Crypto gains lost ground according to CoinGecko Q3 report

The top 30 cryptocurrencies in the world recovered their market capitalisation after dipping from their peak in May 2021 of $2.5tn, according to CoinGecko.

In the Q3 report, the cryptocurrency data and analysis website identified several major trends throughout the quarter.

The trends were: Bitcoin (BTC) gaining lost ground from its peak earlier this year; the emergence of a new wave of blockchains; the increasing dominance of gaming tokens; further monopolisation of the non-fungible token (NFT) market by OpenSea, and the total spot value still remains below the highs of May.

BTC also rebounded from its downward trend in Q2, ending Q3 at $43,859 a 25% quarter-on-quarter increase. The report identified BTC hedging as a key contributor.

There has been newfound interest from institutional investors in BTC as a hedge against inflation as it has proved a better hedge than gold throughout the year.

A new wave of blockchains have also contributed to the growth in Q3. Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) expanded massively, bringing in high liquidity. Other chains included Terra and Ethereum.

The report found that gaming tokens dramatically increased in value. It said: “Axie Infinity outperformed other cryptocurrencies in terms of returns, by posting a 3-month return of 965% and having YTD gains of 13,783%.”

Furthermore, NFT sales have been huge over the summer. CoinGecko approximated that of the $6.8bn NFT market trading volume, 99% could be attributed to OpenSea. Rarible, the next largest NFT provider, contributed only $21m.

Despite the all-around gains, the total spot trading volume for cryptocurrencies was down to $3.9tn – a reduction of more than 42% quarter-on-quarter.

Trading rebounded in September. In both centralised and decentralised exchanges, trading volume was up more than 214% and 171% respectively.