Dappradar Report Shows Blockchain Gaming Thrived Amid FTX Collapse, Sector Accounted for 46% of All Network Activity

December 1, 2022 Bitcoin.com

NFTs still in ‘great demand’ as unique traders rise 18% in Oct: DappRadar

November 4, 2022 Coin Telegraph

A DappRadar report found that despite a fall in NFT trading volumes and sales counts throughout October, monthly unique traders increased.

October may have seen a decline in nonfungible token (NFT) trading volume and sales, but analytics firm DappRadar says an 18% growth in monthly unique NFT traders shows the market is still in “great demand.”

According to a Nov. 3 report from DappRadar, the number of monthly unique NFT traders in October reached 1.11 million, increasing 18% from September, of approximately 950,000.

This is despite trading volumes falling 30% to $662 million in October, the lowest registered in 2022, while the sales count decreased by 30% to 6.13 million, the firm said, adding:

“The rise in the unique traders’ count indicates that new people are entering the NFT market, and it is still in great demand.”

*Number of monthly unique NFT traders (millions). Source: DappRadar*

The month was a busy one for the NFT community.

At least two more NFT marketplaces shift to an optional royalty model, including Solana-based Magic Eden and Ethereum-based LooksRare.

The report also highlighted that Yuga Labs has continued to dominate the NFT market, with seven of the top ten sales for the month coming from CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Of these sales, CryptoPunk#924 was the most valuable, selling for a whopping 475 ETH on Oct. 27, which is valued at $731,435 at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s NFT trading volume continued to decline for the second straight quarter, falling 21% over the last month to $324 million, which represents the lowest volume registered by DappRadar since June 2021.

In brighter news, Polygon’s NFT trading volume has spiked 770% over the last month, driven by the success of the Reddit NFT collections as the main driver behind the surge, according to Dappradar.

Since their launch in July, more than 2.9 million Reddit avatars have been minted which have found their way into more than 2.8 million wallets, with Dune analytics data suggesting October finished with the collection having a sales volume of $10.1 million.

The trading volume seems likely to continue increasing for the layer-2 solution over the next month, with Meta announcing on Nov. 2 that Polygon would be its initial partner for its upcoming NFT tools.

The report also mentioned that Dogecoin had been the best-performing token of the month, closing the month 50% higher than when it began and citing Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and the announcement of Dogechain’s future roadmap as the drivers.

It also highlighted an increase in the average number of unique active wallets, up 6.84% from the previous month. DappRadar pointed to staking provider Lido being incorporated within Arbitrum and Optimism as well as a partnership between the NEAR Foundation and Google Cloud as the drivers for this increase.

Metaverse trading volume plummeted 80% but hype hasn’t decreased

October 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A DappRadar report found that while trading volumes have taken a sharp hit during Q3, the average number of NFT sales for these 10 projects only decreased by 11.55%.

Third-quarter trading volume for the top 10 Metaverse projects may have fallen 80% compared to the second quarter, but analytics firm Dappradar suggests that interest in virtual worlds still remains.

The Metaverse sector has been hit with a fair amount of negative press as of late, particularly around suggested low user activity across certain platforms, such as Decentraland and Meta — reports which they have refuted.

DappRadar noted in an Oct. 20 report that while trading volumes have taken a sharp hit during Q3, the average number of NFT sales for these 10 projects only decreased by 11.55% compared to Q2.

DappRadar explains that lower trading volumes could merely reflect decreasing asset prices and not necessarily lack of interest, noting that:

“We consider this a bullish sign because it shows that the hype for these types of projects hasn’t decreased. Instead, the fall of cryptocurrency prices has affected the projects’ overall trading volume instead of a lack of interest.”

A caveat to these sentiments however, is that eight of the top 10 Metaverse projects saw significant decreases in their NFT sales counts during Q3, with Yuga Labs’ Otherside seeing a 74% decrease for the quarter.

The positive action was primarily driven by The Sandbox and former Minecraft-based platform NFT Worlds V2, which saw NFT sale count increases of 190% and 79% apiece.

DappRadar attributed this to the hype surrounding The Sandbox’s Alpha Season 3 which offers a host of new gaming experiences and collectibles. While NFT Worlds V2 being booted off of Minecraft may have been seen as a “buying opportunity” as the value of its NFTs dropped by 90% in Q3.

Virtual lands floor prices plummet

Meanwhile, DappRadar’s report indicated that the floor prices for NFT land plots had decreased by 75% on average, which may have been one of the reasons why trading volumes had decreased by so much.

While the value of any piece of real estate, virtual or otherwise, is subject to swings, “Metaverse real estate is currently very depreciated,” DappRadar stated, adding that the declining prices are in accordance with the broader bear market of the crypto sector.

DappRadar was forced to defend its metaverse data last week, which had been interpreted to mean that platforms such as Decentraland had less than 40 daily active users.

The firm alsnoted that its user data tool only tracks users’ interaction with a blockchain, usually in the case of transactions, and did not count “non-blockchain-based activities” such as non-spending users.

