A recent report has suggested that the digital assets market has likely entered its \u201ccrypto winter\u201d after the sector\u2019s market capitalization and trading volume continued to decline for a second consecutive quarter.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, CoinGecko affirmed<\/a> that the market transitioned from a sharp correction to a \u201csustained\u201d crypto winter in Q1 2026. This shift occurred as the late 2025 bearish momentum collided with the onset of global geopolitical tensions in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n According to its 2026 Q1 Crypto Industry Report, the total crypto market capitalization dropped around 20.4%, roughly $622 billion, ending the first quarter at $2.4 trillion and marking the second consecutive quarter of decline.<\/p>\n This contraction, which accelerated<\/a> between mid-January and early February, left the market around 45% below its October peak of $4.27 trillion. During this period, daily trading activity also declined by 27.2% Quarter-over-Quarter (QoQ), with an average daily trading volume of $117.8 billion.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, spot trading volume on the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXes), including Binance, MEXC, KuCoin, and Bybit, decreased 39.1% QoQ to $2.7 trillion, seeing a notable decline by the end of Q1.<\/p>\n Per CoinGecko data, volumes<\/a> held above the $1 trillion mark in January, but fell throughout the quarter. With only $0.8 trillion in trading volume, March was the weakest month of Q1, recording the lowest levels since November 2023.<\/p>\n While Binance maintained its dominance, with a 37% market share, MEXC was the only other exchange with a double-digit market share in Q1, at 10%.<\/p>\n \u201cAll top 10 spot CEXes saw trading volume decline in Q1, with drops ranging from -23% to -55%. HTX saw the biggest slump, with its quarterly trading volume dropping to $133.6 billion in 2026 Q1 from $294.4 billion in 2025 Q4. Its market share fell to 4.9%, placing it in #10,\u201d the report added.<\/p>\n Crypto market-wide declines continued in Q1, as majors pulled back for a second consecutive quarter. Bitcoin (BTC) fell 22% during the quarter<\/a> but outperformed the other top five crypto assets by a narrow margin. However, it continued to underperform other major assets, including Oil, Gold, and the S&P 500.<\/p>\n Ethereum (ETH), BNB, XRP, and Solana (SOL) recorded similar drawdowns as Bitcoin, which \u201cweighed heavily on total market capitalization.\u201d Legacy tokens such as Uniswap (UNI) and Chainlink (LINK) also faced continued pressure despite institutional adoption and gaining \u201cdigital commodity\u201d status under the SEC-CFTC Joint Interpretive Guidance issued last month.<\/p>\nMajors Decline, Stablecoins Remain Flat<\/h2>\n