After the exuberance of Q1, the crypto market took Q2 to consolidate gains and only increased slightly by 0.14%, from a total market cap of $1.238 trillion on March 31, 2023, to $1.240 trillion on June 30, 2023. April and May were relatively quiet months, particularly after Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade on April 12, as the market was absent of any strong overarching narrative. Prices of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are now hovering around $30,000 and $1,900 respectively, with BTC climbing 6.9% while ETH increased by 6.0% in Q2.
Our comprehensive 2023 Q2 Crypto Industry Report covers everything from the crypto market landscape to analyzing Bitcoin and Ethereum, deep diving into the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystems, and reviewing how centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) have performed.
We’ve summarized the key highlights, but be sure to dig into the full 48 slides below.
Top 6 Highlights of CoinGecko’s 2023 Q2 Crypto Industry Report
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BTC saw some volatility in 2023 Q2, ending the quarter with a 6.9% gain.
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Stablecoins shrank 3.5%, with USDC and BUSD the biggest losers again.
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ETH staking grew 30.3% in 2023 Q2, after withdrawals were enabled.
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NFT trading volume saw a 35.0% drop, despite the growing popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals.
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Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges fell by 43.2%, with Binance’s market share dropping to 52%.
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Spot trading volume on decentralized exchanges fell by 28.1% in 2023 Q2, as Uniswap maintained its dominance.
1. BTC saw some volatility, ending Q2 with a 6.9% gain
BTC gained 6.9% in 2023 Q2, increasing from $28,517 to $30,481. BTC outperformed the total crypto market cap, which increased by 0.14% during the same period, rising from $1.238 trillion to $1.240 trillion (+$1.7 billion). BTC also managed to hit a yearly high of $30,694 after the announcement of BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF filing on June 15.
Meanwhile, average daily trading volume declined 58.7% on a quarterly basis, from $33.4 billion in Q1 to $13.8 billion in Q2. This is despite the fact that BTC prices trended upwards throughout Q2.
2. Stablecoins shrank 3.5%, with USDC and BUSD the biggest losers again
The top 15 stablecoins’ total market cap fell by $4.6 billion (-3.5%) as USD Coin (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD) continued to slide, losing $5.18 billion (-15.9%) and $3.43 billion (-45.4%) in market cap respectively.
Meanwhile, Tether (USDT) further strengthened its foothold, adding 4.4% ($3.48 billion) to its market cap. It ended 2023 Q2 with a 66% market share of the stablecoin market. True USD (TUSD) added 50.0% ($1.02 billion) to its market cap, making it the largest gainer of the quarter. This comes after Binance made TUSD its default stablecoin and minted ~$1 billion TUSD on the Tron network.
Stablecoins outside of the top 5 also had gains, with Gemini Dollar (GUSD), flexUSD (FUSD), and Paxos (USDP) increasing their supplies by 44.4%, 33.4%, and 30.0% respectively.
3. ETH staking grew 30.3% after withdrawals were enabled
Total staked ETH grew by 30.3% in 2023 Q2 to reach 23.6 million, representing a gain of 5.6 million. Total staked ETH climbed at a faster rate compared to 2023 Q1, where 2.2 million were staked.
Lido remained the dominant staking provider, with 31.9% of all staked ETH. This represents a slight increase from its 31.4% market share in Q1. Meanwhile, Kraken’s dominance fell to 3.4% as it winds down its staking product in the US following a settlement with the SEC. The exchange had a -36.2% drop in staked ETH QoQ. Coinbase’s dominance also fell by -3.5% in Q2, ending the quarter with a 9.6% market share.
4. NFT trading volume dropped 35.0% despite growing popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals
NFT trading volume declined by 35.0%, from $4.84 billion in Q1 to $3.15 billion in Q2.
While Ethereum remained the dominant platform for NFT trading in Q2, capturing 83.0% of the volume, its dominance temporarily decreased to 73.3% in May 2023. This shift occurred as Bitcoin Ordinals gained popularity and accounted for nearly 20.3% of the NFT trading volume during that month.
Among different blockchain networks, Solana experienced the most significant decrease in trading volume during Q2, with a decline of 78.6% from $184.91 million in Q1 to $39.66 million in Q2. This decline can be attributed, in part, to the migration of major Solana collections, DeGods and y00ts to Ethereum and Polygon, respectively.
5. Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges fell 43.2%, with Binance’s market share dropping to 52%
Spot trading volume across the top 10 centralized crypto exchanges (CEX) totaled $1.42 trillion for 2023 Q2, representing a -43.2% decrease from Q1. Despite showing signs of recovery in Q1, trading volumes failed to continue its upward trend in Q2.
With pressure mounting from regulators, Binance has seen its dominance slide from 61% in March 2023, to 52% in June 2023. Meanwhile Huobi and Crypto.com have been edged out of the top 10, with Bybit and Bitget taking their places. Bybit and Bitget saw trading volumes increase by $13.1 billion and $1.5 billion respectively, and were the only exchanges in the top 10 to gain volume.
6. Spot trading volume on decentralized exchanges fell 28.1% as Uniswap maintained its dominance
Spot trading volume across the top 10 decentralized exchanges (DEX) totaled $155 billion in 2023 Q2, representing a -30.8% drop from Q1. Even with memecoin season in full swing, volumes on DEXs failed to experience a noticeable uptick. However, their volumes saw less decline compared to CEXs (-43.2%).
Uniswap maintained its position as the largest DEX, with its dominance reaching as high as 70% in May. Curve, which released its crvUSD stablecoin in May, also failed to see an uptick in volume. It ended June with 11% of market share.
Read the Report: CoinGecko’s 2023 Q2 Crypto Industry Report
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