• Bitcoin dominance reached 59.1% in Q1 2025, marking a significant market shift.
• Ethereum fell 45.3% in Q1 2025, erasing all 2024 gains amid market turmoil.
• Q1 2025 saw $633.5B wiped from total crypto market cap, down 18.6% from January.

The cryptocurrency market showed a substantial drop in value during the first quarter of 2025 following the positive outlook of late 2024. According to data from CoinGecko’s 2025 Q1 Report the total market capitalization dropped 18.6% from its mid-January peak value of $3.8 trillion to $2.8 trillion. The market faced a reversal demonstrating a contrast from the time preceding Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. According to market statistics, the average daily trading volume experienced a 27.3% fall to $146 billion.

Despite the overall market downturn, Bitcoin (BTC) strengthened its position, increasing its dominance to 59.1%, a level not seen since early 2021. Bitcoin’s dominance surged as altcoins, particularly Ethereum, took a harder hit. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $106,182 in January, just after the inauguration, but subsequently retreated by 11.8% to close Q1 at $82,514. 

In comparison, gold and U.S. Treasuries outperformed Bitcoin during this period, reflecting the growing appeal of safer assets amidst economic uncertainty. The price of Ethereum (ETH) experienced a 45.3% collapse that wiped out all its gains in 2024.

The cryptocurrency market experienced new trends, as revealed by Ethereum’s performance. The significant price decline of Ethereum caused its dominance to hit 7.9%, which marked its lowest performance since late 2019. In addition, the decrease in Ethereum’s market share was not unexpected as it coincides with the trend towards Layer 2 solutions and decreasing activity on Ethereum mainnet. 

The cryptocurrency market experienced new trends, as revealed by Ethereum’s performance. Ethereum’s significant price decline caused its dominance to hit 7.9%, which marked its lowest performance since late 2019. 

In addition, the decrease in Ethereum’s market share was not unexpected as it coincides with the trend towards Layer 2 solutions and decreasing activity on Ethereum mainnet. Additionally, despite the market difficulties, stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) gained ground as investors sought more stable options during the turbulent period.

The broader decline also affected the once-booming meme coin sector. The meme coin market was initially started by political influence, including the launch of Trump-related meme coins. However, the market experienced a drop in activity following the crash of the Libra token. Launched by Argentinian President Javier Milei, this token had a dramatic price plunge after developers rug-pulled the project. 

By the end of Q1, investor confidence in meme coins had declined substantially because of this incident, leading to a more than 56% fall in daily token deployments on pump.fun.

Meanwhile, the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector faced a significant drop in total value locked (TVL) to $48.9 billion in Q1 representing a 27.5% decrease. Ethereum’s dominance over the DeFi market segments declined to 56.6% by the end of the quarter. 

Despite these fluctuations, Solana maintained its status as the market leader by establishing itself as a leading entity in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading during this period. DEX trading on Solana reached 39.6% market share during Q1 mainly due to meme coin popularity, which started declining in the later quarter.