According to CoinGecko’s 2025 Q1 Report, the cryptocurrency market, led by Bitcoin, lost nearly one-fifth of its value in the first quarter of 2025, fully negating the gains made towards the end of 2024.
Total market value witnessed a drop of $3.8 trillion to $2.8 trillion, an 18.6% decline over the quarter. This sharp plunge marked the turnaround before the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, in stark contrast to last year’s ramp up. Trading volume also suffered some contractions, as the daily volumes dropped to $146 billion, a decrease of 27%.
Bitcoin Rules Market While Others Decline
Bitcoin insulated itself reasonably from the turbulence in other cryptocurrencies so that its market share reached nearly 60%, the highest in four years. Bitcoin achieved peak valuation at $106,182 in January shortly after inauguration but plunged almost 12% to finish the quarter at $82,514.
Compared with Bitcoin during this period, gold and US Treasury bonds were traditional safe-haven investments with lower performance.
Compared to Ethereum, however, the situation was much worse. Its price fell by 45%, essentially wiping out all gains in 2024. Its market share dropped to almost 8%, the lowest it has been since the end of 2019.
As it has been observed by most analysts, this downturn is not something new since more and more activities have shifted toward “Layer 2” networks built atop Ethereum and not using the Ethereum main network.
Meme Coins Crash After Major Scam
The previously red-hot meme coin space received a rude wake-up call in early 2025. Following a boom in Trump-themed tokens, the industry was severely hurt when the Libra token – introduced by Argentina’s President Javier Milei – proved to be a scam.
The project was abandoned by developers after they had taken investors’ funds, shattering confidence in such tokens. By late March, new token launches on the platform Pump.fun per day had dropped by over 50%.
DeFi Industry Loses More Than A Quarter Of Its Value
Not even the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry was exempted. Overall money in DeFi projects dropped 27% to $48 billion during the first quarter. Ethereum’s dominance in the DeFi space declined to 56% by quarter-end.
Not everything was negative, though. Stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) became more popular with investors seeking a safer bet as the market tanked.
Solana also remained in its leadership position, holding 39.6% of all decentralized exchange (DEX) trading during Q1, courtesy mostly of meme coin mania. Even Solana’s leadership, however, started to wane at the end of the period as the meme coin mania declined.
The dramatic shift in market sentiment shows how quickly cryptocurrency fortunes can change. After a promising end to 2024, the new year brought a harsh reality check for crypto investors, with nearly $1 trillion in market value disappearing in just three months.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView
