Bitcoin beats stocks and gold in Q3, NFT volumes plunge
In a notoriously volatile third quarter, bitcoin managed to hold its own against other major asset classes, with the exception of the U.S. dollar, research from crypto data firm CoinGecko showed.
Over a pretty choppy few months, bitcoin remained stuck in the $18,000 to $22,000 trading range. Overall, that meant a decline of 1% in Q3, compared to a drop of 5% for the S&P 500 , 4% for the Nasdaq and 7% loss in gold prices .
Bitcoin also outperformed the euro and British pound, as both of those currencies were dented by political drama and a rapidly strengthening dollar.
Still, from a year-to-date perspective, bitcoin is one of the worst performing asset classes, down an eye watering 55%. If you bought in at its top last November, you’d be down nearly 70%.
Ether, meanwhile, had a much better Q3, rising 25% in Q3, as per CoinGecko after rallying on the back of the long awaited “Merge” upgrade to the ethereum blockchain.
Surprisingly, given the dour macro backdrop, tokens related to decentralized finance applications garnered interest in Q3, with the overall DeFi market cap rising over 25% in Q3, with “blue chip” tokens like Uniswap and Aave making up the bulk of gains.
That was likely due to optimism over ethereum’s Merge and its implications for the DeFi space, CoinGecko researchers said.
However, DeFi’s market cap is still down 70% since January, according to CoinGecko.
Trading in non-fungible tokens also plummeted in Q3, with the once buzzy sector seeing a drop of over 76%.
Reuters
