Here’s How Much the Crypto Market Expanded in 2023: CoinGecko
Crypto market analysis platform CoinGecko has provided an in-depth analysis of the industry’s expansion in 2023, highlighting various significant growth areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), centralized exchanges (CEXs), and decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Throughout the year, the crypto ecosystem witnessed remarkable growth, with its total market capitalization more than doubling. At the beginning of the year, the market cap stood at $832 billion, but it surged by 108% to exceed $1.7 trillion by the end of 2023. The substantial growth mainly occurred in Q4, driven by the increasing optimism surrounding the potential approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). During this quarter alone, the market cap soared by 55% from $1.1 trillion.
Bitcoin (BTC) played a crucial role in this market cap rise, with its impressive resurgence. BTC experienced a surge from $27,000 to $42,000 in Q4, recording an astounding 155% growth throughout the year. Analysts noted that BTC had a strong performance in Q1 and Q2, followed by a pullback in Q3, and a subsequent rally in Q4. The average trading volume of BTC also witnessed fluctuations throughout the year, dropping off at the end of Q1 and gradually declining in Q2 and Q3, before picking up in Q4 to reach $18.0 billion, a 64.3% increase quarter-on-quarter.
Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) also witnessed remarkable gains in 2023. ETH rose by 90.5% and closed the year at $2,294, while SOL surged over 900% and ended the year at $103.
In terms of trading volume, the crypto market saw $36.6 trillion traded in 2023, with the most significant growth occurring in Q4. The trading volume in this quarter increased by 53.1% from $6.7 trillion in Q3 to $10.3 trillion. This growth was primarily driven by the excitement surrounding ETFs. Despite regulatory challenges faced by major exchanges such as Binance and the FTX implosion the previous year, centralized exchanges (CEXs) dominated the trading volume.
However, NFT trading volume experienced a decline, ending the year at less than half of the figures from 2022. The total volumes of the top 10 chains amounted to $11.8 billion, compared to the previous year’s $26.3 billion.