Crypto asset prices crashed in early May, when BTC fell nearly -32% from $39,500 to $27,000 within a week.

Could this be the beginning of a long crypto winter? Or do the on-chain metrics tell a different story? In Kraken Intelligence’s latest report, Survival Mode, the team investigates key on-chain data points to explore where the crypto market stands today and what may lie ahead.

State of the market

Over the last month, crypto assets slumped as U.S. inflation rates continued to hover around 40-year highs. Russia’s ongoing military operations in Ukraine also contributed to the risk-off sentiment across financial markets. The Terra ecosystem also experienced a large-scale death spiral in May, further contributing to broad-based declines.

While BTC/USD trended lower in May, altcoins performed worse, leading the crypto market lower across almost all assets. Overall, altcoin dominance (the ratio between the market capitalization of a crypto asset to the total market cap of the entire crypto market) also fell year-to-date. ADA dominance rose month-over-month in May, while ALGO saw the smallest dominance decline, followed by DOT, ETH, NEAR, SOL and AVAX.

On-chain fundamentals

Network transaction volume continues to present mixed sentiment. Since January 2022, on-chain volume for ADA has seen a strong upward trend, while BTC, ETH, DOT, DOGE and ALGO saw on-chain volume fall. 

New addresses and active addresses also reflect mixed sentiment of on-chain demand, leaning negative. While SOL active addresses rose, signaling network demand from existing and new market participants, BTC, ETH, AVAX, ADA, ALGO and DOT saw a drop in active addresses.

Want to learn more about on-chain activity in May and what’s ahead? Download the Kraken Intelligence report Survival Mode, in which the team explores the crypto fundamentals and on-chain data that shaped the market in May.