Hassan Maishera
Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, published its monthly market insights for January 2025. The report had some interesting revelations as investors continued to troop into the market.
Crypto Market Cap Hit an All-Time High of $3.76T
According to the report, the total cryptocurrency market cap hit an all-time high of $3.76 trillion in January. The move was driven by a rebound from December’s downturn, with contributing factors including potential policy initiatives such as a national crypto reserve and stablecoin regulations.
However, late-month momentum faltered as DeepSeek, an emerging AI model, overtook ChatGPT as the most downloaded app, triggering a 2% decline in both U.S. and crypto markets.
February began with market volatility amid concerns over potential U.S. tariff policies, impacting risk assets globally, including cryptocurrencies.
Also in January, the change in U.S. administration, led by President Donald Trump and pro-crypto Republicans, along with the departure of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, resulted in a record number of crypto ETFs filed in the United States. Currently, there are 47 active filings in the U.S., spanning 16 distinct asset categories, including memecoins.
Memecoin Growth Continues, Boosting Solana’s DEX Volumes
Per the report, the advent of token launchpads and the memecoin mania has led to the creation of over 37M tokens, with projections exceeding 100M by year-end. However, the influx of new tokens fuels speculation, reduces attention spans, and discourages long-term holding. Despite the surge, most tokens have negligible market capitalization, with the top 100 tokens comprising around 98% of the total crypto market capitalization.
Solana is home to a large number of memecoins, and this reflected in the blockchain’s DEX volumes last month. According to Binance Research, Solana’s DEX volumes have exceeded those of Ethereum every month since October 2024, with volumes in January reaching over 200% higher than those of Ethereum. In fact, in January, the Solana-to-Ethereum DEX volume ratio reached its all-time high of over 300%.
The launch of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins on the Solana blockchain further boosted its performance in January
While the DeFAI space gained traction last month, it wasn’t profitable. The report revealed that the DeFAI sector ended January with a -10% return. However, the overall AI narrative dominance remains robust, capturing 44% of Kaito's Narrative Mindshare. AI tokens, fueled by open-source developments, represent the rapid expansion of traditional AI innovation.
XRP Outperformed Other Major Coins in the Top 10
XRP, Ripple’s native coin, was the best performer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap last month. XRP surged 47.8% in January, driven by the rapid growth of its native DEX, which exceeded $400M in monthly swap volume and now averages over $17M in daily trading.
SOL (24.7%) came second, while Bitcoin rose by 11.7% last month. LINK, ADA, and DOGE rose by 9.6%, 7.2%, and 2.2%, respectively. LINK was underpinned by its introduction of innovative programs like Scale and Buil,d which contributed to widespread adoption, with over 4,000 developers building on 16 different chains using the Chainlink standard.
However, BNB and TRX declined by 3.57% and 6.26%, respectively, likely as liquidity shifted toward more speculative networks and assets like SOL. Ethereum’s ETH also declined by 8.2%, while AVAX dropped 9.3% as short-selling pressure outpaced long positions, driving a bearish trend in the market.
NFT Trading Volume Took a Tumble
In January, the NFT market faced a significant decline, with total sales volume dropping across all of the top 10 NFT chains, except for Base, which saw a remarkable 344.8% surge in sales.
According to the report, monthly NFT transactions fell to 5.1 million — the lowest level since March 2021. Ethereum sales dropped by 39.1% and saw declines in legacy projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cryptopunks, which saw drops of 18.5% and 8.4%, respectively.
Despite the bearish sentiment, emerging NFT projects like Courtyard, which digitizes collectible cards, saw a 53.0% rise in sales and a 39.2% increase in transactions. Furthermore, Bitcoin NFT volume declined by 39.2%, with the total number of transactions falling by 24.6%.
