TechFlow News, April 16: According to a CoinGecko report, the cryptocurrency market continued its bearish trend in Q1 2026, with total market capitalization declining by 20.4% (approximately $622 billion) to $2.4 trillion—down roughly 45% from its October 2025 peak. Key drivers of the downturn included heightened monetary tightening expectations following Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Federal Reserve Chair and geopolitical shocks stemming from the U.S.-Iran conflict.
The stablecoin market remained broadly stable, with total market capitalization edging up slightly to $309.9 billion. USDT supply declined for the first time since Q2 2022, falling to $184.1 billion; USDC grew 2.4% to $77.1 billion; and USD1—issued by WLFI—rose 32.5% amid Binance’s airdrop campaign.
In terms of asset performance, crude oil prices surged 76.9% due to supply disruptions triggered by the U.S.-Iran conflict, making it the strongest-performing asset this quarter; gold rose 8.1%; and Bitcoin fell 22.0%, underperforming both the Nasdaq (-7.1%) and the S&P 500 (-4.8%).
Regarding trading volume, spot trading volume across top centralized exchanges dropped 39.1% to $2.7 trillion, with March volume falling to just $0.8 trillion—the lowest since November 2023; Binance maintained its market share at 37.0%. Among decentralized exchanges, Solana retained leadership with a 30.6% share—but Ethereum overtook it in March.
Additionally, on Hyperliquid, the share of open interest in commodity perpetual contracts rose to approximately 30%, and on April 9, oil contract trading volume surpassed Bitcoin trading volume on the platform for the first time in a single day—setting a new all-time high.
