This report will explore the dynamic world of cryptocurrency, where market trends are constantly evolving. Through 24 charts from 9 reliable sources, our team has examined the events and movements in the Web3 landscape over the last 30 days for a lite One Click read.
Key things from the April 2023 Crypto & DeFi Report
The crypto market cap had a rocky April, with the opening at $1.15T and reaching a high of $1.25T on April 14th. However, the market soon experienced a dip, hitting a low of $1.11T on April 24th. By the end of the month, the market cap had recovered slightly, closing at $1.17T, representing a net increase of +1.2% from the opening value.
The two macro events that had the biggest weight over crypto’s performance were the surprising 10.1% UK inflation rate announcement on Apr 19 and the closing of First Republic Bank on Apr 25.
Best performing assets
Bitcoin raised its market dominance from 44.72% in March to 47.83% (+3.11%) in April, ending at $29.368. Ethereum’s price rose +4.97%, while BNB raised +1.92%.
Bitcoin vs. TradFi YTD Stats
Although Balaji Srinivasan’s $1M bet on Bitcoin, reaching $1M in 90 days, closed early, it doesn’t detract from the fact that the leading cryptocurrency continues to outshine traditional assets. Since the start of 2023, BTC’s price has risen by an impressive +76.13%, eclipsing Europe’s stock index Euronext 100 at +9.65%, followed by the US S&P500 at 9.13%, and Gold at +8.29%.
L1/L2 Tokens
In April, the L1/L2 crypto market showed consolidation, with only a modest increase of +1.49% in the sector's total market cap. However, trading volume has decreased significantly by -18.64% during the same period, potentially indicating a reduced interest in trading these tokens.
Ethereum (ETH) is the leading L1/L2 crypto player, boasting a market cap of $224.47B. Solana (SOL), on the other hand, has shown significant positive momentum in April, with a price increase of +5.6%, contributing to its impressive year-to-date (YTD) performance of +121.79%. However, it’s important to note that despite its remarkable growth, SOL is still 1,111.4% away from its all-time high (ATH).
DeFi Tokens
In April, the DeFi token market experienced a slight decline in total market capitalization, dropping by -3.52%. Additionally, the trading volume of the sector plummeted by -17.58%, with the majority of the top assets also experiencing a price decrease.
Despite this trend, Lido Staked Ether (STETH) managed to retain its position as the largest asset in the market, with a market cap of $11.60B. One DeFi asset that stood out in terms of performance during the month was Rocket Pool (RPL), which gained a significant +17.8% increase, bringing its market cap close to $1B.
GameFi
In April, the GameFi sector experienced the largest decline in trading volume among the reviewed groups, dropping by -34.28%. Among the top 10 assets in this sector, only one saw a positive gain during the month, with COMBO increasing by +11.3%. On average, the GameFi token watchlist experienced a decrease in value of -3.57%.
These market movements suggest that investors are becoming more selective and cautious in their GameFi investments, potentially shifting towards safer investment opportunities or alternative sectors in the crypto market.
NFT Tokens
In April, the NFT token sector had a market capitalization of $2.85B. Among the top 10 assets in the group, SuperVerse (SUPER) had the best performance, with a +23.9% price increase. However, ApeCoin (APE), which has the largest market share of 49.12% in the NFT token market, saw a decline in the price of -8.01%. This further increased the gap between its current price and the all-time high (ATH) to 583.8%.
While NFT-related tokens are underperforming on average, the MEME coin sector experienced an explosion in April, with assets such as $PEPE making moves ranging from 1000–4000 times, attracting attention from the whole crypto world.
The story of the trader who turned $250 to $1M+ (on paper) was one of the most commented on during the month. $PEPE leaped over 10,000 times between the original purchase and the ATH wick (image above).
Although the MEME sector experienced impressive gains in April, the total market capitalization in the crypto market remained almost the same. This indicates that the surge was primarily driven by a shift in liquidity rather than an influx of new capital into the crypto markets.
CCData’s Stablecoins & CBDCs Report for April shows that the total market capitalization of stablecoins declined by -1.08% to $131B, marking the thirteenth consecutive month of decline. However, stablecoin market dominance increased slightly from 10.8% in March to 10.9% in April.
The report also notes that stablecoin trading volume increased by +13.6% to $775B in March but appears to be lower in April, with only $365 billion traded as of April 24th. USDT’s market capitalization increased by -2.03% to $81.5B in April, approaching its all-time high of $83.7B. USDT also accounted for 79.0% of all trading volume with stablecoins on centralized exchanges in April.
Moreover, TUSD’s market share on Binance has reached an all-time high of 15.9%, trading at $987M on 22nd April, making it the third largest stablecoin by trading volume with a market share of 6.5% (on centralized exchanges), surpassing USDC for the first time since June 2020.
Overview
DeFi’s TVL consolidated around $50B in April, ending the month at $49.17B, according to DefiLlama’s data.
