assets, with markets reacting immediately to the Trump administration's actions;

  • Interest in gold increased in response to rising uncertainty, reflecting investors' increased need for stability.

In particular, Trump's tariffs have shaken up the market, and this has had a significant impact on the price of other assets. According to Crypto a popular analyst on the CoinMarketCap platform, other top 10 coins were affected by the restrictions, in addition to bitcoin. The largest losses were recorded among DOGE, SOL, ETH, and LINK, some of which fell by more than 50%. At the same time, TRX showed relative stability, losing only 6.94% of its value. However, amid the general decline, WBT stood out, not only holding its own in the face of high volatility but also showing an increase of 13.7%.

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