According to Planet Daily, according to the 2023 H1 Crypto Market Report released by CoinMarketCap, as of Q2, the global cryptocurrency market value reached US$1.17 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 48%. The total market caps of Q1 and Q2 are similar, making Q2 look like an underperformer.
Compared with Q1, Q2 also lacks a strong market narrative. In Q1, the market experienced more significant developments, such as the doubling of Bitcoin prices, the rise of L2s such as Arbitrium and ZK, and a more active NFT market driven in part by product upgrades and Blur token issuance. Q2 failed to achieve any similar groundbreaking developments, instead witnessing different trends such as “memecoin season” and the rise of BRC20 tokens, which, while noteworthy, were not as optimistic as Q1’s market.
The CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index started the year around 30 (fear), but H1 is around 52 (neutral), indicating a significant improvement in market sentiment.
The total spot trading volume of the top 20 cryptocurrency exchanges peaked in March, and fell by about 36% month-on-month in Q2 to $1.67 trillion compared to Q1 (US$2.6 trillion), and was close to dormant by the end of June, at about $523 billion per month.
In a challenging market, certain tracks are still seeing significant growth in market capitalization so far this year. VR/AR (704%) and AI & Big Data (323%) have been leading the market narrative, while blue-chip DeFi projects and infrastructure are making a strong comeback. These areas include lending (149%), derivatives (75%), storage (86%), and interoperability (58%).
It is worth noting that the Meme currency track has added more than 260 coins this year, marking it as the most active new track. Artificial intelligence and big data ranked second, adding 61 coins, while DeFi ranked third, adding 47 coins so far this year.