CoinGecko has released their latest 2024 Q3 Crypto Industry Report.
CoinGecko noted in its recent research report that Q3 saw crypto close the quarter flat at a $2.3 trillion market capitalization, but the period still saw significant volatility.
CoinGecko further noted that geopolitical and economic developments had major impacts on the nascent crypto markets.
As stated in the update, the US Federal Reserve‘s decision to hold rates steady in July and cut them by 50 basis points in September appeared to have altered the “trajectory of markets” this quarter.
In Japan, the Bank of Japan‘s unexpected rate hike in July of this year caused unexpected “disruption,” while China’s new stimulus measures suggest more “structural liquidity” may be forthcoming.
As mentioned in the research report from CoinGecko, the total crypto market cap fell about -1.0% ($95.8 billion) to end 2024 Q3 “at $2.33 trillion.”
The report from CoinGecko also stated that the Bitcoin and crypto market rose as high as $2.61 trillion on July 22, but then dipped “sharply” on August 6 due to “weakness in the global economy.”
The research report added that the Federal Reserve held interest rates flat, while the Bank of Japan raised interest rates.
The global crypto market cap then “oscillated between $2.00 trillion and $2.20 trillion,” before recovering slightly to its current level of $2.33 trillion (at the time of writing), bolstered by an “aggressive” 50bps rate cut in the US, and stimulus announcements in China.
And, the report noted that average trading volume in 2024 Q3 stood at $88.0 billion, also a “slight decline of -3.6%” from the last quarter.
Although the crypto market cap declined slightly in 2024 Q3, Bitcoin (BTC) managed to increase its “dominance to 53.6%, a 2.7% increase Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ).”
It only recorded a “modest 0.8% gain,” but Altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH) and BNB receded more this quarter, thus “seeing their dominance fall.”
The last time BTC was able to achieve such dominance was actually back during the month of April 2021.
Meanwhile, Ethereum had the largest “decline in dominance” among the top 7 cryptos, “dropping -3.6% in Q3, ending the quarter with 13.4% market share.”
This was despite the launch of Ethereum ETFs in July of 2024, and the drawdown could be “attributed to reduced interest in the Ethereum ecosystem.”
With Bitcoin’s (BTC) modest price appreciation “of 0.8% in 2024 Q3, it was outperformed by most other asset classes.”
Of note, the CoinGecko report pointed out that the gold bullion was the top gainer, ending the quarter “up 13.8%.”
This came after fears of “economic slowdown” in the United States, as well as the concerning situation in the Middle East region.
The Japanese Yen also had a solid quarter, rising 12.0% after the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) unexpected rate hike in August 2024 and subsequent rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Crude oil and the US Dollar Index (DXY) were the only major asset classes to be outperformed by BTC because of concerns of “weaker demand” as well as potential “rate cuts,” respectively.
All major fiat currencies posted gains against the dollar.
Prediction markets picked up steam in 2024 Q3, growing 565.4% due to pundits betting on the upcoming US elections. This has driven volume on the top 3 prediction markets to $3.1 billion in Q3, up from $466.3 million in Q2.
However, the majority of volume was on Polymarket, which accounted for 99% of market share in September.
Its prediction market volume grew by 713.2%, and transactions grew by 848.5% in the same period.
Some $1.7 billion of bets have been placed on the “US Presidential Election Winner” since the start of 2024, accounting for ~46% of Polymarket’s yearly volume.
Total transactions across the Top 10 Ethereum Layer 2s (L2) were on a steady climb in 2024 Q3, with daily transactions “nearly breaching the 10 million mark by the end of September.”
In comparison, Ethereum mainnet processes ~1 million daily transactions.
Base has seen a large surge in network activity since the start of the year, and is by far the most active L2, “accounting for 42.5% of all transactions in Q3.”
This was followed by Arbitrum, with “18.9% of transactions, and trailed by Blast with 8.1% during the same period.”
Manta Pacific saw a spike in transactions in August, with the “majority of transactions attributed to a fully on-chain Telegram mini-app called Taman.”
However, once the initial launch campaign ended, “activity on the network tailed off.”
In 2024 Q3, the 10 major centralized virtual currency exchanges (CEX’s) recorded $3.05 trillion in spot trading volume.
According to the CoinGeco report, this is said to represent “a drop of -14.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ).”
Binance remained the largest CEX, ending September 2024 with a market share of 38%.
But, this is the first time since January 2022 that Binance recorded “a market share below 40%.”
Notably, Crypto.com came from behind to end the quarter as the second largest CEX in September, leapfrogging from ninth in Q2.
It was also the fastest-growing CEX in the top 10, “increasing 160.8% QoQ. It held a market share of 14.4% in September.”
OKX and Gate.io both lost trading volume in Q3, faltering by “more than 30%.”
Coinbase also saw trading volumes “fall by -23.8%, dropping it from sixth to tenth in Q3.”
In 2024 Q3, Ethereum (ETH), the world’s largest smart contract platform, was the “dominant chain” for DEX trading, though its market share is now consistently below 40%.
The CoinGecko report further revealed that trading volume on Ethereum trended downward between July and September 2024, with its “cumulative volume -19.6% lower QoQ at $130.5 billion.”
As noted in the update, DEX trading activity continued to “flourish” on Solana, buoyed by the “multitude of meme coins.”
CoinGecko stated in its comprehensive report that it ended September with a 22% market share and $21.5 billion in volume.
And Base continued to steadily grow its market share in Q3, despite being a slow quarter for the crypto market.
The CoinGecko report also mentioned that trading volume on Base grew 31.4%, allowing it to overtake Arbitrum in September, with a 13% dominance and $12.3 billion in volume.
Tron (TRX) was a “newcomer” to the top 10, after displacing Blast which saw its volumes reportedly plummet post-TGE.
With the release of memecoin generator SunPump on Tron, trading volumes have surged considerably.
The report from CoinGecko pointed out that the network managed to capture 2% of market share with $1.7 billion in volume in September of 2024.