The crypto industry is showing some signs of recovery after a tumultuous winter. While Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have received a lot of attention, stablecoins have also outpaced other asset types in terms of usage, accounting for more than half of all trading volume in recent months.
The latest data from Chainalysis suggests that stablecoins are becoming truly global assets.
US leads stablecoin purchases
Chainaosis’ Crypto Spring 2024 report reveals a significant surge in global demand for stablecoins. While the United States led the purchases, contributions from various countries and regions increased, totaling more than $30 billion in January 2024 alone.
While the US and EU maintain strong representation, emerging markets such as Thailand, Brazil, and especially Turkey stand out when it comes to stablecoin purchases as a percentage of domestic GDP.
This international interest has essentially led to increased reliance on stablecoins like USDT in various regions, particularly countries experiencing local currency volatility and devaluation, such as Turkey and Georgia. It highlighted that. According to industry expert insights shared with Chainalysis, residents of these countries frequently use stablecoins as a way to protect their savings amid currency fluctuations.
Zooming out further, Chainalysis also found that remittance activity during the recent market surge exceeded previous highs observed at the end of 2020 and in 2021. This is indicative of the general sentiment that this market cycle is significantly more active than the previous bull market, and this accelerated growth rate compared to past cycles is a sign of the market's It may indicate increased trust.
Further supporting this trend, the number of wallets with positive balances continues to grow steadily, with over 400 million wallets actively holding cryptocurrencies. One wallet does not necessarily mean her one user, as both institutions and individuals can have multiple wallets, but the steady increase suggests that the use of cryptocurrencies is on the rise. I am.
Cryptocurrency investment rises quarter-on-quarter for the first time since 2023
Although crypto funding slowed during the prolonged bear market, investment in cryptocurrencies increased in the first quarter of 2024, marking the first quarter-on-quarter increase since the first quarter of 2023. Median deal size has also recovered from the sharp decline in Q4 2022 and is flat. Consistently around $10 million.
Additionally, Bloomberg recently reported that crypto venture capital fund Paradigm is in talks to raise between $750 million and $850 million, making it the largest VC fund in the crypto industry since the 2022 market downturn. reported that it could be the largest amount of funding raised.
Chainalysis also revealed that several large deals exceeding $100 million, including early-stage investments, took place in Q3 2023 and continued into Q1 2024.
Notable deals during this period include Swan Bitcoin raising $165 million for asset management and tax purposes, Blockchain.com securing $100 million for its exchange platform, and Wormhole for bridge and interoperability solutions. $225 million, including Totter's $101 million win for its open source cloud storage service. , togetter.ai has raised $225 million with his DePIN solution at a valuation of $2.5 billion, and EigenLayer has collected $100 million with his development of the Ethereum protocol.
