DappRadar Q1 Research: DeFi TVL over $83 billion; NFT volume doubled

Original title: DeFi TVL passes $83 billion; NFT trading volume doubles; OpenSea Loses Market Dominance

Source: DappRadar

原文编译： 比推 BitpushNews

Summary of key points

In the first quarter of 2023, the number of unique active wallets (Duaws) interacting with dapps on a daily on-chain basis decreased by 9.7% compared to the previous quarter.

DeFi's total lock-up value (TVL) increased 37.44 per cent quarter-on-quarter to US $83.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023.

ARB airdrops were initiated on 23 March, resulting in the arbitrations. Daily trading volume reached a record 2,728,907, surpassing Ethereum and Optimism.

Social based DApps registered 210,600 Duaws in the quarter, up 2,250 percent from Q3 last year; Social dapp accounts for DappRadar  12% of the activity on the chain.

NFT had a strong first quarter in 2023, with volumes growing 137.04% to $4.7 billion, the highest level since the second quarter of 2022. However, monthly transactions fell 15.65 percent to $1.7 billion in March, while monthly sales fell 4.63 percent to $2.7 million.

OpenSea lost its NFT market dominance in the first quarter of 2023, with its market cap ratio at its lowest since February 2021.

Hackers and exploits lost $373 million in the first quarter of 2023, down 92.60% from $5 billion in the previous quarter.

1. Overview of Dapp industry

After a vibrant quarter for the dapp industry, the number of daily unique active wallets (DuAWs) that interact with decentralized applications fell 9.7 percent compared to the previous quarter. An average of 1,735,570 wallets are connected to Dapps every day, and despite the decline, certain subcategories and blockchains are still showing growth.

Blockchain gaming continues to dominate the industry, with an average dUAW of 791,474 in Q1, down 8.58% from the previous quarter. The category dominates the industry by 45.6%. DeFi, on the other hand, recorded an average dUAW of 399,522 in Q1 in 2023, down 14.73% month-on-month, and dominated the dapp industry by 23%.

Social Dapps have become one of the most popular verticals in the industry. The category, which includes all Web3 platforms for social networking, messaging, and content creation, had an average of 210,644 DuAws in the first quarter of 2023. The category was down 4.9% compared to the previous quarter, but has grown a staggering 2,250 percent since Q3 2022, with social Dapps now accounting for 12 percent of activity on the DappRadar chain.

On blockchain, BNB Chain  Remained the most active blockchain in the quarter, averaging 449,543 dUAW, despite a 28.62% sequential decline. This was followed by Wax, which increased 9 percent over the past three months to an average of 397,273 dUAW.   Polygon  Experienced a strong quarter, with the number of unique active wallets per day growing 25.93% to 197,343 unique wallets per day.

The best performer for the quarter, however, was Arbitrum, which increased 125.83 percent to an average of 46,071 dUAW. We can attribute this growth to the Arbitrum airdrop in March, which incentivised users to interact with the blockchain. We will analyze these numbers and the Arbitrum ecosystem in the following sections.

2. DeFi TVL soared to $83.3 billion, Layer2s trending upward

The DeFi sector has been in the spotlight in the first quarter of 2023, with DeFi's total lock-up value (TVL) reaching $83.3 billion at the end of the quarter. This represents a significant increase of 37.44 per cent from the previous quarter, indicating a growing interest in decentralized finance. The popularity of expanded solutions such as Arbitrum, Fantom and Optimism has contributed. Notably, Ethereum's price is up 48% this quarter, to $1,803 at the time of writing.

This quarter, one of the main factors driving the hype around DeFi was the highly anticipated Arbitrum airdrop, which attracted a lot of attention from traders. However, on March 11, the SVB collapsed and the subsequent   USDC  Following the decoupling, the DeFi market experienced a sharp decline in TVL, falling 9.6% from $79.28 billion to $71.61 billion. This caused panic among investors, leading to heavy selling and a drop in TVL.

Fortunately, on March 13th the USDC reserve deposits held by Silicon Valley banks were fully opened to the public, which helped to stabilise the market. The announcement sent DeFi TVL soaring 13 per cent to $81.15 billion, but most importantly, it helped the market regain trust quickly and showed robustness along the way.

In terms of the top blockchain protocol in the DeFi space, Ethereum dominates with its $55.8 billion TVL. It grew by 48.32% from the previous quarter, accounting for 66.95% of the whole DeFi TVL.

BNB Chain was second with a 20.69% increase to $7.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023. PancakeSwap  Still the most used dapp in the industry, UAW 1.37 million in March. Tron remains TVL's third-largest blockchain, valued at $5.2 billion, growing by 17.55 percent in the SEC's charges against Sun and the Tron Foundation (including charges that TRX is a security). Despite this, TVL has remained fairly stable.

