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Dive into our annual retrospective where we explore the pivotal moments and trends of the past year. Our ‘Year in Charts’ feature meticulously selects one significant chart from each month, offering a unique visual journey through the year. This collection serves as a testament to the dynamic shifts and patterns that have shaped the digital asset market over the course of 2023.
Welcome to our "Charts of the Year" blog, a detailed journey through the riveting world of cryptocurrency and digital assets over the past year. Each month is represented by a chart that highlights key trends and shifts in the cryptocurrency industry. From the dominance in open interest by Bitcoin and Ethereum to the steady performance of AI tokens in a fluctuating market, our blog offers an analytical perspective through monthly graphical representations. The analysis covers various aspects, including the impact of regulatory developments, changes in centralised exchanges, and significant price movements of cryptocurrencies.
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January - Rising Dominance in Crypto Futures: Bitcoin and Altcoins
In this week's Chart of the Week, we used our granular derivatives data to examine digital asset open interest and funding rate metrics to track market movements and measure the flow of money into the crypto futures market.
Bitcoin dominated Open Interest, recording an increase of 5.09% from the 1st of January till the 18th, followed by Ethereum, which recorded an increase of 14.29%. Ripple’s XRP and Cardano’s ADA also saw a significant increase in Open Interest — with a 51.6% and 69.4% rise, respectively.
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February - Shifting Crypto Market Dynamics: BTC, ETH, and Stablecoins
This week, we feature two Charts of the Week showcasing BTC, ETH and stablecoins’ aggregate market cap dominance dropping 2.7% to 69.8% of the total crypto market cap. This is the biggest month-on-month fall since August 2021, when the market was recovering between BTC’s $64,000 peak in April and $69,000 peak in November.
The decline relates to a fall in stablecoin market share - down from 16.6% at the start of the year to 12.3% at the end of January. The decline in aggregate dominance in these assets, which are the least volatile assets in the crypto landscape, highlights the increased performance of small, volatile assets and market participants' change in sentiment during the first month of the year.
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March - Stablecoin Stability Tested: The SVB Fallout
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the depegging of numerous stablecoins following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The depeg began after concerns surrounding the reserves of USDC were raised following the collapse of SVB. As a result, USDC de-pegged to below $0.90.
However, USDC and other stablecoins regained their parity following FDIC's intervention, which expanded deposit guarantees to all depositors. Other fiat-redeemable stablecoins including USDT, BUSD and TUSD largely remained pegged to their parity during the turmoil.
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April - Ethereum's Shapella Upgrade: A New Era of Staking
The Shapella Upgrade, which allows for staked withdrawals, goes live today! The upgrade will allow for the withdrawal of locked staked funds and will complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake system.
It is expected to have a positive impact on the underlying asset, represented by lower negative funding rates and increasing open interest. Over the past few months, Ethereum open interest has experienced consistent growth.
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May - Changing Tides in Centralised Exchanges
In this week's Chart of the Week, we delve into the notable shift in the digital asset market landscape. Binance saw its market share decrease by 10.8% (as of May 20th) following the removal of zero-fee trading for USDT.
In this reshuffled field, Bullish, OKX, BitMEX, and Bybit have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries. They've gained 1.55%, 1.44%, 1.25%, and 1.04% in market share, respectively.
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June - Liquidity Shifts Post-Binance Lawsuit
In this week's Chart of the Week, we delve into the notable shift in the digital asset market landscape. Binance saw its market share decrease by 10.8% (as of May 20th) following the removal of zero-fee trading for USDT.
In this reshuffled field, Bullish, OKX, BitMEX, and Bybit have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries. They've gained 1.55%, 1.44%, 1.25%, and 1.04% in market share, respectively.
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July - Dogecoin's Surge Linked to Twitter's Rebrand
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine Dogecoin's price action following Twitter's rebrand to 'X'. Dogecoin's price jumped 10% to a daily high of 0.0778 following Twitter's rebrand to X, outperforming the majority of the other crypto assets.
Meanwhile, the aggregate open interest for the token on centralised exchanges surged by 24% to $502mn after Elon Musk appeared to have added $DOGE symbol on his Twitter profile, with traders speculating on a possible integration of the token with the revamped platform.
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August - AI Tokens Defy Market Turbulence
In this week's Chart of the Week, we explore AI tokens' resilience, yielding an impressive 18.4% increase despite recent market turbulence.
AKT leads the basket with an exceptional 248% return, followed closely by FET at 94.2%. Even without major market catalysts, like the SEC's ETF approval delays, investor focus appears to shift to real-world applications. AI's consistent outperformance throughout the year underscores this trend.
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September - Steady Crypto Investment Products Amid Regulatory Scrutiny
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we look into how, despite the falling participation and interest, crypto investment products have maintained strong assets under management (AUMs) this year, with total aggregated AUM exceeding $35bn in August.
Although the SEC remains at large with their interpretations based on the age-old Howey Test, we have witnessed other jurisdictions such as the EU, UAE, and the UK introduce clear and positive legislation: MiCA, VARA, and FMSA respectively, which has positively impacted institutional flows into products.
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October - Bitcoin's Bullish Breakout on OKX
In this week's Chart of the Week, we look at last night's breakout move. Bitcoin's spot price reached a 15-month high, with the CCCAGG price of BTC-USD pairs reaching a high of $35,183. CCData's trade data shows that the price of the BTC-USDT pair on OKX reached as high as $35,919 at 10:30 pm UTC, trading at a premium compared to other venues due to increased demand and varying liquidity.
The pair traded a volume of $352 million during the hour, second only to the BTC-USDT pair on Binance, which traded a volume of $577 million in the same hour.
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November - BNB's Quick Recovery from Legal Setbacks
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we examine the market's reaction from yesterday when Bloomberg broke the news that the US is seeking more than $4 billion to settle its case against Binance. The exchange has been embroiled in legal challenges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) since March and June, respectively.
Accusations include operating an illegal derivatives exchange and promoting non-compliant actions, such as using VPNs and offshore entities to evade geographical restrictions. Overall, this news initially led to a negative reaction before BNB bounced 15% in a matter of minutes as the market digested the possibility of a resolution to this overhang that has existed since Q1 of this year. More clarity for Binance is bullish for BNB and the market, as evidenced by the intraday performance captured by CCData.
The news casts a light at the end of the tunnel for Binance, with the potential for a full resolution in the coming months, despite the heavy charges. If the reports are accurate, it also removes a lot of uncertainty from the market, given that more severe actions against Binance could be detrimental to the industry.
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December - OKX and Bybit Attain Market Share Peaks
This week's Chart of the Week highlights two exchanges, Bybit and OKX, which reached all-time highs in terms of combined Spot/Derivatives market share. Bybit now captures an aggregated 11.94%, whilst OKX captures 20.2% in November - a combined market share of over 32%!
This achievement for both exchanges highlights the shifting CEX landscape, since Binance recently agreed on a settlement with the DOJ, and Coinbase's SEC case remains unsolved. Both OKX and Bybit were the only exchanges to score AA in our latest Centralised Exchange Derivatives Benchmark, underscoring the uptick in demand observed in November.
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