Q3 Dapp Report: DeFi TVL hits a new high, NFT trading volume doubles in rise.

Author: DappRadar; Compiled by: Felix, PANews

Although Bitcoin reached a new high in the first week of October, it laid a perfect foundation for development by the end of the third quarter of 2025. Dapps have been affected by the downturn in the crypto market, but innovation has never stopped. Over the past three months, we have witnessed the continued rise of Dapps, tokenization has become an important pillar of the industry, NFTs have gained momentum, and DeFi TVL has also reached an all-time high.

Key points:

• The average daily active wallet count for Dapp is 18.7 million, a decrease of 22.4% compared to the previous quarter.
• The game solidified its market dominance, growing from 20.1% in the second quarter to 25% in the third quarter. NFTs (accounting for 18.5%) and DeFi (accounting for 17.9%) follow closely behind.
• The TVL of DeFi has reached a historic high, with the TVL of all blockchains and protocols reaching 237 billion dollars.
• The NFT trading volume almost doubled this quarter, reaching 1.58 billion USD. Meanwhile, the NFT sales volume hit a quarterly record high of 18.1 million.
• Sports have become the main growth market for NFTs, with trading volume increasing by 337% to reach $71.1 million.
• The losses from hacker attacks have dropped to their lowest point this year, at $434 million, but the threats have become increasingly complex.

1 As the momentum of SocialFi and AI weakens, the usage rate of Dapps declines.

The daily average number of active unique wallets for Dapps decreased by 22.4%. In the third quarter, Dapps attracted an average of 18.7 million wallets per day. Throughout the quarter, the number of active wallets in each category declined, with the social and AI categories experiencing the most significant drops.

Throughout the quarter, the attractiveness of the AI category has declined, with the average number of active wallets decreasing from 4.8 million in Q2 to 3.1 million in Q3. This downward trend is reflected in the success of the AI agent launch platform, Virtuals Protocol. In Q2, Virtuals Protocol attracted 10,000 active wallets daily, while millions of users flocked to the platform. Nowadays, it attracts 1,000 to 1,500 active wallets daily, with an average daily trading volume of about $100,000.

In addition to AI, social Dapps have also been impacted. In the second quarter of this year, the number of daily active wallets for social Dapps reached 3.8 million. However, in Q3, this number plummeted by more than half, falling to 1.57 million active wallets. Various social Dapps, such as The Arena, Layer3, and OnchainGM, peaked in the second quarter, but their activity has significantly declined over the past three months.

In terms of market segmentation, both social and AI categories have lost market share in the past quarter. In the second quarter, AI was the third most active market sector, accounting for 18.6%, but by Q3, this percentage had dropped to 16.8%. The social sector was hit harder, falling from 15.9% to 8.4%. In terms of market dominance, the market share of NFTs has increased, currently ranking second with an 18.5% share. Meanwhile, the gaming category still dominates the Dapp industry with a market share of 25%.

Earlier this year, gaming, DeFi, and AI dominated, followed closely by social and NFTs. The situation reversed in Q3. Gaming still leads, but NFTs have risen in ranking and are now in second place. DeFi and AI follow closely behind, while social is now the weakest area in the market, surpassed by a diverse range of Dapps in the "other" category.

If we look at individual Dapps, we will find that gaming Dapps still dominate. Although the shopping app KAI-CHING attracts the most active wallets, gaming Dapps occupy a significant portion among the top five Dapps. "World of Dypians" is a social gaming metaverse, HOT Protocol provides gamified services, while KGeN is an interactive gaming platform.

2. DeFi TVL reached a historical high of 237 billion USD.

As cryptocurrency prices rise, innovation is pushing the DeFi market to historical highs. Lending protocols are thriving, cross-chain liquidity has become a hot topic in the industry, and the rise of meme coins and AI tokens has brought significant liquidity to certain ecosystems. Additionally, the rise of stablecoins is bringing DeFi into the spotlight of traditional finance.

In Q3, the United States passed three pieces of cryptocurrency legislation, among which the "GENIU Act" stands out. This act provides the first legal framework for payment stablecoins, requiring issuers to hold cash reserves or short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. Meanwhile, businesses and investment funds have invested billions of dollars in Bitcoin through Bitcoin ETFs. The launch of the stablecoin chain Plasma, along with announcements from companies like Circle and PayPal to launch networks, highlights the demand from traditional financial institutions for this cryptocurrency version of the U.S. dollar, euro, Korean won, or Japanese yen.

