Following a lackluster month in April, May saw further correction across cryptoasset sectors as they all fell a minimum of -17%. Layer 1, metaverse and meme coins declined the most at -43%, -42% and -39%, respectively.

How did major players in the crypto space cope? In Kraken Intelligence’s latest report, Hold Steady, the team unpacks what went down in crypto and what may lie ahead.

A month of red candles

Despite historically posting positive returns in May, BTC fell -16% over the course of the month to 10-month lows. BTC was also much more volatile in May, with an annualized volatility of 79%, as compared to April’s 49%. As BTC fell in May, stock market participants also felt the pain. Overall, BTC remained positively correlated with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 equity indices last month.

ETH posted losses of -29%, with annualized volatility leaping to 100%. However, this didn’t deter ETH whales, who added to their positions during the downturn.

DeFi assets saw major losses in May, ranging from -3% to -53%, as TerraUSD and its collateral asset, LUNA, collapsed in a death spiral. Meanwhile, privacy coins performed comparatively better, posting losses of -19% over the same period. 

NFT markets on OpenSea slowed down last month. While daily users fell -7% and daily transactions increased +1.1%, daily volume was hit the hardest, as it declined by over -87%.

It’s not all bad news

This broader market correction didn’t stop major players from making headlines for their investments across the crypto industry in May. Dapper Labs launched a $725M fund to invest in projects native to the Flow ecosystem and Andreessen Horowitz pledged $600M to back the development of metaverse gaming projects.

Kraken also announced the waitlist for its upcoming NFT marketplace, featuring zero gas fees while trading within Kraken NFT and built-in tools that track rarity scores.

Want to learn more about what went down and what’s ahead? Download the Kraken Intelligence report, Hold Steady, to understand what’s moving the crypto market.