Hello, Hive!

We are excited to share with everyone our first monthly crypto report!


![1.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmULQGHY7invEFZNxPqG4S65jYi8YSgSg3MgXLxPhVfLt1/1.png)


We want to bring you up to speed with the current happenings in the market and CoinGecko’s Research Team will provide you with the latest market updates and trends.

For the month of July, we analyzed 3 datasets: overview of the crypto markets, Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) tokens.
 
[Download the full report here](https://gcko.io/i8jizvx0)

Below are the 5 key highlights of our report: 

<h2>1.Market capitalization hit 2020-high, nears $320B</h2>

![2.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQme9J1hhLi1vf7KiSZ3sfyf8Wp84gEuabyJhia95Xd8gkc/2.png)


In July, the top-30 cryptocurrencies market capitalization hit a 2020-high of $319 billion.

These crypto assets saw a 30% increase in their market capitalization and 45% increase in their trading volume. This contrasts with June’s subdued market where market capitalization went down 2% and the trading volume went down by 38%.


<h2>2. Bitcoin’s market dominance decreased while Ethereum’s market dominance increased </h2>

![3.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdZ35xr3vTHubqN8oGG8AJcBNpY8nzoWznvrtG92HP6Ld/3.png)


In terms of top 30 cryptocurrencies market dominance, Bitcoin [(BTC)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin) saw its market dominance decreased by 3% to 65.5%. Ethereum [(ETH)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum) had the largest gain amongst the top 30 cryptocurrencies with a gain of 1.9% to 12.2%.

This was closely followed by Tether [(USDT)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tether) and XRP [(XRP)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/xrp) with a bump of 0.9% and 0.5% respectively. 

The situation closely suggests that as the market capitalization surpassed its 2020-high, altcoins are gaining and eating into Bitcoin’s market dominance share.

<h2> 3.Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) trading volume surged $2.6B within a month, outperformed Centralized Exchanges (CEX) growth by more than 5X </h2>

![4.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNUMCXz4LBGCosLKifER6jfwVoHNWbWX9R9ywiCPTarYU/4.png)


In July, the Top-6 DEX saw its month-on-month trading volume increased 217% to $3.8 billion. CEX trading volume increased as well but only by 41%. Top-6 DEX growth outperformed Top-6 CEX growth by near 5x.

For DEX market dominance, [Uniswap](https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/uniswap) grew 8 percentage points to 47%, dominating almost half of the market, followed by [Curve](https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/curve) at 24% and [Balancer](https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/balancer) at 14%. 

[Bancor](https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/bancor), [Kyber Network](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/kyber-network), and [dYdX](https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/dydx) have been losing DEX market share in July.

<h2> 4. DeFi tokens rallied in July with LEND registering its highest monthly price return in 2020 </h2>

![5.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmU6Eirm33png2wpRC9YGAxnBpxzeJ2Wcj89yWzrCGXsuf/5.png)


The DeFi trend continued stronger in July with Aave [(LEND)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/aave) registering its highest monthly growth in 2020 (+137%) This makes it one of the most profitable cryptoassets in 2020 to date (+1779%). 

It’s worth noting that DeFi tokens are outpacing the top-5 major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. 

However, Compound [(COMP)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/compound) saw its price decrease by almost 40%, trimming its year-to-date gains to only 71% due to constant sell pressure by liquidity miners locking in gains.

DeFi tokens saw trading volume increased to 2020 highs


<h2>5. The Top-5 DeFi tokens saw trading volume hit a high of $24 billion in July, more than double the previous month. ChainLink (LINK) contributed 82% of the increase. </h2>

![6.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmetpoRjXE69m9fNYckCwR2w7FosjPoLiWydpctJY7frVr/6.png)

3 out of the top-5 DeFi tokens, namely Compound [(COMP)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/chainlink), Aave [(LEND)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/aave), and Synthetix Network Token [(SNX)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/synthetix-network-token), saw their volume rise over $700M. This was not coincidental as their native protocols were being actively used for liquidity mining and yield farming.

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Want more?
Download the full report [here](https://gcko.io/i8jizvx)! 

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