Games Are Propelling Growth in the Dapps Sphere as DeFi, NFT Lose Pace
The gaming industry is spurring growth in the blockchain-powered decentralized app (dapp) sector with decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) losing ground, per a new report.
After months of near-continuous growth, the number of unique active wallets (UAW) associated with DeFi slumped by 11% on Q2 in the third quarter of the current financial year, DappRadar said in their new report. NFT-linked UAWs saw a smaller fall of 2% from the previous quarter.
But gaming continues to drive usage within the blockchain industry, the company stated – with UAWs “connecting to game dapps” increasing by a whopping 140% quarter-on-quarter.
While the report’s authors noted that trading volumes were still on the rise in the NFT space and that DeFi was enjoying “increased availability,” “usage decreased” in “both categories,” while “there is a clear decrease in the launch of DeFi dapps.”
By contrast, gaming ventures have made massive strides, particularly the Axie Infinity (AXS) title.
Per its maker Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity has now “surpassed 1.5 million active users” and generated “over USD 776 million in revenues,” a figure that, DappRadar noted “easily” surpassed “entire blockchains like the Binance Smart Chain and Bitcoin.”
Trading volumes were equally meteoric. Last month, Axie Infinity went past the USD 2bn mark for all-time trading volume, a feat as yet unmatched by any other dapp. The game’s trading volume is now edging toward the USD 2.2bn mark.
“To put that in perspective,” DappRadar remarked, “The closest collection is CryptoPunks, lagging USD 800 million behind.”
The firm hinted that the move to the Ronin sidechain it has created on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has helped Axie Infinity on its path to greater success.
And DappRadar appeared to suggest that without the game industry, NFTs might well be lagging yet further behind.
The company wrote:
“NFTs are one of the main backbones in blockchain games. In contrast to traditional games, NFT allows blockchain gamers a true sense of ownership [for] their playing items. And they have become a fundamental part of the NFT space as a whole.”
The data in the report showed that in Q3, in-game NFT items “generated USD 2.3bn in trading volume” – a figure that accounts for a massive 22% of total NFT volume for the quarter.
But it certainly was not all doom and gloom for the DeFi space.
The DeFi space has some USD 178bn in total value locked – although over 92% of that is “locked-in” to just “six blockchains.” However, existing DeFi dapps appear to have gained ground at the end of the previous quarter, since when the DeFi sector’s cumulative locked-in figure has grown “by 104%, reaching a peak of USD 195bn on September 6.”
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Learn more:
– Blockchain Gaming ‘May be Key to Mass Adoption’, Outpacing DeFi, NFTs
– Blockchain Users Shift Focus Towards Dapp Gaming
– Axie Infinity Goes Parabolic on DEX News, Staking Implementation
– Axie Infinity Hitting Major Milestones One After The Other
– Crypto-Gaming Is Exploding Into the Playful Future
– Justin Sun Ventures Into GameFi Projects With USD 300M TRON Arcade Fund
