Investing.com – Just before the early August sell-off, July offered a brief respite for the cryptocurrency market with some positive metrics after a largely negative second quarter.
According to a report by JP Morgan, the total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market closed July at around $2.28 trillion, up 1% from the previous month and 42% from a year ago. This figure is almost double its value from a year ago.
While volumes improved, market cap trends varied across different tokens and crypto products. The market cap of grew to $1.28 trillion, reflecting a 3% MoM increase. In contrast, the market cap of shrank 6% MoM to $388 billion, largely due to net outflows from newly launched US ETH spot ETFs. Other major altcoins such as and also saw price declines in July.
“Total cryptocurrency market capitalization closed at around $2.28 trillion, up 1% month-on-month, 42% year-to-date and nearly double its value from a year ago,” JP Morgan wrote.
The report also states that trading volumes saw a modest uptick, with average daily volume (ADV) increasing month-on-month. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum saw double-digit volume jumps, with Bitcoin’s average daily volume up 18% and Ethereum’s up 23%. However, DeFi and NFT volumes continued to decline despite these gains.
“TradingView estimates that the average daily volume (ADV) associated with the total cryptocurrency market increased 9% month-on-month in July,” JP Morgan said. “This sequential improvement represents the first uptick in volumes since Q1 2024.”
One of the key events of July was the launch of the US spot ETH ETFs, which, despite initial enthusiasm, saw net redemptions totalling $484 million over the first seven days of trading. The SEC approval of these ETFs and their subsequent performance highlighted the difficulties in attracting sustained inflows.
JP Morgan explains: “We estimate that the group of nine approved US Ether spot ETFs saw total net redemptions of -$484 million in July, which included seven trading days.”
The report also notes that traditional finance (TradFi) asset managers are increasingly engaging in blockchain and tokenization projects. Hamilton Lane, for example, launched a blockchain fund and Goldman Sachs plans to launch three tokenization products by the end of the year.
“More examples of tokenization projects only further reinforce the use and utility of the technology,” JP Morgan noted.
Bitcoin mining saw increased competition, as the network’s average monthly hash rate increased by 5% in July. However, profitability fell to historic lows, with miners earning an average of $46,000 per exahash (EH/s) in daily block reward revenue, the lowest level on record.
“The network's average monthly hashrate increased by 30 EH/s (5%) in July to 615 EH/s, marking the first month-over-month increase in mining competition/difficulty since the halving,” the report stated.
