Dappradar just released its February 2022 Dapp industry report and found steady activity across the blockchain and DeFi space in the face of bearish market conditions. Meanwhile, the NFT market appears to have entered a consolidation phase.
A quietly growing industry
According to DappRadar’s report, interest from governments and financial institutions in Web 3 technologies is on the rise. They are finding more and more use cases for blockchain and various ways to integrate it into today’s society.
Specifically, dApp usage is up 385% since February 2021 and is attracting 2.35 million unique active wallets (UAW) per day. Though usage is still technically down 5% from January, it holds remarkably steady given that crypto prices have been falling consistently since November. Last week, Bitcoin fell as low as $34k.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 has raised additional concern. However, after a brief downside, the crypto actually appears to be thriving during the dispute. Bitcoin is now trading above $43,000, making it more valuable than the crashing Russian Ruble.
Regarding NFTs, adoption remains on the rise even though trading volume is trending downwards. On-chain data suggests that unique traders and NFT sales counts have increased by 8% and 2% respectively, month over month. This indicates a growing user base, even though NFT sales shrunk by 28% to just $4 billion from the previous month.
Finally, DeFi adoption trends have seen some of the biggest shifts since November’s market peak. Custodial and investment banks including NBY Mellon, JP Morgan and Mitsubishi UFG have all confirmed their interest in crypto and DeFi applications.
Dappradar even named Canada’s freezing of bank accounts in February as a marketer for a more “decentralized ecosystem”.
“While the potential mass adoption of DeFi may seem far off compared to games and NFTs, these sorts of macro implications, along with a more mature DeFi ecosystem, can quickly change the narrative,” the report states.
Moving Away From Ethereum?
The report also highlighted the growth of NFTs, DeFi and Web 3 in ecosystems besides Ethereum. Though Ethereum continues to dominate these domains, alternative chains apparently “attract more users into their networks.” For example, Binance Smart Chain sees an average of 608,000 UAW connected to its network every day. Though impressive, that number is still down 17% from January.
Additionally, some of the most valuable and best-traded NFT collections are traded outside of Ethereum. These include Ronin’s Axie Infinity Collection and Crabada’s NFTs – a game to earn dapp on Avalanche. The Avalanche channel saw NFT volume increase by 25% MoM.
