The recent “Half-Year Report 2023” by Binance throws light on the prevailing dynamics of the fast-paced crypto market. This 120-page review provides a synoptic view of market performance roughly two years after the 2021 peak.
Eye-brows might have been raised seeing a few hurdles initially this year. Yet, the crypto industry put up a brave front, demonstrating determination with market capitalization registering encouraging growth on quarterly, half-yearly, and annual basis. Looking back at the first half of 2023, the surge in institutional interest and adoption of crypto has been noticeable. But, regulatory scrutiny too has increased. Weighing the ups and downs, the total market capitalization experienced a solid 47.0% growth in Q1. Interestingly, the global market cap of stablecoins faltered by 7.0%, whereas USDT magnified its presence with a 25.8% upswing.
There was a downward trend in overall crypto deal activities, reflected particularly in a dip in venture capital funding in H1 2023. Nonetheless, investments earmarked for the infrastructure sector stayed significant. Similarly, the gaming/entertainment and DeFi spheres kept the interest upright.
Amidst swirling regulatory pressures, Bitcoin kept its dominance soaring, tightening its grip on the market. Nudging past its April 2021 level, Bitcoin dominance swelled from 40.4% to 50.5% in H1 2023, accounting for more than half of total crypto market capitalization. Its resilience was underlined by a buoyant 87.7% growth in market cap over the past six months, with trading volumes reflecting an impressive 185.4% increase.
Developments in Bitcoin’s network metrics hint at the substantial influence of features like Ordinals, Inscriptions, and BRC-20 tokens. Witness the 58% surge in transactions and 10.7% incremental active addresses. It also reported a 40% and 43% increase in its blockchain-securing hashrate and mining difficulty, respectively.
Advancements were also seen in Layer One solutions as Ethereum’s liquid staking grew conspicuously, giving a boost to Liquid Staking DeFi. BNB Chain outshone with a stunning 113% surge in daily transactions. Layer two (L2) progress is quite laudable in 2023, with Ethereum’s L2 scaling solutions fostering high-quality projects.
DeFi made its mark with liquid staking driving its growth despite a slight dip in its overall crypto market dominance. NFTs, however, have not had an equally remarkable journey. Despite increased trading volumes in H1 2023, NFTs have faced significant fall in sales volume by 75.9% year-on-year, thus faring poorly in relation to the broader crypto market. In the world of crypto, the wind changes fast yet unpredictably. So, it’s left for us to see how the rest of 2023 unfurls.
Source: Cryptonews
