Most popular sectors and cryptocurrencies in 2023
Investment, Crypto, DeFi
2023-07-25
Table of contents
The year 2023 remains a complicated one in the cryptocurrency sector. However, it has been marked, on an ad hoc basis, by significant fluctuations and rebounds linked to specific crypto sectors, as well as other more novel events. While on the one hand, some sectors saw a drop in interest, on the other, a resurgence of interest was observed in other areas. In this article, we take a look at the most consulted sectors and cryptocurrencies following a Coinmarketcap report on the state of the cryptocurrency market in the first half of 2023.
Key points of the article
Popular sectors: Memes, DeFi, Collectibles/NFT, AI & Big Data.
Popular cryptocurrencies: Pepe (PEPE), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA) Terra Classic (LUNC), SingularityNET (AGIX) and Fetch.ai (FET).
Most watched cryptocurrencies: Polygon (MATIC), Arbitrum (ARB), Binance Coin (BNB) and Solana (SOL).
Most popular sectors
1. The meme sector
This is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about sectors in the first half of 2023. The meme sector saw a significant increase in popularity in April and May of this year. Notably, due to the "memecoins season" led by a new crypto called PEPE.
2. The DeFi (Decentralized Finance) sector
The DeFi sector was the second sector to attract the most attention, indicating sustained interest in this area during the first half of 2023. The continued interest in DeFi can be explained by a growing demand for decentralized financial services, but also by the possibility of generating potentially significant returns.
3. The Collectibles and NFT sector
Collectibles and NFTs generated a high level of interest in the first quarter of 2023, mainly due to the airdrop of Blur season 1. However, interest in this sector dropped off in the second half of the first half.
4. The AI (artificial intelligence) & Big Data sector
A newcomer to the most consulted sectors since the start of 2023 is AI & Big Data. Following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT and its rapid adoption, a narrative around AI took hold within the cryptocurrency market and enabled cryptocurrencies linked to this technology to take off in the first quarter of 2023. The second quarter was quieter for this sector, but renewed interest in AI-related tokens has been observed since June
Most popular cryptocurrencies by sector
1. Meme-related cryptocurrencies
In the meme sector, PEPE has come out on top, attracting the most liquidity, particularly in the last three months of the first half of 2023. This PEPE-led rally has taken with it other cryptocurrencies derived from PEPE itself, as well as older memecoins such as DOGE, SHIB and BabyDoge. Nevertheless, it was PEPE that particularly dominated the sector, with a meteoric rise of over 3700X from April to May. While interest in froghead memecoin declined in the second half of the first half of the year, PEPE still recovered almost 100% from its mid-June low. As a result, memecoins continue to attract the attention of investors and traders, probably, due to their speculative and entertaining nature.
2. Cryptocurrencies linked to Smart Contracts
In the smart contract sector, two cryptocurrencies stand out from the crowd. Firstly, the second most capitalized cryptocurrency on the market, Ethereum (ETH), remains the focus of investor interest, particularly since the so-called Shapella upgrade successfully took place on April 12. This upgrade of the Ethereum network removes ETH staked on the beacon chain. Secondly, Cardano (ADA) has also attracted clear interest, possibly due to technical developments such as the Hydra scaling solution and the CIP 1694 governance proposal reinforcing decentralization in terms of decision-making on the Cardano network.
3. DeFi cryptocurrencies
With some surprise, Terra Classic (LUNC) was the most consulted cryptocurrency in the DeFi sector. A concentration of investor interest around this cryptocurrency can be explained by events such as Binance's burn (destruction) of 2.65 billion LUNC tokens ($236,000), as well as the release of Alliance, a cross-chain yield exchange protocol.
4. AI & Big Data cryptocurrencies
Still booming, the AI and Big Data sector has regained prominence since June, and the cryptocurrencies that have benefited most are SingularityNET (AGIX) and Fetch.ai (FET), with a rebound of almost 40%. Artificial intelligence is a booming technology, and it's likely that AI-related projects will enjoy growing interest in the future.
Other interesting information
- Firstly, PEPE joined traditional memecoins DOGE and SHIB in the list of most added cryptos to Coinmarketcap's user watch list. Secondly, in addition to cryptocurrencies considered reliable and financially sound such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, other cryptocurrencies have captured the interest of investors. This is particularly the case for Layer 2 cryptocurrencies such as Polygon (MATIC) and Arbitrum (ARB), but also other Layer 1s such as BNB and Solana (SOL).
