The cryptocurrency industry kicked off 2025 with a sharp downturn, wiping out the euphoria that defined the end of 2024.
According to CoinGecko’s Q1 2025 Crypto Industry Report, total crypto market capitalization shrank by 18.6%, closing the quarter at $2.8 trillion, down from a year-to-date peak of $3.8 trillion just two days before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
The market pullback was accompanied by a significant dip in investor activity. Average daily trading volumes nosedived 27.3%, settling at $146.0 billion—a notable drop from $200.7 billion in Q4 2024.
Bitcoin Holds Strong Amid Market Decline
Despite the market-wide slump, Bitcoin (BTC) strengthened its grip, climbing to a 59.1% market dominance—a level not seen since early 2021. The flagship cryptocurrency briefly touched a new all-time high of $106,182 in January before retracing to $82,514 by the end of March, recording a quarterly loss of 11.8%.
Even so, BTC fared better than many major assets, outpacing equities like the NASDAQ (-10.3%) and S&P 500 (-4.4%), though it underperformed Gold (+18.0%) and U.S. Treasuries. Ethereum (ETH), by contrast, experienced a 45.3% nosedive, plunging from $3,336 to $1,805, effectively erasing its 2024 gains.
Ethereum Dominance Plummets, Meme Coin Craze Implodes
Ethereum’s dominance dropped sharply by 3.9 percentage points to 7.9%, marking its weakest position since late 2019. Meanwhile, stablecoins like USDT gained modest ground, with USDC reclaiming the #7 spot from Dogecoin.
One of the quarter’s most notable flameouts came from the meme coin sector. After riding high on a surge of politically-themed tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA, the hype collapsed following the dramatic downfall of LIBRA, a meme coin promoted by Argentinian President Javier Milei. LIBRA’s market cap cratered from $4.6 billion to $221 million within hours of launch, after the project’s developers rug-pulled the token.
As a result, activity on meme coin launchpad Pump.fun plunged—daily token deployments dropped by 56.3%, from a peak of 72,000 to just 31,000 by the end of Q1. The success rate of newly launched tokens also halved.
CEX and DEX Activity Cools, DeFi TVL Suffers
The pullback extended to centralized and decentralized platforms. Spot trading volume on the top 10 centralized exchanges fell 16.3% to $5.4 trillion, with Binance maintaining its dominance despite a sharp monthly drop in March. Notably, HTX was the only top 10 exchange to register growth, increasing its volume by 11.4%.
In the decentralized world, Solana solidified its lead in on-chain spot trading, accounting for 39.6% of all decentralized exchange (DEX) activity in Q1. But even DeFi couldn’t escape the downturn—total value locked (TVL) in multichain DeFi plunged 27.5%, erasing $48.9 billion in value.
A Tough Quarter With Cautious Optimism?
CoinGecko’s 50-slide deep dive offers a sobering snapshot of a market resetting after a period of speculative exuberance. While Bitcoin’s resilience and Solana’s DEX leadership hint at underlying strength, the broader Q1 performance reveals just how volatile—and politically sensitive—the crypto landscape remains in 2025.
As the year progresses, investors will be watching closely for signs of stabilization—or further shakeups in an increasingly complex and globalized crypto economy.