TVL Market Share by Chain
Ethereum remained dominant at 58.42% market share, while Tron (11.21%) and BSC (9.84%) shared another ~20% of the market. The rising L2 Arbitrum ended April at a share of 4.65%, a slight increase of +0.19% from March.
TVL Market Share by Category
The four protocol categories with the largest market share in DeFi were 1. Dexes (36.26%), Lending (29.53%), Bridge (23.75%), and CDP (20.82%).
The chain with the largest active user base in April was Tron, which regularly showed an activity of 2M+ users per day while having just 18 DeFi protocols. Ethereum, the largest and wealthiest in protocols blockchain network, had an average user activity of ~200–300k daily.
Volume on decentralized exchanges for April was $73.51B, the 7th biggest value in the past year and the 4th lowest out of the last five months.
DEX Volume By Chain
Arbitrum dropped from its peak of 21.77% back to 13.13%, while Ethereum returned to above 50%. BSC grew from 7.59% in March to 22.06% at the end of April.
Data compiled from the newly returned bridge inflows dashboard from DefiLlama shows that during April, a net total of (- $81.7M) left the Ethereum network through Bridges. Optimism (+ $46.8M) and Arbitrum (+ $34.7M) were the biggest net influxes. Avalanche lost (- $28.5M).
Largest Pools By TVL
Ethereum remained the center of DeFi yield, with 7 out of the top 10 pools, sorted by TVL, having their home on the ETH network. Lido’s STETH alone ended April at a TVL of $11.63B ($1B more than the next 9 pools combined), offering a 30d average APY of 4.67%.
Largest 30-Day Average APY With At Least $100M TVL
Among the pools with at least $100M in TVL, the GMX’s GLP pool on the Arbitrum network remained the most prominent, with its 30d average APY of 22.76%. With 3 pools, Uniswap took the most spots in the top 10, followed by Convex Finance with 2.
Top Leverage Lending Loops
A hot narrative in recent months is that of leverage yield farming. The new DefiLlama dashboard of leverage lending loops seeks to track some of the available pools that allow this strategy. The Testonic’s USDC pool* from the list, for example, provides for an 8.173x boost of its original 2.08% APY.
(*) Neither DefiLlama nor One Click Crypto does fully audit these pools, so use caution before taking any actions.
Four chains were making the top 10 list of the highest 30d fees in April, with Ethereum ($252.1M) taking the lead. Dexes and derivatives were good performers, with PancakeSwap, GMX, and Level Finance making the list. Arbitrum, which falls in the Rollup category, generated $9.34M in fees.
In April 2023, $547.3M was raised across various rounds and categories. Most of the funding went towards infrastructure and DeFi projects, with LayerZero’s $120M Series B round and Berachain’s $42M Private Round being the most significant raises in these categories.
Meanwhile, the crypto custody category has grown, with Zodia Custody raising $36M in funding. Web3 infrastructure and application-focused projects have also been receiving increased funding. Sei, Karate Combat, RSSR3, MetaGravity, and Lore secured $30M, $18M, $10M, $9.5M, and $4M, respectively.
NFT and gaming projects have been particularly popular with investors, with Fingerprints, Gameta, and RACA raising $5M, $5M, and $16M, respectively. Layer 2 and zkRollup solutions have also been gaining traction, with LayerZero, CryptoGPT, and Intmax raising $120M, $10M, and $5M, respectively.
In April, digital asset investment products experienced outflows for the second consecutive week, totaling $72M, likely due to the expectation of further interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. Bitcoin had the majority of outflows at $46M, while short-Bitcoin also experienced its largest outflows since December 2022, with net inflows year-to-date at $119M. Ethereum suffered outflows of $19M, its largest week of outflows since the Merge in September 2022.
Altcoins such as Solana, Algorand, and Polygon saw minor inflows. Outflows were seen across all geographies and providers, particularly in Germany and Canada. Despite these outflows, blockchain equities had positive YTD net flows of $27M. The broader crypto market remained subdued, with volumes 50% below the year average, while ETP investment product volumes at $1.7B for the week were 16% above the year average.
The spotlight during April was on $PEPE and meme-coins.
Memecoins
In April 2023, meme coins once again captured the imagination of the crypto community. Pepe, the latest addition to the meme coin market, took the world by storm, with its value surging by an incredible 407,900% in just four days, making some investors into overnight millionaires.
The frenzy around Pepe also caused a significant increase in trading volume on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap, which experienced its highest-ever transaction count, up more than 66% from the previous peak.
Despite the buzz and excitement surrounding meme coins in April 2023, some analysts noted that the surge in trading volume and price spikes might not indicate new liquidity entering the market. Instead, it is the movement of existing liquidity from other tokens into meme coins, driven by FOMO and hype.
— Now Available On Mobile As Well
One Click Crypto has launched a new platform designed to streamline the complex world of decentralized finance (DeFi), making it more accessible to new and experienced investors alike. The DeFi market is characterized by an overwhelming array of choices, fragmented information, and a steep learning curve, presenting significant barriers for investors. One Click Crypto’s solution provides a single reference point for all DeFi yield discovery and portfolio management.
