October industry report confirms games can lead to mass adoption
The blockchain space continued its rapid expansion against a backdrop of leading cryptocurrencies reaching all-time highs, notably registering two million unique active wallets (UAW) interacting with dapps on a daily basis for the first time. This 21% month-on-month increase in UAW boosts the space’s annual growth up to an impressive 626% in October and sets the scene for yet another record-breaking quarter.
Blockchain gaming — now firmly established as the industry’s darling — once again accounted for the greatest portion of dapp activity. Nearly 1.2M UAW, or 55% of the total registered daily usage, was connected to game dapps in October. However, it was arguably Facebook’s rebranding announcement that stole the show in October. The news sent metaverse-related tokens skyrocketing, with Decentraland’s MANA up 303% since the announcement to reach a $4.11 all-time high, and Sandbox’s SAND up 125% to $2.35 since its September all-time high.
“October’s figures point in two directions: consolidation and diversification. The industry seems to be establishing itself firmly, cementing its positions — no longer are we seeing the steep, hype-driven spikes of the DeFi summer, nor of the onset of the NFT craze. Growth is stabilizing but maintaining a fast pace. At the same time, the space remains fluid and dynamic, consistently branching out into new markets, product configurations, and uses. Judging by this promising start to the quarter, I would expect to see new all-time highs across dapp segments by end of the year and mass adoption within 2022,” said Modesta Masoit, Head of Finance and Research at DappRadar
Blockchain’s original darling — DeFi — saw renewed interest in October following a Q3 focused on NFTs and games. The category marked the greatest improvement in terms of usage at 32% month-on-month and an 803,500 daily UAW average as blockchains like Solana, Terra, Avalanche, and Fantom established themselves as solid DeFi ecosystems.
Having accumulated over $10.6 billion in the past quarter, the NFT segment kept its pace with more than $4.2 billion traded in October alone. As NFTs continue to capture public attention, the market cap for the 100 most traded collections on Ethereum and Flow’s NBA Top Shot grew substantially, gaining 18% in September to reach capitalization just shy of $17 billion.
Besides the news of Coinbase branching out into NFTs, which will indisputably contribute to the growth of the segment, another announcement that promises to propel non-fungible tokens on a scale not seen before is Bollywood and cricket stars entering the market. This will likely not only strengthen India-based Polygon’s NFT offering, but also expose the NFT market beyond a very US-concentrated base. The effect of celebrity endorsement in India — the fifth wealthiest country with a population of 1.38 billion — is certainly one to monitor in the months to come.
The state of the dapp industry today is more exciting than ever as all three main categories experience organic growth in both usage and value at a rate not observed before. While games remain the main driver, a bigger metaverse vision is emerging as gaming, DeFi and NFTs increasingly intersect.