Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms, publishes a monthly analysis of the cryptocurrency market. The research is conducted by Binance Research, the research division of Binance. Research team is committed to providing objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis, with the aim of being a reference point in the cryptocurrency field. The analysts regularly publish informative articles on a wide range of topics, including the cryptocurrency ecosystem, blockchain technologies, the latest market trends, and everything related to this industry.
The following information is the result of research conducted by the team composed of: Jie Xuan Chua, Moulik Nagesh, Shivam Sharma, Brian Chen and Jin Ming Neo.
Key points and charts of the month
- The crypto market was stable in September, with minor fluctuations. FTX asset liquidation and the FOMC meeting briefly disrupted, but the market quickly stabilized. Telegram’s TON wallet integration was a highlight.
- The adoption of account abstraction (“AA”) is on the rise, with over 2.3 million successful ERC-4377 smart account transactions across more than 870,000 unique AA accounts. Ethereum’s Layer-2 solutions, such as Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum, played a crucial role in this growth
month-by-month.
- September marked the 18th consecutive month of decline in stablecoin market capitalization, reaching a new low of US$123.8 billion. However, USDT and DAI defied this trend, registering slight increases despite a challenging environment.
- Uniswap has maintained its strong demand for gas, solidifying its position as the top consumer of ETH gas over the last 30 days. Layer-2 solutions have also seen significant activity due to renewed interest, confirming the increasingly important role of L2s in advancing blockchain scalability. The transaction volume over the last 30 days on the zkSync Era mainnet has surpassed Ethereum. Arbitrum is also gaining traction thanks to the launch of its highly anticipated campaign, Arbitrum Odyssey.
- The DeFi perpetuals market witnessed significant changes in September, with ApolloX emerging as a major player with a monthly growth of 450% in trading volume. This highlights a shift in the landscape, with ApolloX and others challenging the dominance of established protocols like dYdX and GMX.
Crypto Market Performance
In September, the cryptocurrency market exhibited a sideways performance in the absence of significant narratives or catalysts. The total market capitalization increased by 2.6%. Two distinct periods of pronounced volatility emerged: first between September 11 and 12, and then from September 19 to 21. On September 11, the cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by 3% due to the announcement of asset liquidation by FTX, but the market quickly recovered. After the FOMC meeting on September 20, with signals of potential interest rate hikes and a strengthening of the US dollar, there were further impacts on the markets.
In descending order of performance:
- Most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies recorded gains in September, especially TON and TRON with increases of 20% and 15%, respectively. TON’s rise was driven by the integration of Telegram’s TON wallet and support for a Web3 ecosystem, sparking interest in potential mass adoption. Additionally, the Tron network saw a significant 25% increase in TVL, while other major networks experienced declines.
- SOL appeared to regain momentum since June, ending the month with an 8.4% increase. Meanwhile, BTC and ETH demonstrated resilience, with their prices largely mirroring the overall market sentiment. It’s worth noting that Ultra Sound Money data indicated that ETH supply reverted to an inflationary trend at the beginning of September.
- XRP, ADA, and BNB oscillated without a clear direction in September, closing the month with no significant price changes. Conversely, DOT bore the brunt of bearish sentiment, experiencing a 3.84% decline for the month.
DeFi Performance
The Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi recorded a 0.36% decrease compared to the previous month, extending the downward trend for the seventh consecutive month. Base, launched in August, consistently gained traction, capturing a market share of 0.91% in September, despite a brief issue at the beginning of the month. The TVL of the Mixin network saw a significant decline of over 60% due to a $200 million exploit that contributed to the overall decrease in DeFi TVL. Tron had a strong performance in September, with a 25% increase in TVL compared to the previous month, mainly driven by increased activity on the JustLend lending protocol.
NFTs Performance
The NFT market continued its decline in September, with the total monthly transaction volume reaching a new annual low of $0.29 billion. Due to pressure on NFT floor prices, only 7% of NFT holders have made profits in the last 30 days, according to NFTGo data. Nansen’s NFT-500 index recorded a year-to-date decline of 58%, while the Blue-Chip-10 index dropped 53% year-to-date, primarily due to the relatively poor performance of profile picture NFTs, which have the highest market capitalization by category. In conclusion, NFTs have continued to face a challenging year, with categories tracked by Nansen down between 43% and 70% year-to-date.
Upcoming Events and Token Unlocks
In this section, significant events and upcoming token unlocks for the month of October are summarized with two graphs. This could help monitor key developments in the industry and track unlock events.