Arbitrum and Optimism maintained their position in the TVL Blockchain top 10, and their dominance continues to increase. Arbitrum was one of the top performers in the quarter, growing 118.40 percent to $3.2 billion. Optimism this quarter reached $1 billion, up 85% over the previous quarter. This shows that the Layer-2 solution is in. DeFi  The field is becoming more and more popular.

Surprisingly, Solana  TVL rose by 127.05% to $791 million. This growth appears to be driven by the recent launch of the DAO building tool SPL Governance, which has seen its TVL reach $179.75 million. In addition, Solana's token SOL grew 115% in the quarter.

On March 23, the much-anticipated Arbitrum token drop took place, sparking a frenzy in the crypto community. Ethereum's Layer 2 expansion solution distributed more than 1 billion ARB tokens to more than 600,000 users, keeping the token's market cap steady near $1.5 billion. Between Claims and the opening of the Trading model, daily trading volume on March 23 was 2,728,907, surpassing Ethereum or Optimism.

While the token's price peaked at $11.80 on launch day, it has since stabilized around $1.23, and its current market value puts it ahead of its closest competitor, Optimism.

In addition to individual users, ARB tokens will also be distributed to the most successful decentralized applications (dapps) in the ecosystem. In recent months, Uniswap, Aave  And popular Web3 companies like OpenSea have moved to Arbitrum to take advantage of its similarity to the Ethereum blockchain architecture.

One of Arbitrum's most successful projects is the Decentralized Trading Platform (DEX)  GMX, which allows its users to make leveraged trades through financial instruments called perpetual futures. In addition, GMX has positioned itself as the leader in Arbitrum's DeFi sector, accounting for more than 80% of all TVLS. There are also Treasure , dapps dedicated to games and NFT; It quickly became a well-known Web3 game studio in the industry.

Arbitrum's token distribution is not limited to users and DApps, but also distributed to the community through DAOs. The Arbitrum Foundation aims to decentralize its network, giving the community control over its ecosystem and technology. This airdrop and DAO are just a few of its many initiatives to provide a voice to all sub-communities.

Note that all investor and team tokens are subject to a four-year lockup period, with the first unlock occurring within one year and monthly for the remaining three years.

Arbitrum's potential as a scalable solution for Ethereum is undeniable, and airdrops and ARB tokens could help it make significant headway. However, users must remain cautious to avoid falling victim to phishing scams and other scams.

3. The Future of Social Networking: How can Social Dapps lead Web3

Social DApps are becoming a new trend in the blockchain industry, with more and more decentralized applications being developed to facilitate social interaction and collaboration between users. These dapps leverage blockchain technology to ensure data privacy, security and transparency, and provide features such as user profiles, messaging systems and content sharing capabilities.

Hooked  Is one of the leading social Dapps, it is a BNB-based dapp with an average of 120,584 Unique active Wallets (Duaws) per day in the first quarter of 2023.

Hooked is a community-driven social protocol that provides a gamified experience and integrates wallets and decentralized identifiers (DIDs) into its ecosystem.   Galxe  Is another popular social dapp with 39,953 DuAWs designed to build an open and collaborative credential data network accessible to all developers in Web3.

It has 30,407 dUAW. CyberConnect  Is a decentralized social graph protocol that enables users to create a profile on the BNB Chain as an anchor for their decentralized identity.   Lens Protocol  With an average of 3,146 Duaws, it provides a platform for decentralized communities to create and manage their own governance mechanisms.

And finally, 2,405 dUAW. Phi  It is a system based on   ENS  And a social platform for on-chain/off-chain wallet activities, which can realize the visualization of on-chain identity.

The emergence of social Dapps is a significant development for the blockchain industry, as it represents a shift towards web3 and data ownership. These DApps provide users with greater control over their data and enable them to interact and collaborate in a decentralized and secure manner. As the industry continues to evolve, we can expect to see more social Dapps emerge and further change the way we interact and communicate online.

4. NFT is off to a wild start, with sales of $4.7 billion

The NFT market is off to a good start this year, with Q1 2023 the best quarter since Q2 2022. Although volumes fell slightly in March, the overall performance was bright.

The NFT market grew 137% in volume in the first quarter to a total value of $4.7 billion. In February because ofBlur  After token inflation, trading volume fell 15.65 percent in March. In March, NFT sales fell only 4.63 per cent to 2.7 million. However, total NFT sales in the first quarter of 2023 were 19.4 million, up 8.56% from the fourth quarter of 2022.

Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain in the NFT market by volume, accounting for 89.50 percent of the market in March. In addition, Ethereum's quarterly transaction volume increased 245.43% to $4.1 billion in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

CryptoPunks  Was the most traded NFT series on Ethereum, trading $241 million, up 1,214 percent month-on-month. March 2023, Yuga Labs  The number of NFT collections in Ethereum is dominant, accounting for 38.61% of the total NFT on Ethereum and 34.55% of the entire NFT industry.

Surprisingly, Solana came in second with $242 million in transactions, up 4.55 percent month-on-month. The NFT collection Monkey Kingdom boosted the Solana NFT agreement in March, with trading volume reaching $7.9 million, doubling from February. Back in December, two of Solana's most popular NFT series announced that they would be Bridges between Ethereum and Polygon, March 27, DeGods  And   y00ts  One of the co-founders of y00ts announced the first sale of Y00Ts on Polygon, marking a successful bridging of one of the series.

In addition, Polygon is off to a good start this year, with trading volume of $29.8 million in March, albeit down 24.20 percent from the previous month. However, looking at quarterly figures, it traded $85 million in the first quarter of 2023, up 125.04 percent quarter-on-quarter and one of the best quarters since the fourth quarter of 2021.

Polygon's popularity among NFT creators has been growing in recent months. This is because of its low fees and fast transaction times compared to other blockchains, making it an attractive option for those looking to launch and trade NFT. In addition to this, on March 8th, cryptocurrency trading platform Binance announced the launch. Binance NFT, the Polygon network has been incorporated into its market-supported blockchain.

Overall, the overall performance of the NFT market in Q1 2023 was remarkable, with a sequential growth of 137.04%. The dominant position of Taifang and the increasing popularity of Polygon became the main highlight of NFT market performance in the first quarter.

5. Challenge the leaders: Blur vs. OpenSea

The NFT market is growing rapidly with the emergence of new players. First quarter 2023 Blur  Dominated the NFT market and increased trading volume and market dominance. The market's trading volume was 2.7 billion dollars, up 783.89 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022, and the market share was 57.44 percent. Blur dominated 70.5 per cent of the market in March, despite a 6.56 per cent drop in transactions to $1.2bn.

Blur's rise is due to its unique features and products. One of the big reasons professional traders are flocking to Blur is that it promises users that it will reward them with future airdrops of BLUR tokens, totaling about 300 million BLUR during the next gift-giving "season." The token has a fully diluted market value of $2.5 billion and the Blur team is more than willing to use its financial clout to entice NFT traders to stick with them.

On the other hand, OpenSea, once the market leader in NFT, now faces stiff competition from Blur. In Q1 2023, OpenSea recorded 68.41% quarter-on-quarter growth, with $1.4 billion in transactions and 31.10% market share. In March, however, OpenSea's transaction volume fell 35% to $381 million, giving it a 22% market dominance. That's the smallest market share since February 2021.

The local market for the CryptoPunks NFT series became one of the best performing NFT markets in March, with $30m of transactions. This is a 90.46 percent increase from the previous month and the highest amount since July 2022.

It is worth mentioning that CryptoPunks is currently doing a lot of trading activity in the Blur market. According to the most recent data, a staggering 87% of the total volume of CryptoPunks transactions took place on Blur, reaching a staggering $216 million. More interestingly, the average transaction size on Blur was 7.34% lower than the CryptoPunk native NFT market, with an average transaction size of $114,453.69.

While Blur's rise has been impressive, the market needs to be careful about how it manages its user base and senses its loyalty.

More importantly, there is the knock-on effect of Blur's rise to dominance in other areas to consider. The NFT world should celebrate the fact that there is such a dedicated and creative platform dedicated to meeting the needs of traders. Still, big problems can start to surface when one market or user thrives at the direct or indirect expense of another.

Blur claims OpenSea is a centralized competitor in the NFT ecosystem, but having a group of only a few hundred NFT whales pay royalties and market dominance isn't the most decentralized system either. The Web3 ecosystem needs to ensure that it is innovative and meets the needs of everyone in the space, not just professional traders. Instead of them wondering which platform will cash out royalties for their work and in what way, there would be a decentralized way for artists and project leaders to take control themselves.

All in all, Blur's rise to dominance of the NFT market in the first quarter of 2023 is impressive. However, the NFT ecosystem needs to ensure that it meets the needs of everyone in the field, not just professional traders. The focus needs to be on the long-term growth and sustainability of ecosystems, not just short-term gains.

6. $373 million was lost to hacking and exploitation in the first quarter of 2023

According to REKT Database, the total amount of money lost to hacks and exploits in the first quarter of 2023 was $373 million, down 92.60% from $5 billion in the previous quarter. However, this does not mean that the crypto market is completely free of security issues.

