Within the second quarter of 2023, DeFi, crypto exchange, and metaverse coins were hit hard while the world’s largest crypto, Bitcoin, continued to rise. These altcoins include Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and Ripple (XRP), among others which suffered notable losses in the second quarter.
DeFi coins like Chainlink (CHAIN), Uniswap, and Lido (LDO) also experienced a challenging time in the quarter.
CoinGecko Data Reveals that BTC Gains More Dominance
The 2023 second quarter has seen Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto market bolster, whereas altcoins, exchange, and DeFi tokens experienced major losses within the same timeframe.
Based on CoinGecko’s industry report , Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) accumulated more gains from the past quarter. Moreover, many other leading altcoins, like Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), and Ripple (XRP), recorded notable declines during the second quarter.
ADA and BNB declined significantly because the purported claims by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) labeled them as securities. The SEC had filed a suit against US-based exchange giants, Coinbase and Binance in June, charging them for illicitly selling unregistered securities to customers.
The presence of this suit and regulatory challenges resulted in a significant decline in their market value. Altcoins were not alone in this, as DeFi coins, like Lido (LDO), Chainlink, and UniSwap, also recorded notable declines.
Furthermore, metaverse and play-to-earn coins like the renowned Axie Infinity, Decentraland, and Sandbox also saw significant losses of about 40%.
Bitcoin vs. Altcoins
Due to the losses on major altcoins, Bitcoin’s market dominance in the broader crypto market soared to a two-year peak of a little above 52% by June end.
However, it slipped back to below 50% recently because of the altcoin spike caused by Ripple’s partial win against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in the ongoing lawsuit.
The ruling of US District Judge Torres in favor of Ripple Labs led to a spike in XRP’s price, temporarily rallying the altcoin’s bullish sentiment. Regardless, most altcoins that rallied initially following Ripple’s court victory last week have lost those gains.
They have all returned the market back to the position it was prior to the court ruling. CoinGecko noted that the overall market cap maintained relatively low throughout the quarter, beginning and ending at $1.2 trillion.
At the start of the third quarter, the market capitalization remained steady, trading at the same amount. Bitcoin ranks highest in terms of performance for the quarter, as it outperformed other leading cryptos with over 7% gain.
Moreover, the average daily trading volume of the world’s largest crypto dipped by 58.7% compared to the second quarter. According to the report, despite the strong display in the first quarter, Bitcoin still outperformed most crypto asset classes in the second quarter.
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Nick Dunn
Crypto Journalist
