According to CoinGecko’s quarterly report, the overall crypto market cap fell 18.6% in Q1 2025. Trading volume on centralized exchanges also fell 16% compared to the previous quarter.

This report identified a few positive trends, but most of them contained at least one significant downside. Despite the market euphoria in January, recession fears are taking a very serious toll.

Crypto Suffered Heavy Losses in Q1

The latest CoinGecko report shows just how bearish the first quarter of the year has been. Although the crypto market started January with a major bullish cycle, macroeconomic factors have heavily impacted market sentiment for the past two months.

According to this report, crypto’s total market cap fell 18.6% in Q1 2025, a staggering $633.5 billion. Investor activity fell alongside token prices, as daily trading volumes fell 27.3% quarter-on-quarter from the end of 2024. Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges fell 16.3%, which CoinGecko at least partially attributes to the Bybit hack.

The report mostly focused on concrete numbers, but it pointed to a few specific events that impacted crypto. Markets hit a local high around Trump’s inauguration, thanks to market euphoria over possible friendly policies.

His TRUMP meme coin fueled a brief frenzy in Solana meme coin activity, but this quickly slumped. The LIBRA scandal had a further dampening impact.

Bitcoin increased its dominance in Q1 2025, accounting for 59.1% of crypto’s total market cap. It hasn’t maintained that share of the market since 2021, symbolizing how much more stable it’s been than altcoins.

Nevertheless, BTC also fell 11.8% and was outperformed by gold and US Treasury bonds.

This data point is especially worrying because Trump’s tariffs have wrought havoc on Treasury yields. Even so, the report clearly shows that the rest of crypto suffered even more. Ethereum’s entire 2024 gains vanished in Q1 2025, and multichain DeFi TVL fell 27.5%. C

ountless other areas saw similar results, but they’re too numerous to easily summarize.

That is to say, almost every quantifiable positive development came with at least one major caveat. Solana dominated the DEX trade, but its TVL declined by over one-fifth.

Bitcoin ETFs saw $1 billion in fresh inflows, but total AUM fell by nearly $9 billion due to price drops. The reports reflect that recession fears are gripping the crypto market.

Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, is facing intense scrutiny after what appears to be a major pump and dump—one that it inadvertently helped fuel. The project’s official Twitter account publicly promoted a meme coin titled “Base is for everyone.” 

This triggered a speculative surge, driving the token’s market cap to an estimated $15 to $20 million within hours of launch. The token quickly plummeted near zero in mutes.

Did Base Just Help Fuel a Pump and Dump? 

Base’s tweet, which featured promotional imagery and direct links to the meme coin on Zora, created the perception of legitimacy. 

Traders piled in, and price charts reflected an explosive rally—followed by an equally sharp collapse. 

Within one 4-hour trading window, a green candle representing millions in inflow was immediately reversed by a red candle of equal size, marking a total loss of liquidity and confirming a textbook pump and dump. 

The token’s value fell by more than 99%, and trading volumes on Uniswap surged past $13 million during the brief window of activity.

There is massive ongoing outrage against both Coinbase and Base. Crypto influencers have called the incident a failure of due diligence and communications strategy. 

Accusations of incompetence and poor risk oversight are spreading fast on social media, while memes mocking the network’s “Base is for everyone” slogan are everywhere.

Base is yet to provide an official response to the incident.