One of the most famous hacks in the first quarter was against Euler  Finance, which resulted in the theft of millions of dollars in various cryptocurrencies. Attackers stole nearly $196 million, including. DAI, USD Coin, StETH and   Wrapped Bitcoin  (WBTC). The attack was carried out through a lightning loan attack, which uses a multi-link bridge to transfer funds from the BNB smart chain to Ethereum. The money is then deposited into an encrypted mixer. Tornado Cash, making it difficult to track and recover stolen money. According to   BlockSec  Euler Bug user returned 51,000 ETH to Euler Finance on 25 March. However, some of the money remains in the hands of the hackers.

The other major hack in the first quarter was... BonqDAO  And   AllianceBlock  Exploit, attackers manipulate BonqDAO price predictor to raise WALBT prices. This manipulation allowed the attackers to mint more than 100 million BEUR, which was then used to manipulate WALBT prices and clear multiple money pools. The attackers were able to withdraw the illegal proceeds, totaling 113.8 million WALBT and 98 million BEUR, valued at more than $10 million.

Interestingly, more than half of the hacks that took place in the first quarter were on the BNB Chain, with 18.2% on Ethereum and 9.1% on Polygon. This highlights the need for enhanced security measures along these chains and extra vigilance for users when conducting transactions.

Notably, January 2023 was one of the lowest months for hacking, with a total loss of $14.6 million. This could be a positive sign that the industry is taking security more seriously and implementing better measures to prevent hacks and exploit vulnerabilities.

7.Q1 blockchain game dominance increased to 45.60%

The blockchain gaming industry has been growing steadily over the past few years, and the first three months of 2023 are no exception. Despite a slight decline in March in the number of daily independent active wallets (DuAWs) that interact on-chain with game Dapps, the industry has generally increased its dominance over the past quarter.

In March, the number of daily active wallets interacting with game dapp chains was 741,567, down 3.33% from the previous month. In terms of quarterly performance, there was a decrease of 8.58% quarter-on-quarter, with an average connection of 865,783 dUAW. While these numbers may seem disappointing, it must be considered that the industry is still relatively new and evolving.

Blockchain gaming showed bullish signs of growth in the first quarter of 2023, with dominance increasing from 42.87% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 45.60% in the first quarter of 2023. This means that despite the decrease in the number of Duaws, blockchain games become part of a larger part of the Web3 ecosystem.

8. Silicon Valley bank failures spur demand for Stablecoin regulation

The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sparked a discussion about the need for Stablecoin regulation. Stablecoins are digital currencies backed by reserve assets, usually dollars, and designed to maintain a stable value. By   Circle  USDC, issued by Financial, is one of the leaders in the $100 billion-plus stablecoin market. However, when the SVB collapsed, Circle revealed it had $3.3 billion in deposits in the closed bank, causing the stablecoin to fall below the dollar peg, as low as 88 cents, for about three days.

The incident highlights the fact that the stablecoin market desperately needs a set of rules of the road. While Circle and other stablecoins claim to hold one-to-one collateral for every digital dollar they mint, Circle holds $11 billion

Uninsured bank accounts, which are not as safe as thought. Tether, on the other hand, has publicly acknowledged that its billions of Stablecoin reserves are held in corporate bonds, secured loans, precious metals and even other cryptocurrencies.

9. Conclusion

After a vibrant first quarter of 2023, the dapp industry has seen quite a bit of ups and downs. Still, on-chain indicators and market trends suggest that the crypto space is poised for growth and the future remains bright.

The number of daily unique active wallets (DuAWs) interacting on-chain with Dapps decreased by 14.07% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter. However, in spite of the decline, the total value of DeFi lock-ups (TVL) increased to $83.3bn, demonstrating the resilience of the decentralised financial sector.

Meanwhile, the NFT market performed strongly in the first quarter of 2023, with volume growing 137.04% to $4.7 billion, the highest level since the second quarter of 2022. Despite a slight decline in March, NFT continues to attract attention from investors and collectors.

A notable trend in the first quarter of 2023 is the increasing dominance of blockchain gaming, which now accounts for 45.60% of all on-chain activity. Platforms like ImmutableX and Polygon are leading the way in gaming, and their partnerships and innovations are paving the way for the future of Web3 gaming.

However, the crypto space is not without its challenges. In the first quarter of 2023, $373 million was lost due to hacking and exploit. This represents a sharp decline of 92.60 percent from $5 billion in the previous quarter, showing the resilience and adaptability of the blockchain ecosystem.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank also highlights the need for Stablecoin regulation. As more traditional financial institutions enter the crypto space, we must develop clear guidelines and regulations to ensure market stability and security.

Despite these challenges, the overall mood in the cryptocurrency market is optimistic and bullish. The first quarter of 2023 demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of the blockchain ecosystem, with on-chain indicators and market trends suggesting the future remains bright.

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