The last few months have witnessed sharp price falls and massive selloffs in the cryptocurrency market, following the deepest economic plunge in decades and the coronavirus uncertainty.
In the second week of March, the cryptocurrency industry lost $145bn in market cap, falling from $264bn on March 7th to $145bn on March 13th. However, most major cryptocurrencies started showing early signs of recovery after Black Thursday and the COVID-19 crash.
According to data gathered by InsideBitcoins, the combined cryptocurrency market cap jumped almost 80% after a plunge in March, reaching over $259bn value at the end of the last week.
Daily Trading Volume Peaked at $240.4bn in April
In January 2020, the combined cryptocurrency market cap amounted to $191.7bn, with a daily trading volume of $67.1bn, revealed Statista and CoinMarketCap data. By the middle of February, these figures jumped to $307bn and $166.3bn.
The Black Thursday and COVID-19 crash brought massive cryptocurrency price drops. However, from March 12th till March 31st, the combined crypto market cap rose by $26bn, reaching $184.1bn value, with $132bn in daily trading volume.
Since then, the cryptocurrency market cap has been on the rise, peaking at $263.2bn on the last day of April. The same day recorded the highest 24-hour trading volume on the crypto market since March’s plunge, reaching a total of $253.2bn.
Statistics show Bitcoin holds over 67% of the total market cap, or more than $176bn. Far behind the leading cryptocurrency, Ethereum ranked second with $23.5bn in market cap value. XRP and Tether follow with $8.9 and $8.7bn, respectively.
Ethereum Was the Most-traded Cryptocurrency in Q1 2020
Analyzed by the average number of daily deals, Ethereum was the most-traded cryptocurrency in the first quarter of 2020, with 753.5 thousand transactions per day, revealed the CoinMetrics data. This was more than twice that of the more commonly known rival Bitcoin, which saw only 298.9 thousand deals per day in the same quarter. Statistics show other leading cryptocurrencies like BitcoinCash, Litecoin, DASH, and Monero witnessed less than a tenth of the daily volume of Ethereum.
On the other hand, Tether represents the leading cryptocurrency in terms of 24-hour purchase volume, with a $46.7bn value as of May. Bitcoin ranked second with $39.3bn worth daily trading volume. Ethereum and Litecoin follow with $14.5bn and $3.6bn, respectively.