The platform features:
The AI robo-advisor creates custom portfolios tailored to the investor’s unique goals and risk preferences, ensuring that their DeFi investments align with their financial objectives. The platform also automates the process of reallocation to the best-performing pools and strategies. One Click Crypto’s innovative solution aims to onboard the next one million users into DeFi and revolutionize the future of finance.
How we built a portfolio model that helps you to spot the best DeFi yield farming opportunities.
The One Click Crypto model aims to simplify the yield discovery process for DeFi investors by aggregating pools from hundreds of yield protocols across multiple blockchains and recommending the best pools from a risk-reward perspective.
The model is built on the Equal Sharpe Ratio Contributions (ESRC) methodology that seeks to equalize the Sharpe ratios of individual assets in the portfolio, providing a more balanced risk-return tradeoff across the portfolio.
The One Click Crypto model includes a risk assessment questionnaire, a database of DeFi pools, an algorithm for picking pool allocations, and an evaluation of the user’s investment preferences through the questionnaire.
Read the full article:
We are excited to announce the launch of the 1CC Ambassadors Program! As a company passionate about DeFi, we are looking for dedicated ambassadors who can help us grow our community.
To incentivize participation, we have allocated a massive rewards pool in BNB, OBT, and future 1CC airdrop rewards. We initially limited the program to 150 Ambassador slots for this season, but due to the overwhelming demand, we have increased the size to 250 and more than doubled the rewards pool.
👉 Join the 1CC Ambassadors Program Now
Our strategy for growing together is to incentivize web3-native community members to spread our message through an ambassador program that provides daily/weekly tasks for rewards. We have chosen Zealy, a tool similar to Gleam but designed with a Web3 focus, to facilitate the process.
The upcoming campaigns for our ambassadors include learning about 1CC, practicing with Zealy, and a strong focus on Twitter activity and Product Hunt. The direct action campaign on Product Hunt will take place from June 01 to June 07.
By becoming a 1CC Ambassador, you will have an incredible opportunity to contribute to the growth of our DeFi project, gain valuable experience in the blockchain industry, and earn attractive rewards.
Recently Added Features
— Twitter Share Button for Portfolios
— Manual Risk Adjustment Slider
— Tooltips and ‘How It Works’
— Mobile Version
Twitter Share Button
Now, effortlessly share your 1CC portfolio on Twitter with a single click, including the portfolio screenshot and pre-filled text. The app automatically generates a preview image once a user clicks “Tweet” and shares! Here’s an example:
P.S. Each tweet contains a unique referral link, which will later bring you additional rewards for referrals signed up with your link.
Manual Risk Adjustment Slider
Skip the 10-question process for each new portfolio and manually adjust your Risk Score on the next screen. Test various portfolio options within seconds and choose the one that you like the most.
Tooltips and ‘How It Works’
Hover over specific elements to see explanations (e.g., calculation logic, meaning, etc.). Plus, a “How It Works” section provides a high-level explanation of our algorithm. Check it out
Mobile Version Is Now Live
DeFi beta testers can create portfolios on any mobile browser with all features. Try it out at https://defi.oneclick.fi/.
Overall, the trends in Crypto and DeFi point to a continued rise in adoption and value. Metcalfe’s Law*, which states that a network’s value is proportional to its users’ square, provides a helpful framework for understanding the growth of the crypto ecosystem.
Interestingly, cryptocurrencies' adoption rate exceeds the peak Internet adoption rate of around 66%. In fact, crypto adoption is growing at an impressive rate of +157% per year**. These growth rates hint at a significant shift in how we perceive money and value. They also highlight the transformative potential of crypto and decentralized finance in shaping the future of finance and commerce.
In traditional finance, there is the saying, “Sell in May & Go Away,” but the data from the crypto market reveals a different pattern. Over the past two years, the number of global crypto owners has surged starting in May, gradually increasing to its peak in December, demonstrating a distinctive market feature: truly, money never sleeps in DeFi.
[*] Metcalfe’s Law as a Model for Bitcoin’s (and Crypto’s) Value
[**] Global crypto owners increased by +275% in 2021 and +39% in 2022, resulting in an average biennial growth rate of +157%.
Disclaimer: This report is not intended to serve as financial advice. The sole objective is to provide an educational perspective on the current state of Web3 and to identify trends that are gaining momentum. Investing in products, tokens, or company shares associated with these trends will not necessarily result in financial gain. Always conduct your own research and seek the advice of a financial professional.
We regularly prepare insightful reports and case studies about crypto trading and the blockchain industry.
We sent you a link to complete your sign-up.
Check your inbox, verify your email, and unlock all functionalities of your OB Trader account.
.png){kind=logo}
You were added to our waitlist. You will get an email within 3-5 days If you are shortlisted.
.svg)
%201.svg)
