Chainalysis: Cryptocurrency economic activity decreased by only 1.6% in a year, with a market value shrinkage of 2.1 trillion USD

According to The Block, based on the seventh annual Geographies report by blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, during the 12 months ending June 30, 2026, the scale of global cryptocurrency economic activity shrank by only 1.6%, from $9.5 trillion to $9.4 trillion. During the same period, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market fell by about 50%, shrinking by $2.1 trillion, marking the most severe cryptocurrency bear market since 2022. The report states that the decline in economic activity is much smaller than the decline in market capitalization.

Capital flows showed divergence. Funds flowing into exchanges, DeFi protocols, and other cryptocurrency services decreased by 4.3% to $8.9 trillion; domestic P2P transfers surged by 302.9% to $228.7 billion; cross-border stablecoin flows grew by 77.5%, rising from $124.2 billion to $220.3 billion. Chainalysis noted that its cross-border statistics are somewhat conservative, as they exclude transfers where the sending and receiving countries cannot be confirmed, and pointed out that this growth comes from payments averaging about $3,000, which are far from institutional levels and more aligned with everyday use cases such as personal payments to vendors, cross-border remittances, or transferring savings.

Stablecoins demonstrated better value retention during the market capitalization decline compared to other cryptocurrency assets, with global on-chain balances dropping from $860 billion in September 2025 to $440 billion in June 2026, while stablecoin balances remained between $98 billion and $109 billion during this period.