Q2 2025 Crypto Market Review: Total Market Capitalization Rebounds, Circle's IPO Leads New Wave

The crypto market is set to rebound in the second quarter of 2025, with total market capitalization rising by 24.0% to $3.5 trillion, nearly recovering all the losses since the beginning of the year. However, the situation behind this recovery is quite complex.

Despite Bitcoin once again breaking through the $100,000 mark, spot trading volume has declined for the second consecutive quarter. A large amount of capital has flowed into Bitcoin, pushing its market capitalization to over 62%, while other cryptocurrencies struggle to regain momentum. Ethereum has performed relatively strongly, but it still has not returned to its early-year levels.

Trading behavior is undergoing a transformation. The spot and perpetual contract trading volumes of the decentralized exchange (DEX) have both reached historic highs, with certain DEXs and Hyperliquid performing exceptionally well in their respective fields. As the trading volume of centralized exchanges (CEX) declines, traders are increasingly turning to DEXs, indicating that the way cryptocurrency trading is conducted is experiencing a broader transformation.

Here are the seven highlights of the crypto industry in the second quarter of 2025:

1. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies rebounded by 24.0%, reaching 3.5 trillion dollars, close to the year's high.

2. Bitcoin rebounded above $100,000 this quarter, setting a new historical high, with its market capitalization share rising to 62.1%.

3. The price of Ethereum rose from $1805 to $2488, but it is still below the opening price of $3337 at the beginning of 2025.

4. The first major IPO of cryptocurrency in 2025 - a stablecoin issuance company received 25 times oversubscription, with its stock price reaching a high of $299, an increase of 864.5% from the issue price.

5. Despite the market rebound, the spot trading volume of CEX in the second quarter of 2025 decreased by 27.7% quarter-on-quarter, to $3.9 trillion.

6. In contrast, the spot trading volume of DEX increased by 25.3% month-on-month, setting a historical high for DEX:CEX.

7. In the second quarter of 2025, the trading volume of perpetual contracts on DEX also reached a historic high of 898 billion dollars.

Crypto market total market capitalization rebound

In the second quarter, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies rebounded to $663.6 billion, an increase of 24.0%, closing at $3.5 trillion at the end of the quarter. This follows an 18.6% decline in the first quarter, and this rebound marks a complete turnaround for the market, returning to near the year's high.

Despite the Rebound in the market, the average daily trading volume continues to decline, decreasing by 26.2% month-on-month to $107.8 billion. This marks the second consecutive quarter of contraction in spot trading activity. The trading volume for the first quarter of 2025 was $146 billion.

The Rise of Bitcoin's Dominance

In the second quarter of 2025, Bitcoin's dominance continued to rise, increasing by 3 percentage points from the previous quarter and by 7.6 percentage points year-to-date. As funds continued to flow into Bitcoin rather than other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin's dominance reached 62.1% by the end of the quarter.

At the same time, Ethereum rose slightly by 0.8 percentage points to 8.8%, recovering slightly from a multi-year low in the first quarter. Among the top seven cryptocurrencies, Ethereum is the only non-Bitcoin cryptocurrency whose market share has increased. The market shares of stablecoins and other large cryptocurrencies have slightly declined.

The market share of the "Other" category decreased by 2.0 percentage points to 13.7%, highlighting the ongoing weakness in the small crypto market.

Ethereum Price Trend

ETH closed at $2488 at the end of the second quarter of 2025, up 36.4% from the beginning of the quarter. Its performance surpassed that of other major cryptocurrencies such as BTC, SOL, XRP, and BNB. However, it has not yet reached the opening price of $3337 at the beginning of 2025.

Despite ETH showing bullish momentum in the second quarter, its trading volume decreased from an average of $24.4 billion per day in the first quarter of 2025 to an average of $19.5 billion per day. Although institutional investors are still accumulating, this phenomenon may indicate that large trades are being conducted through over-the-counter brokers.

The average Gas cost in the second quarter continued to decline, dropping to 3.5 Gwei per day, down from 6.9 Gwei in the first quarter. However, the average daily number of transactions in the second quarter increased to 1.3 million, up from 1.2 million in the first quarter.

A stablecoin issuance company successfully IPOs

Although the company is not the first publicly listed encryption company, its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange has sparked a wave of cryptocurrency companies in the United States seeking to go public.

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5, 2025, which caused a huge sensation among cryptocurrency companies seeking to list in the United States. Despite initial concerns about its valuation (many believed it was overvalued), the listing was a great success, with oversubscription exceeding 25 times.

The company's stock price fluctuated dramatically after its listing. Although the issue price was $31 per share, the closing price on the first day reached $83.23. In the following days, its stock price more than doubled, reaching a historic high of $298.99 on June 23, an increase of 864.5% from the issue price.

The success of this IPO has raised people's expectations for other rumored companies that are about to go public.

CEX Spot Trading Volume Decline

In the second quarter of 2025, the spot trading volume of leading CEX was $3.9 trillion, a decrease of 27.7% compared to $5.4 trillion in the first quarter.

A certain trading platform remains the leader of the spot CEX, maintaining a market share of 37% to 39% throughout the quarter. However, its trading volume was below $500 billion in both April and June. Despite the bullish market in the second quarter, with Bitcoin breaking its historical high in May, the situation remains the same.

MEXC, HTX, and Bitget are the only exchanges that experienced quarter-on-quarter growth, with increases of 3.7%, 5.4%, and 3.0%, respectively. Notably, MEXC and HTX now rank second and third, replacing a certain platform and Bybit.

At the same time, a certain platform experienced the largest month-on-month decline, dropping from $560.2 billion in the first quarter to $216.4 billion in the second quarter, a decrease of 61.4%. After holding the second position in the first two quarters, it has now become the eighth largest exchange.

Growth in DEX Spot Trading Volume

In the second quarter of 2025, the total spot trading volume of the top ten DEXs reached $876.3 billion, a 25.3% increase from $699.2 billion in the first quarter. With the significant growth in trading volume, the ratio of DEX to CEX spot trading volume rose from 0.13 in the first quarter to 0.23 in the second quarter, setting a new historical high.

A certain DEX is the platform with the largest quarter-on-quarter growth, increasing from $61.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to $392.6 billion in the second quarter, a growth rate of 539.2%. It has now become the largest DEX, accounting for 45% of all transactions in the second quarter. This is mainly attributed to a new feature launched in May, which facilitates trading through this DEX. This has also made BSC the most popular chain for DEX trading, surpassing Ethereum, Base, and Solana.

DEXs on the Solana platform, such as Orca, Meteora, and Raydium, have all experienced declines, with quarter-on-quarter decreases of 40.5%, 56.8%, and 73.4%, respectively. As market attention shifted away from Solana and meme coins in the second quarter, trading volume flowed to other chains.

DEX perpetual contract trading volume hits a new high

In the second quarter of 2025, Hyperliquid's dominant position among the top ten perpetual DEXs continues to strengthen, with a market share of 72.7%. Its trading volume reaches 653.2 billion dollars, ranking eighth in both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Among the top ten, only Hyperliquid, Aster (formerly known as APX Finance), RabbitX, and EdgeX saw an increase in trading volume. In particular, Aster's trading volume doubled month-on-month after launching the Pro mode.

A certain platform that once led the development of perpetual DEX has seen a continuous decline in trading volume. In the second quarter, its average monthly trading volume was $5.3 billion, which is only half of that in January 2025.