Crypto markets experienced a downturn in the first quarter of 2025, with the spot trading volume across the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXs) declining by 16.3% to $5.4 trillion, according to CoinGecko. Binance maintained its dominance with a market share increasing from 38% to 43.9%, despite its trading volume dropping from $1 trillion in December 2024 to $588.7 billion in March 2025. HTX was the only top 10 exchange to record growth, while Upbit saw the largest decline of 34%. MEXC also showed notable growth, increasing its market share from 6.1% in Q4 2024 to 7.8% in Q1 2025. Bitcoin's realized capitalization reached an all-time high of $872 billion, although monthly growth slowed to 0.9%, indicating a cautious investor sentiment. Ethereum faced a sharp decline, plunging 45.3% in Q1 2025 to levels last seen in 2023, and has fallen approximately 74% against Bitcoin since its transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in 2022. The broader crypto market saw an 11.8% drop in Bitcoin and a 45.4% drop in Ether during Q1, marking it as one of the weakest quarters in years. Stablecoins remain a bright spot, with their supply growth positive but slowing, signaling reduced liquidity and a risk-off environment. The stablecoin market cap surpassed $233 billion, with Solana's stablecoin market cap reaching a new all-time high of $12.73 billion and Sei Network hitting $230.8 million. Stablecoins settled over $6 trillion in 2024, nearly half of Visa's volume, with banks like HSBC and ANZ leveraging this for payments, custody, and issuance revenue. Despite the downturn, some analysts see potential catalysts for a market turnaround in Q2 2025.