CoinGecko's Q2 Crypto Industry Report: Six Key Takeaways

CoinGecko’s Q2 Crypto Industry Report: Six Key Takeaways

Updated: 19 July 2023

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CoinGecko released its highly anticipated Q2 cryptocurrency industry report, noting that the exuberance of the first quarter gave way to a period of consolidation in the subsequent three months with total market cap rising just a fraction of a percent to reach $1.24 trillion at the end of June.

Here are its six main takeaways:

Bitcoin retained a strong pull in the nascent industry. CoinGecko’s data reveals that this leading digital asset outperformed the broader market during Q2, 2023, with an impressive gain of 6.9% during Q2, outperforming the overall market cap for cryptocurrencies, which only saw a rise of 0.14% in the same period. The rally saw Bitcoin’s value rise from $28,517 to $30,481, and it even reached its peak for the year at $30,694. This surge coincided with the news of BlackRock and other asset managers expressing interest in offering spot Bitcoin ETF services. However, the report also highlights some less favorable aspects. Bitcoin’s average daily trading volume dropped by 58.7% on a quarterly basis, declining from $33.4 billion in Q1 to $13.8 billion in Q2.

The top 15 stablecoins also saw their fortunes change, with the fiat-backed stablecoin ecosystem’s market cap falling 3.5% to about $4.6 billion. Circle’s USDC and Binance USD (BUSD) lost $5.18 billion and $3.44 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, Tether’s USDT maintained its stronghold, adding 4.4% to its market cap. It completed the quarter with a 66% market share. True USD (TUSD) followed a close second with 50% ($1.02 billion) added to its market cap. Other gainers were Gemini’s USD (GUSD), flexUSD (FUSD), and Paxos (USDP), rising by 44.4%, 34.4%, and 30%, respectively.

New Post: Stablecoins shrank 3.5%, NFT Trading Volume drops by 35.0% – CoinGecko Report https://t.co/PNXGIeOMjL pic.twitter.com/rL1gSwpXXc

— Blockbuild.africa (@blockbuildafric) July 18, 2023

Ethereum’s attractiveness to investors continued, with ETH staking rising by 30.3%, reaching 23.6 million Ether staked. This growth signifies a significant gain of 5.6 million Ether so far. Interestingly, this increase occurred despite the Shapella upgrade enabled withdrawals for ETH tokens locked since December 2020. Lido staking service remained the top attraction, with 31.9% of all staked Ether locked in the platform. Others, like Kraken, lost 3.4% of their staking dominance due to regulatory issues with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Similarly, Coinbase experienced a decline of approximately 3.5% in its staking dominance during Q2.

Digital collectibles or, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), saw their trading volume slump 35%, from $4.84 billion in Q1 to just under $3.15 billion in Q2. Ethereum was still the top pick for NFT trading volume, with 83% of the transactions occurring on the smart contract network. However, its dominance slipped to 73.3% in May 2023 due to the wildfire impact of NFT inscriptions making their way to the Bitcoin network through the Ordinals collection. In that period, Bitcoin NFT trading volume snapped up 20.3% of the trading volume. Others, like Solana, posted a strong negative of 78.6%, with its volume dropping from $184.91 million in Q1 to $39.66 million in Q2.

Crypto Exchange Losses

The losses also spread into spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges. According to CoinGecko, the top 10 centralized exchanges had a combined volume of $1.42 trillion from digital asset trades. This showed a slump of 43.2% decrease from the same period in Q1. Binance was impacted following growing regulatory scrutiny from US agencies. According to CoinGecko, Binance saw its 61% Q1 dominance drop to 52% in June 2023. Top exchanges like Huobi and Crypto.com dropped out of the top 10, with Bitget and Bybit replacing them.

Lastly, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) had spot trades totaling $155 billion in Q2, 2023, representing a 30.8% drop from Q1. This is despite the upsurge of memecoins in the stated period. Like always, UniSwap retained its stronghold on the DEX ecosystem, with its market share rising to 70% in May 2023. Meanwhile, the stablecoin DEX platform Curve failed to post any impressive figures despite the launch of its in-house crvUSD in the same period. It lost about 11% of its market share in June 2023.

2023 Q2 Crypto Industry Report is now LIVE 📊

Following an exuberant Q1, the crypto market underwent consolidation in Q2, with BTC climbing 6.9%, while CEXs and DEXs saw a decline in spot trading volume.

Here are 6 highlights you shouldn't miss! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/JcQKNFatjo

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) July 18, 2023