The stablecoin market cap grew by US$23 billion in an otherwise lackluster market for crypto assets, according to a quarterly report by CoinGecko.
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Fast facts
- Stablecoins were among the biggest beneficiaries from investor “derisking” into stablecoins, CoinGecko said in its report, with USDT remaining the most popular stablecoin.
- Among the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, only Bitcoin and Ripple managed to end with price gains for the three-month period ending March 31, while Binance and Solana and Ethereum closed the quarter with losses.
- Ethereum staking, or transaction validation, saw strong upward momentum owing to the successful testing of the Kiln testnet merge.
- Ethereum remains dominant in decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL), yet its lead was narrowed by Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche and Terra.
- Spot trading volume in the top 10 centralized and decentralized exchanges totaled US$3.79 trillion during the first quarter, down nearly 35% from US$6.08 trillion in the last quarter of 2021.
- Underscoring the tepid market, the top 30 cryptocurrencies shed US$1 trillion in market capitalization from an all-time high in November 2021 to the low recorded on Jan. 23, 2022.
See related article: Cryptos slump over inflation, Shanghai lockdown and war concerns