Report · January 1, 2022

Blockchain Industry Report

Summary

The report examines the blockchain ecosystem during a prolonged bear market, highlighting how macroeconomic pressures—high U.S. inflation, rising interest rates, and a recessionary environment—have driven investors to withdraw capital from both equity and cryptocurrency markets. This withdrawal has intensified selling pressure, reducing medium‑term trading volume and pushing dapp activity to its lowest point of 2022, with 1.68 million daily unique active wallets (UAW) in July, a 4 % month‑over‑month decline yet still 20 % above July 2021 levels. DeFi remains the most affected segment, with UAW falling below 500 k for the first time since April 2021—a 22 % MoM drop and a 31 % YoY decline. Total value locked (TVL) has begun to recover, rising 22 % from July 1 to July 31 to $82.3 bn, driven by gains across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon. Polygon’s network upgrades and migration of Terra projects have contributed to a 17 % TVL increase, while the launch of a web3 smartphone partnership signals continued innovation. NFT trading volume contracted 25 % MoM, falling below $1 bn for the first time since June 2021. Market concentration intensified, with Yuga Labs’ collections accounting for over 20 % of July’s volume. OpenSea’s dominance has eroded from 84 % to 58.6 %, as new marketplaces such as GameStop and Nickelodeon capture niche segments. Gaming defied the downturn, achieving 1 million daily UAW and $857 m in transactions, with its share of overall usage rising from 52 % to 57.4 %. The report concludes that while the crypto winter has triggered significant market recalibration, resilient projects—particularly in DeFi and gaming—are positioned to drive a future bull run.

From the report

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BLOCKCHAIN INDUSTRY REPORT The crypto industry is still trapped in a bear market, feeling the effects of Terra’s collapse, which had repercussions on the entire world of Web 3.0, including DeFi, NFTs, and the metaverse. From the macro perspective, recent U.S. inflation figures reached their highest level in decades, with a rising interest rate of 75 basis points and a contraction of 0.9% in the second quarter of 2022. This was also the second quarter in a row for the United States making the official entrance into recession. As obligations such as mortgage payments increase, disposable income decreases. Investors withdraw funds from the equity and cryptocurrency markets to repay loans and minimize liabilities. This increases the selling pressure and decreases the medium-term trading volume since it becomes more difficult to identify profitable chances. The decline in cryptocurrency is visible, in fact, dapp activity has hit its lowest point this year with 1.68 million daily Unique Active Wallets (UAW) connected to blockchain dapps in July. This number represents a 4% decrease month-over-month (MoM), although it is still 20% higher than in July 2021. Industry Unique Active Wallets, M ? UAW —DeFi Games Jun, 2021 - Jul, 2022 2 Wu Muhrm Ma m M m

Without question, DeFi is the blockchain segment that is feeling most of the struggles from the bear season due to the direct effect of cryptocurrency prices. For the first time since April 2021, the number of UAW connected to DeFi dapps is below half a million. This translates to a 22% decrease from last month and a 31% decrease when compared to last year. Yet, few blockchains stand out, defying the bear trend. For instance, Flow had an increase of over 200% of daily UAW from last month, mainly due to the recent launch of Permissionless Smart Contract Deployment, which means that anybody can now deploy a smart contract on the Flow Mainnet. In such a complex situation, the NFT market has also contracted. In this case, however, several new trends have emerged in this sector that could accompany us throughout 2022 and even beyond. Meanwhile, the Games category saw the most significant increase as the metric grew 8% MoM and 98% from last year, reaching 967,662 daily UAW on average. This is no surprise, as we have seen multiple blockchain games with truly immersive game mechanics that take entertainment to the next level in recent months. Simultaneously, on the NFT side, the number of UAW keeps increasing too. Over 130,418 daily UAW connected to NFT-related dapps, driven mainly by Solana and BNB Chain, which revamped their NFT alternatives. This report aims to cover the most critical trends in the last month.

Key Takeaways DeFi TVL starts to recover, a 22% increase from the previous month, with Tron and Polygon • DeFi TVL starts to recover, a 22% increase from the previous month, with Tron and Polygon gaining ground • The centralized lending platform, Celsius, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, placing additional uncertainty on the possibility of depositors’ funds being recovered • NFT volume fails to hit $1 billion in trades for the first time since June 2021 • New entries as competitors in the NFTs marketplace, and the dominance of OpenSea falls to 58.6% from the 84% measured in May • The dominance of the blockchain gaming sector keeps growing and is now almost 60%, defying the bear market trend. defying the bear market trend.

Contents DeFi starts recovering from Terra collapse - 22% TVL increase 6 Polygon keeps building amid the bear season 7 Crypto contagion continues as Celsius files for bankruptcy 8 More calls for regulation in crypto 9 Has the NFT bubble finally burst? 10 OpenSea might soon engage in an NFT Marketplace “War” 11 Games represent almost 60% of the industry’s usage 15 Closing - what to expect in the future? 16

BLOCKCHAIN INDUSTRY REPORT DeFi starts recovering from Terra collapse - 22% TVL increase Due to the crypto market’s slow but steady recovery, the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry has seen its overall total worth increase. TVL, or total value locked, has served as the benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of decentralized applications (dapps). TVL hit an all-time high of $253.91 billion on December 2, 2021. DeFi Total Value Locked, Bn USD ? $250 $200 $150 DappR dar $100 Terra Crash $50 11-12th May JAN MAR MAY JUL TVL has increased over the entire month of July. TVL was $82.3 billion on July 31, an increase of 22% from the $67.3 billion it was on July 1st. This growth could be attributed to a jump in TVL in seven of the top ten smart contract chains. In July, Ethereum continued to have the highest amount of value frozen. On the first of July, Ethereum TVL was roughly 46 billion and increased to over 57.9 billion at the end of the month. After Terra’s failure, BNB Chain has taken over as the chain with the second-highest amount of value locked. BNB Chain’s TVL had a value of almost 5.97 billion on July 1 and reached approximately 6.8 billion at the end of the month. Over the month, similar increases were observed everywhere.

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Words: 3,557
Type: Report

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