The digital asset website tracking the prices and trading volumes of cryptocurrencies, CoinMarketCap, has released a market analysis report for the first half of 2023. Although the report shows an increase in the cryptocurrency market capitalization year-to-date, the market cap for the first and the second quarter barely changed.

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization reached USD $1.17 trillion at the end of the second quarter, representing an increase of 48% year-to-date. In the first quarter, the market capitalization was boosted by the rise in the price of Bitcoin and the heightened activity in the non-fungible tokens (NFT) market, CoinMarketCap noted.

Spot Trading Volumes

Additionally, according to CoinMarketCap, the trading of digital assets increased in the first quarter of the year but declined in the subsequent quarter. The total spot trading volume across 20 crypto exchanges had peaked in March but declined 36% quarter-on-quarter to USD $535 billion as of June.

Across the cryptocurrency sector, meme tokens are the most popular category, having received the most views in April and May. The second and the third-most viewed assets fall under decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs, respectively. AI and Big Data also received significant views following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, CoinMarketCap explained.

On top of that, Ethereum, the second-most popular blockchain network, leads in smart contracts. Its popularity was boosted by the Shapella upgrade, which went live in April. The upgrade enabled Ethereum’s users to unlock approximately 18 million ether which had been locked in the network.

Bitcoin Projected to Surge

CoinMarketCap also highlighted the events that have significantly impacted the digital asset space, particularly the recent wave of applications for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US. The top asset management company, BlackRock, Valkyrie, Fidelity, Ark Invest, and 21Shares, have submitted applications to the SEC to list spot Bitcoin ETFs.

According to the report, the investments into crypto ETFs and exchange-traded funds have reached USD $9.5 billion. The figure could reportedly increase if the SEC approves the application for spot Bitcoin ETFs.

In a separate report by the analytics platform K33 Research featured by Finance Magnates yesterday (Wednesday), the investments in Bitcoin ETPs increased 25,202 Bitcoins to 196,824 Bitcoins in the four weeks ending July 16. An ETP is a type of security that tracks the price of an underlying asset.