• The average trading volume declined 58.7 percent, from US$33.4 billion in the first quarter to US$13.8 billion in the second quarter.
• Bitcoin experienced some volatility in this period but still closed Q2 with a 6.9 percent gain.
• Uniswap maintained the top position as the largest decentralized exchange, with its dominance reaching as high as 70 percent in May.

Coingecko has published a report on what has been happening to the crypto market in the second quarter of 2023. The working environment has been a bit fair to the crypto industries this year compared to the harsh 2022 crypto winter. This article summarizes the key takeaways from the report, enough to give an overview of what has been happening in the crypto market.

Bitcoin ends the Q2 with a 6.9 percent gain.

Bitcoin experienced some volatility in this period but still closed Q2 with a 6.9 percent gain. BTC price rose from US$28 517 to US$30, 481, outperforming the total crypto market capitalization, which increased by 0.14 percent in the same period, rising from US$1.238 trillion to US$1.240 trillion.

However, the average trading volume declined 58.7 percent, from US$33.4 billion in the first quarter to US$13.8 billion in the second quarter. This is an indication that there might be some decline in the popularity of BTC among a group of traders, but the whales are still actively trading the digital currency.

Read: Understanding BTC dominance and price to leverage against the crypto market

Stablecoins shrink by 3.5 percent.

Another key highlight in the report is the constant dip in the value of stablecoins. The total market capitalization of the top 15 stablecoins fell by 3.5 percent (US$4.6 billion). Top losers include USDC and BUSD, each losing 15 percent (US$5.18 billion) and 45.4 percent (US$3.43 billion) in market capitalization, respectively.

However, Trues USD (TUSD) was the largest gainer of Q2 2023, adding 50 percent (US$1.02 billion) to its market cap. Their move is linked to Binance making TUSD its default stablecoin, minting over US$1 billion TUSD on the Tron network.

Ethereum staking grows by 31.1 percent.

The total Ethereum staked grew 31.1 percent in Q2 2023, rising from US$18 million to US$23.6 million. Total ETH staked rose faster than Q1 2023, where only 2.2 million were staked.

Lido maintained the top as the most dominant ETH staking provider, taking 31.9 percent of all staked ETH. At the same time, Kraken’s dominance fell to 3.4 percent as it winds down its staking product in the United States with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additionally, Coinbase’s dominance fell by 3.5 percent due to its case with the SEC, ending Q2 2023 with a 9.6 percent market share.

The increased ETH staking is also a product of the enabled withdrawals. At the start of Q2 2023, ETH withdrawals were boosted by the Shapella upgrade, allowing staked ETH to be unstaked.

Read: Crypto Industry in 2023: hope from the first quarter after 2022 Struggles

NFT trading volume drops by 35 percent

NFT trading volume fell by 35 percent, from US$4.84 billion in Q1 to US$3.15 billion in Q2. Ethereum remained the dominant platform for NFT trading, with 83 percent of the volume.

However, its dominance temporarily fell to 73.3 percent due to the introduction of Bitcoin Ordinals in May 2023. Bitcoin Ordinals gained popularity and accounted for about 20.3 percent of the NFT trading volume that month.

Spot trading volume of CEXs falls by 43.2 percent.

Among the top ten Centralized Exchanges, spot trading volume fell by 43. 2 percent, from US$2.5 trillion to US$1.42 trillion. The top 10 CEXs analyzed by Coingecko include Binance, Upbit, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit, Kucoin, Bitget, MEXC, Gate and Kraken.

Binance’s dominance fell from 61 percent in March 2023 to 52 percent in June 2023. However, Bybit and Bitget were the only exchanges to gain trading volume, which increased by US$13.1 billion and US$1.5 billion.

Spot trading volume on DEXs falls by 30.8 percent.

Spot trading volume across the top ten DEXs fell by 30.8 percent. This dropped from US$224 billion in Q1 to US$155 billion in Q2. Uniswap maintained the top position as the largest decentralized exchange, with its dominance reaching as high as 70 percent in May.

To read the full report, click here.

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