The Sandbox tweeted on Oct. 10 that it had hit 39,000 daily active users, and 201,000 monthly active users over the previous 30 days.

Decentraland also reported having 8,000 daily active users and 56,697 monthly active users as of Oct. 8.

Metaverse platforms refute ‘misinformation’ about daily active users

October 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

User data from DappRadar consists of metaverse users who have also made an in-game purchase with the project's native token, but the Decentraland and Sandbox projects disagree with that criteria.

Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based Metaverse projects Decentraland (MANA) and Sandbox (SAND) have hit back at reports suggesting low daily user activity on platforms, arguing a “misinformed” metric was used to measure each of the platforms' Daily Active Users (DAU).

The controversy appears to have come from data originating from DappRadar, with observers suggesting the Decentraland metaverse sees 30 Daily Active Users despite having over $1.2 billion in market cap.

Decentraland ( $MANA ) has 30 Daily Active Users

and a $1.2 Billion Market Cap pic.twitter.com/u4MBNsWvwk
— SHAKE (@0x_shake) October 6, 2022

However, Decentraland said in an Oct. 8 tweet that “some websites are tracking only specific smart contract transactions but reporting them as daily active users […] which is inaccurate.”

Sandbox CEO Arthur Madrid tweeted on Oct. 10 that “on chain transactions does not mean Users” and that nonfungible token (NFT) owners “invest in an asset that will grow in value over time based Utilities.”

In its tweet, Decentraland said “better data” can be found at DCL Metrics, a data aggregator custom-built for Decentraland, which measures DAUs by the number of “people who login and then move out of a parcel.”

This distinction is significant, as Decentraland’s September data shows 56,700 Monthly Active Users but only 1,074, or 1.89% of those users actually interacted with Decentraland’s smart contracts.

Let's have a look at some of September's data:

56,697 MAU
1,074 Users interacting with smart contracts
1,732 minted Emotes
6,315 sold Wearables
300 Creators received royalties
161 created Community Events
148 DAO Proposals
— Decentraland (@decentraland) October 7, 2022

Similarly, Sandbox refuted data suggesting its platform has a low number of DAUs, stating on Twitter that it has 201,000 Monthly Active Users.

But while this shows blockchain data should never be interpreted without context, it appears as though user experience and engagement are the biggest cause for concern according to a recent Reddit thread.

The thread saw one poster refer to Decentraland as “Desertedland,” while another poster said the popular Metaverse game had become a “ghost town.”

The controversy comes as even the most legitimate Metaverse projects face unprecedented pressures in the current bear market — which has caused a steep drop in token prices.

Decentraland’s MANA is currently priced at $0.65, down 88.8% from its all-time high (ATH) of $5.85 with a market cap of $1.43 billion.

Meanwhile Sandbox’s SAND is priced at $0.78, down 90.6% from its ATH of $8.40, with a market cap of $2.36 billion. Both MANA and SAND are down more than 5% over the last 24 hours.

30-Day NFT Sales Are 88% Lower Than They Were 8 Months Ago, Google Searches Nosedived

October 9, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Dappradar’s Q3 Industry Report Shows Crypto Economy and Participants Are ‘Riding Out the Bear Market’

October 8, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Report: On-chain data points to crypto consolidation in Q3

October 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The latest quarterly report from DappRadar highlights a period of consolidation across the cryptocurrency ecosystem following a turbulent Q2.

A third quarter industry report from DappRadar citing on-chain metrics suggests cryptocurrency markets are showing signs of recovery from ongoing bearing market conditions.

A number of factors played their part in a busy third quarter of 2022, with Ethereum’s Merge marking a successful shift to proof-of-stake having a notable influence on layer 2 activity before the event. The report also highlights a slight recovery in the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization, which still sits below the $1 trillion mark.

Quarter three data reflected an 8.5% increase in the total crypto market cap from July to the end of September 2022. The Decentralized Finance space also showed signs of consolidation, with the total value locked (TVL) in the space increasing by 2.9% in the third quarter to $69 billion. Ethereum continues to account for the bulk of TVL, with $48 billion locked in smart contracts.

Dappradar also highlights a 12% increase in unique active wallets across the cryptocurrency ecosystem quarter-on-quarter, adding up to 1.8 million. The Blockchain gaming sector contributed significantly, with unique wallet addresses increasing by 8% from August to September.

ImmutableX saw its unique active wallets grow by 30% during the same time period and recorded an 87% growth in NFT trading volume from the previous quarter while Polygon followed a similar trajectory, seeing its unique active wallets increase by 17% to 148,000.

The number of nonfungible token (NFTs) trades increased by 11% from the second quarter of 2022 while Ethereum’s NFT trading volume was down by a large margin of 76%. Third quarter NFT trading volume totalled $2.71 billion, which still marks a significant 67% drop from Q2 2022.

