*Are you sick of looking at endless numbers in crypto reports and often consume too much time to make sense? *
Then this digest of Q1 2025 might be just for you, let's take a closer look at what's really behind the numbers and what has been happening in the crypto world for the first quarter of the year based on analytics and insights from CryptoRank, WhiteBIT, Binance and CoinMarketCap.
For the cryptocurrency community, the first quarter of 2025 was quite turbulent. Many believed that the good times would continue after 2024's massive incline by the end of the year. The market, however, did quite the opposite, which was quite surprising for everyone in the community. The Market declines from its highest point. The total value of all cryptocurrencies reached its highest point ever at the beginning of January 2025, reaching $3.8 trillion.
But by the end of March, it had fallen to $2.8 trillion, a 19% decrease. Which could not be said likewise for last year. In March 2024 the global crypto market cap was significantly higher than in March 2025 and ended with a strong upward trend. This indicates that current investors either lost some of their enthusiasm, grew more cautious to lose their money or security, or began to take profits from last year.
If you bought the trend and skipped Bitcoin last year to buy a Hermes bag, congratulations - now you own an overpriced leather shape while Bitcoin briefly hit 106k dollars in early 2025. That Birkin may hold that lipgloss but Bitcoin held the headlines.
Bitcoin Sets a record as well before declining, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a significant point when it hit a new all-time high of $106,182. After that, though, the price of Bitcoin dropped by about 11.8%, ending the quarter at $82,514. Despite its decline, Bitcoin gained even more clout and attention, stabilising its position and reminding everyone of its importance on the cryptomarket. Currently, Bitcoin takes up almost 60% of the whole cryptocurrency market. This demonstrates that people trust Bitcoin more than smaller cryptocurrencies during difficult times and tend to rely more on it, while quite the opposite is happening to the trend coins that started to lose their hype this year.
What about Ethereum, the coin that was nominated by many experts to be the next stable coin?
Ethereum performance was poor. Its value was nearly halved when its price fell from $3,336 to $1,805. The majority of Ethereum's 2024 gains were lost and the prognosed targets were not met. This created a massive discussion and perspective shift for many who had really high hopes for Ethereum to reconsider its future.
*Are meme coins still in trend? Dramatic fall: Trump and Melania coins
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Meme coins like Dogecoin or more recent ones, known as meme coins, also suffered greatly due to a significant scandal with Libra that shook trust of the users and made people to shift and rethink their perspective on memecoins. After that, the number of new meme coin creations fell by over 50%, meaning that memecoins are slowly falling off the trend and losing their hype, even Trump's and Melania's coins are not saving the situation and people are turning their backs to choose more stable options.
From FOMO to Caution: Trading activity drops and investors retreat from active trading
Additionally, trading activity decreased in comparison to late 2024. The spot trading volume on standard (centralised) cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, dropped 16.3%, to roughly $5.4 trillion. Because prices were declining, people were trading less and growing more cautious. Meanwhile, an interesting development occurred on decentralised exchanges (DEXs), which are platforms where you trade without a middle company. Solana surpassed Ethereum, and it now accounts for about 40% of all decentralised trading. Many users prefer Solana because it provides quicker transactions and cheaper fees, which is quite surprising considering the leading position of Ethereum as a blockchain before. Meanwhile, despite the decrease, crypto activities such as: trading tournaments, airdrops and community driven events helped to balance the market by keeping high engagement allowing users to stay active without directly betting.
DeFi, which are decentralised finance apps that allow users to lend, borrow, or trade cryptocurrency, shrank drastically. The total value in decentralised finances, fell by roughly $49 billion, or 27.5%. This indicates that users may have switched to safer investments after removing a significant portion of their cryptocurrency from these apps. This again means that because of the previous year's ups and downs, investors became more cautious.
In conclusion, after the wild peaks of 2024, Q1 2025 was a period of cooling off and a time for many to rethink and stick to the stable and safe options or withdraw their investments. Bitcoin again proved its stability and leadership over altcoins, but it was still unable to prevent some losses. DeFi shrunk, trading slowed, and Ethereum and other coins lost their value. However, compared to a few years ago, the market is still much larger and healthier.
