The first quarter of 2023 crypto sector report provided by the crypto data and price platform CoinGecko offers significant insights into various areas of the crypto world, including market trends, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) analysis, decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT ecosystems, and transaction volumes of centralized (CEX) and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEX).
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Exchanges, and the Stablecoin Market
The cryptocurrency market made a strong start in 2023, waking up from its end-of-2022 hibernation and recovering to reach a total market value of $1.2 trillion, a 48.9% increase as of March 31st. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) prices rose to approximately $28,000 and $1,800, respectively, with BTC leading the way with a notable 72% gain in the first quarter.
In the first quarter, the average daily trading volume of the crypto market increased by 30% to $77 billion, influenced by increased market activity and volatility. Throughout the quarter, Bitcoin outperformed traditional asset classes with a significant 72.4% gain, surpassing the performance of NASDAQ and gold. Except for crude oil, which lost 6.1% of its value, other major asset classes concluded the quarter on a positive note.
On the spot side, the spot trading volume of the crypto market grew by 18.1% to $2.8 trillion in the first quarter. Regulatory scrutiny on CEXs led to DEXs outperforming CEXs, with DEXs growing by 33.4% compared to CEXs’ 16.9% during the quarter.
In the stablecoin market, primarily due to Paxos ending its support for Binance USD (BUSD) and a brief depegging of USD Coin (USDC), there was a 4.5% decrease (amounting to $6.2 billion). The largest stablecoin, Tether (USDT), however, strengthened its position while the market values of USDC and BUSD suffered losses.
DeFi Sector Grew Triple Digits, NFT Sector Grew Double Digits
Significant developments occurred in the DeFi and NFT sectors throughout the quarter as well. The DeFi sector grew by 65.2%, reaching $29.6 billion in the first quarter, with the governance tokens of liquid staking protocols leading the increase with a 210.9% rise in market value, becoming the third-largest category in DeFi, surpassing lending protocols.
The volume of the NFT sector increased to $4.5 billion in the first quarter, a 68% increase compared to the previous quarter. The new NFT marketplace Blur surpassed OpenSea by trading volume, becoming the largest NFT marketplace with a 71.8% market share as of March 2023.
- Q1 report reveals a 48.9% market increase.
- DeFi and NFT sectors show robust growth.
- Blur leads as top NFT marketplace.