Yuga Labs-owned NFT projects dominated the market in September, with Otherside, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks accounting for 46.21% of the entire NFT market cap.

The theft of cryptocurrency assets was also highlighted once again, with blockchain bridges still being targeted. Dapprader listed the $190 million Nomad exploit in August as a significant contributor to the $461 million worth of crypto assets stolen in Q3. Algorithmic market maker Wintermute also succumbed to a $160 million exploit during the same period.

The Dappradar report also highlights the effect of wider macroeconomic factors on the global economy. As central banks look to manage inflation to stave off recessionary effects by raising interest rates:

“Current macroeconomic conditions significantly influence the crypto market, making it impossible to foresee a worldwide expansion of cryptocurrencies without a general recovery in conventional financial markets.”

This slightly gloomy outlook was countered by a number of positive events during the third quarter of 2022. The European Union’s approval of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory plan indicates that governments are looking to manage the industry carefully.

Similarly the White House published the "First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets" in Sept. 2022 in a bid to protect investors that indicates that cryptocurrencies have become a fully-established industry.

Blockchain gamers surge as users attempt ‘stacking crypto:’ DappRadar

September 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

blockchain game user activity

Despite the FUD, blockchain games surged in active users in September, while God’s Unchained cracked the top 10 in terms of total NFT sales volume of all projects.

User activity on blockchain gaming decentralized applications (DApps) surged in September, with a host of games posting significant increases in the number of active users.

According to data from DappRadar, seven out of the top 10 games in terms of the number of “unique wallet addresses interacting with dapp’s smart contracts” increased over the past 30 days, with all of the top five games being in the green during that time frame.

At the time of writing, the DApps registering growth in the period include Web3 gaming platform Gameta, and blockchain-based games Alien Worlds, Solitaire Blitz, Benji Bananas and Splinterlands, Farmers World and Arc8 by GAMEE.

In a Sept. 27 blog post, DappRadar noted that eight of the current top 10 blockchain games are mobile-first, which could eventually “bring millions of users to the blockchain,” noting:

“Dapp games like Gameta, Benji Bananas, Upland, and Trickshot Blitz let anyone with a mobile device earn crypto with little prior knowledge, investment, or risk.”

“Using daily activities like hyper-casual mobile games as a hook ensures users find fun once they interact, while solid tokenomics can encourage everyday use and retention,” it added.

DappRadar said one of the possible reasons for a rise in popularity of blockchain games despite the bear market, is the idea of “bleed in the bear and run in the bull:”

“The idea that stacking crypto and investments in a bear market pays off in the bull is almost proven at this point.”

The biggest uptick in users came from Animoca Brands’ Benji Bananas (Polygon), which saw a 2016.54% increase over the past 30 days. Notably, this game was a Web2 mobile app until March this year. Animoca then introduced play-to-earn (P2E) elements via the Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated Ape Coin (APE).

While it is unclear what specifically saw the number of Benji Bananas users increase by so much, it did host a P2E gaming event this month that offered a series of valuable in-game NFTs to the winners.

*Blockchain gaming DApps activity: DappRadar*

Out of the top 10 games, only Axie Infinity, Trickshot Blitz and Upland saw decreases over the past 30-days.

The increase of blockchain gamers this month comes as publications such as Bloomberg note in a Sept. 28 article that the highly correlated NFT market trading “frenzy is almost dead.” It points to overall NFT trading volumes dropping 97% since January as evidence of such.

As Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu pointed out via Twitter on Sept. 30, purely looking at the metric of NFT sales volume doesn’t necessarily paint the whole picture in NFTs or gaming.

Siu highlighted that NFT prices have generally declined in accordance with the price of their paired assets such as Ether (ETH), while many games — that don’t often grab the headlines — require NFTs that are relatively cheap. He instead emphasized that user activity and the number of people entering Web3 is where the focus should be.

6/ Judging an entire market simply by one metric is imperfect you need to take a multifaceted lens eg. @TheSandboxGame has seen record growth in users in its last season despite the market and blockchain wallets continues to rise https://t.co/brvDgCAhqh
— Yat Siu (@ysiu) September 29, 2022

Gods Unchained breaks 10 top NFT sales

Meanwhile, NFT-based card battle game Gods Unchained has seen its NFT sales volume creep into the top 10 in NFT sales volume over the past 30 days, according to Cryptoslam.

Gods Unchained has seen a 373.25% increase over the past 30 days to sit at $10.8 million at the time of writing. This marks the first time the game has seen NFT sales top $10 million since January, and after a very slow February to August period.

Reasons behind this could be due to discussions of a “Season 2” upgrade to improve the game and lore in the works and GameStop offering free NFT packs to Pro members this month. Meanwhile, an esports tournament with a $70,000 prize pool was also announced at the start of this week.

Gods Unchained has also seen a significant increase in active users over the past 30 days, gaining 28.50% to sit at around 14,180 according to DappRadar. The game still has a long way to catch up to the top 10, however, as its user count places it at twenty-eighth.