Crypto markets climbed in April, with total market capitalization rising by $200bn to $2.63tn by month-end, even as decentralized finance (DeFi) activity slowed and DEX volumes declined.
Crypto Added $200bn in April Even as Onchain Activity Lagged
1 May 2026 - 22:16 CEST
By Jona Jaupi
Among large-cap assets, Bitcoin (BTC) rose nearly 14% during the month to around $78,000, while Ether (ETH) gained 7.7% to $2,300. XRP rose 3% to $1.39 and Solana (SOL) slipped about 1.3% to $84.
Altcoins also rose, with total altcoin market cap increasing from $1.05tn to $1.10tn. However, there were sharp swings during the month, including a mid-April spike and pullback, CoinGecko data shows.
Bitcoin's share of the market rose slightly from 56.5% to nearly 58%, while Ether's share edged lower to 10.4%.
Altcoin top gainers and losers
Zcash (ZEC) was the top gainer among larger-cap altcoins, rising 59% to $391 over the month. Morpho (MORPHO) climbed 28% to $1.99 and MemeCore (M) rounded out the top three, gaining 22.5% to $2.96.
Dogecoin (DOGE) also moved higher, rising 16.4% to $0.1087 and outperforming the majority of memecoins.
On the downside, World Liberty Financial (WLFI) dropped 45% to $0.054, marking the largest decline. Bittensor (TAO) slipped 15.3% to $273.58, while Uniswap (UNI) dropped 11% to $3.24.
April ETF flows
In the exchange-traded fund (ETF) space, US spot Bitcoin ETFs brought in about $1.97bn in net inflows in April, pushing total assets to $100.5bn.
Ether ETFs added about $355.9mn, with total assets reaching $13.25bn.
Flows into smaller ETFs were more limited: XRP products saw about $81.6mn in inflows, with total assets hovering at $1.04bn. Solana ETFs added roughly $38.7mn, with total assets of just under $850mn.
DeFi and stablecoins
By contrast, the exploit-hit DeFi sector lagged behind, with market cap rising only slightly, from $87bn to $90bn. Meanwhile, DeFi total value locked (TVL) dropped by $10bn from $94bn to $84bn, according to DeFiLlama.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) activity also weakened. Trading volume totalled about $166.8bn over the past 30 days, with weekly volume down around 30%.
Stablecoins, on the other hand, continued to grow steadily, with total stablecoin market cap increasing from $316bn to $320bn over the month.
Tether's USDT, specifically rose from roughly $184bn to $189bn, while Circle's USDC held near $77bn. Other stablecoins, including Ethena's USDe, were mostly flat.
The divergence between rising market prices and declining onchain activity suggests April's gains were driven more by capital inflows than by increased onchain trading.
Record-breaking exploits
As mentioned above, the month was also defined by a record number of exploits, recording more than two dozen attacks that totalled more than $630mn.
The two largest exploits targeted liquid restaking protocol Kelp for around $293mn and Solana-based perpetuals exchange Drift Protocol for $285mn. Both of the attacks were linked to the North Korean state-backed hackers, Lazarus Group.
April's plethora of exploits highlighted the persistent security risks across crypto and DeFi, even as prices recover.
