The crypto market has been thriving since the start of this year. Based on the CoinGecko 2023 Q1 crypto industry report published on April 18, the market seems to have awakened from its end-2022 slumber to eliminate the bears. The crypto market cap increased from $831.8B on January 1, 2023, to $1.238T on March 31, 2023, representing a 48.9% surge.
While these gains were not smooth the entire time, the bull run reversed losses that were recorded in the abrupt FTX implosion, pushing the market to highs seen only before the Ethereum Merge. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are hovering around $29,000 and $1,950 respectively, with Bitcoin performing impressively, gaining about 72% this quarter.
The Crypto Market Awakened In Q1 2023
The entire crypto market has enjoyed the latest upside momentum, with a general upsurge of 48.9% that has pulled it back above the $1.2 trillion level.
Notably, there has been a 30% increase in the daily trading volume quarterly. This is a great recovery since it had contracted by around 33% in Q4 2022.
Market data and information shows that the recovery happened instantly, in January 2023, as soon as the entire crypto market began to rise. February was a major consolidation month before crypto rose once more at the beginning of March, and later faded at the end of the quarter.
In these circumstances, it is not a wonder that Bitcoin managed to outperform the traditional asset classes, gaining 72.4% in the process. For instance, gold posted a good of +8.4% while the NASDAQ gained +15.7% in the same quarter.
Related: Q2 2022 CoinGecko Cryptocurrency Market Report
The quarter was great for the markets since nearly all major asset classes closed on a positive except for oil, which lost 6.1%. But, oil was one of the only two assets that closed 2022 with considerable growth.
Furthermore, the Dollar Index (DXY) remained relatively unchanged in the first quarter of the year, while the inflation data was a bit cooler than earlier projected.
Notably, the spot trading volume of cryptos surged by 18.1%, with the percentage expansion of DEX services exceeding that of CEX: +33.4 %, versus +16.9 %. Nonetheless, CEXs still service nearly 90% of the global trading volumes.