Bitcoin, Solana retain crypto market dominance amid Q1 2025 slowdown

Bitcoin and Solana have emerged as dominant players in the crypto market during an especially turbulent first quarter of 2025. 

According to the Q1 Crypto Industry Report recently released by CoinGecko, the broader market experienced a major downturn. However, Bitcoin and Solana still had strong showings relative to the general market.

The crypto market entered 2025 on a high note, building on momentum from late 2024. Bitcoin rose to an all-time high of $106,182 in January, contributing immensely to the rise of the total crypto market capitalization, which hit a $3.8 trillion on January 18. However, by the end of Q1, the total market cap had fallen by 18.6%, losing nearly $1 trillion and closing at $2.8 trillion.

By the end of the quarter, Bitcoin’s price had fallen by 11.8%, ending at $82,514. Still, it performed better than most altcoins, further solidifying its dominance, which rose to 59.1% of the total crypto market cap.

Solana rides the memecoin wave for growth

Solana saw a brief surge in decentralized exchange (DEX) activity in early Q1, accounting for 52% of on-chain spot DEX trades in January, fueled by the TRUMP memecoin frenzy. However, that momentum was reduced by March, as interest in meme coins dropped significantly. Solana’s DEX trade share fell to 23.4%, while Ethereum reclaimed the lead with 30.1%.

Despite the resurgence, Ethereum’s overall performance was underwhelming. After hitting a high of $3,336, Ethereum ended Q1 at $1,805. Its market dominance fell to 7.9%, which is reportedly the lowest it has dropped since 2019.

The memecoin trend saw unprecedented results at the start of the first quarter with the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins before Trump’s inauguration. It pushed the launching of tokens on Pump.fun to a record 72,000 per day.

However, its decline was expedited by the LIBRA token incident, which was promoted by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, and collapsed following a rug pull. The incident caused LIBRA’s market cap to crash from $4.6 billion to $221 million within hours. As a result, Pump.fun’s activity declined sharply, with the launch of tokens falling over 56% on the platform.

Stablecoins gain ground as centralized and DeFi crypto markets took hits

More investors favored stability as stablecoins such as USDT and USDC due to market volatility. USDT’s market share increased to 5.2%, while USDC moved up to reclaim the seventh position in terms of market cap, displacing Dogecoin. Amid all the decline and changing of market share positions, XRP and BNB maintained their positions and market share.

According to the report, the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXs) saw a 16.3% quarter-on-quarter drop in spot trading volume, totaling $5.4 trillion. Binance maintained its position as market leader with a 40.7% share, although its volume fell to $588.7 billion in March from over $1 trillion in December.

HTX was the only exchange in the top 10 to record growth. Upbit saw a steep 34% drop. Bybit was hit the hardest, plunging 52.4% month-on-month following a major February hack.

On the decentralized finance (DeFi) side, multichain DeFi total value locked (TVL) fell by 27.5% in Q1 2025, dropping from $177.4 billion to $128.6 billion, largely driven by altcoin price declines.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Tired of market swings? Learn how DeFi can help you build steady passive income. Register Now