As the crypto market largely consolidated as it went sideways throughout Q3, Bitcoin only dipped 1% QoQ which was better than all other major assets with the exception of the US Dollar Index.
Coingecko published its Q3 2022 cryptocurrency report last week. It also highlighted how crypto markets ended Q3 slightly up on the previous quarter.
However, in spite of Bitcoin’s stronger showing in the quarter, the number one cryptocurrency was still 58% down YT. Which makes it the worst performing asset over the year time frame.
Most other cryptocurrencies fared even worse as they performed poorly against the USD. The Ethereum merge turned out to be a bit of a damp squib as initial gains almost reached the $2,000 price point before selling off some days before the event.
Stablecoins gave a relatively muted performance according to the Coingecko report, with the market cap of the top 15 stablecoins performing in a similar vein to that of Q2, as they lost 3% in value, or $4.7 billion in absolute terms.
The sanctioning of Tornado Cash played a part as US-base Circle froze the USDC in the sanctioned Tornado Cash addresses. USDC’s market cap dropped around 16%, or $9 billion QoQ during this episode.
Market capitalisation for all DeFi sectors in Q3 grew by 31% QoQ. DEXs strengthened as the largest sector in DeFi, and grew their market capitalisation by 37% QoQ, amounting to $10.9 billion.
The liquid staking sector was extremely successful as it grew by 272% QoQ, reaching a market capitalisation of $1.54 billion in Q3, which gave it a share of 6.3% in the DeFi sector.
With a fall in total NFT trading volume of 71% QoQ, the NFT market appears to be suffering the worst. The sharp downwards trend on the top 5 NFT markets of OpenSea, Magic Eden, LooksRare, X2Y2, and CryptoPunks, might seem even worse when wash trading is taken into account.
The report points the finger at X2Y2 and LooksRare in this regard, and states that according to September data 87% of LooksRare’s volume, and 85% of X2Y2’s volume potentially came from wash trading.
