CoinDesk's weekly ‘Chart of the Week’ highlights topical digital asset developments with vital commentary and analysis.
In this week's COTW, we analyze the total stablecoin market cap since 2020. The total stablecoin market cap surpassed $250 billion for the first time earlier this week, now representing 7.24% of the total crypto market cap. The stablecoin market cap is now on track to record its twenty-first consecutive increase in end-of-month market capitalization.
USDT continues to be the dominant stablecoin with a market share of 62.2%, followed by the newly IPO’d Circle’s USDC, which commands a market share of 24.2%.
This week’s Chart of the Week highlights May’s correlation of daily returns between BTC, ETH and the SP500, falling to 15.8% and 18.2%, respectively, the lowest level since August 2022.
Digital assets have benefitted from a significant price appreciation following signs that tight monetary policy and high interest rates may soon reach their peak. This comes after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, causing a stir in the banking system, and amplifying the interest in digital assets.
The depegging of USDC and regulatory issues with BUSD has led to Binance converting $1 billion of their Industry Recovery Initiative funds to BTC, ETH, and BNB, triggering further buy pressure for digital assets.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the market share of decentralized exchanges in spot markets. In May, DEXs saw a sharp resurgence in activity, with spot trading volumes surging by 95.0% to $475 billion — marking the first monthly increase in four months. Centralized exchanges (CEXs) also experienced a rebound, with spot volumes rising for the first time in five months to $2.06 trillion.
As a result, DEXs captured a record 18.7% share of total spot trading volume, surpassing the previous all-time high of 16.4% set in January during the hype surrounding Trump’s memecoin launch.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we break down the top 100 crypto assets by market cap and their performance since Bitcoin hit its yearly low on April 8. The standout performers are VIRTUAL (+463%), WIF (+243%), PENGU (+228%), HYPE (+217%), and FARTCOIN (+166%)—each posting massive gains in a short span. Interestingly, 7 of the top 15 performers were memecoins, underscoring the persistent speculative momentum in the space.
AI tokens also had a strong showing, with 4 among the top 15, signalling sustained interest in the narrative. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has gained 43% since its April low—a steady climb supported by seven consecutive weeks of positive returns, highlighting the broader market strength beneath the hype.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we examine Bitcoin’s weekly closes dating back to 2020. Last week, Bitcoin notched its highest-ever weekly close at $106,505, surpassing the previous record set in December. While the asset reached an intraday all-time high of $109,134 in January, that week ultimately closed lower at $102,606 following a drawdown.
Notably, Bitcoin also marked its sixth consecutive week of positive returns—the first such streak since December 2023—highlighting renewed bullish momentum after the macroeconomic environments led drawdowns earlier in Q1.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we take a closer look at the ETH/BTC ratio since 2020. Last week, Ethereum posted its strongest weekly performance since early January 2021, rallying 38.8%.
As a result, the ETH/BTC ratio has climbed to 0.0257 — its highest level since March 2nd.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we analyze Ethereum’s daily returns since 2020. On May 8th, Ethereum surged by 21.8% to $2,207—recording its largest single-day gain since May 2021.
This impressive rally also records the fourth-highest daily return for Ethereum since 2020.
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