It is against this backdrop that the DeFi sector has set a new TVL record. At the end of Q3, $237 billion was locked in DeFi smart contracts. This is the highest record ever, and with the development of tokenization of real-world assets and the continuous progress in the stablecoin-related fields, this could be the beginning of a significant influx of liquidity.

However, despite Ethereum being the leader in the DeFi space, it did not steal the spotlight in Q3. Although Ethereum still maintains its lead with a TVL of $119 billion, its TVL has decreased by 4%.

Solana successfully maintained its second position, but it saw the largest decline among the top ten blockchains. Solana's TVL dropped by 33%, falling to $13.8 billion, primarily due to the waning momentum surrounding Pump.fun and meme coins.

The situation of the other 8 blockchains on the leaderboard is much more optimistic. BNB Chain launched the perpetual DEX Aster, which caused a sensation. Hyperliquid, specifically designed for on-chain perpetual trading, has also been in the spotlight over the past year, with its TVL growing by 29% to reach $2.85 billion. This is also a trend in this quarter, as the functionalities of DEXs are gradually becoming as rich as those of CEXs.

3. NFT sales volume hits a new high since 2022

Due to the low trading prices of many NFTs nowadays, the trading volume has slightly decreased. However, the number of transactions in 2025 has increased. The first quarter recorded sales of 7 million NFTs, while the second quarter reached 12.5 million. This upward trend continues. In the third quarter, the market recorded sales of over 18.1 million NFTs, generating a trading volume of 1.6 billion dollars.

The increase in sales volume has not been reflected in actual applications. Although the number of NFT traders has reached the highest monthly figure in the past 12 months, the increase is negligible compared to the sales volume.

In the first quarter of 2025, there were 1.66 million wallets trading NFTs. During the same period, 7 million NFTs were recorded as sold, which means an average of 4.2 NFTs were traded per wallet. In Q3, 2.14 million wallets traded 18.1 million NFT assets. This means an average of 8.4 NFTs were traded per wallet.

Between the two quarters, sales increased by 158%. However, the number of wallets only grew by 28.6%. This indicates strong support from existing participants rather than a large influx of new users.

The only NFT category that saw a decline was the gaming category. In the past quarter, the trading volume of gaming NFTs decreased by 17%, while the number sold fell by 32%. In contrast, the trading volume of sports NFTs grew by 337%, reaching 71 million USD, and the sales quantity increased by 143%, totaling 4.1 million pieces.

The surge in trading volume is also attributed to several developments. For instance, OpenSea launched a campaign for its upcoming token while rewarding its most active traders on the platform. This prompted users to start trading low-value NFTs to meet daily quotas. OpenSea successfully increased its sales volume by 29%, reaching 9.27 million assets.

At the same time, PFPs (Profile Picture NFTs) led by CryptoPunks, Moonbirds, BAYC, and Pudgy Penguins have gained attention. The trading volume of PFPs increased by 187% quarter-over-quarter, reaching $544 million. While CryptoPunks remains the holy grail for NFT collectors, Pudgy Penguins is gradually evolving into an entertainment brand integrated into Web3, encompassing gaming and other forms of entertainment.

The company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, has sold some assets to focus on BAYC, MAYC, and Otherside. This has brought some new energy to the Bored Ape community. However, they still sold Moonbirds.

Moonbirds has become the standout project of this quarter with a sales volume of 8,311 NFTs and a trading volume of 88 million dollars. The IP of Moonbirds is now owned by Orange Cap Games, which announced plans to introduce the BIRB token to Solana in the first week of October.

Leaving aside the data, real change is quietly happening. NFTs are no longer just JPEG images of monkeys; they are merging with the emerging RWA trend and DeFi.

The leading NFT series is Courtyard, which tokenizes physical collectible cards and sells them on the blockchain in the form of NFTs. Each NFT on Courtyard is a tokenized physical trading card, such as a Pokémon card or a baseball card. Users can trade digital versions of physical collectibles or redeem them for physical cards. In just Q3, Courtyard sold 1.55 million items, with a transaction volume exceeding $145 million.

A new trend emerged in September: NFT micro-strategy. Token Works launched an automated protocol concept called PunkStrategy for buying and selling CryptoPunks assets. Users acquire PNKSTR tokens, and 10% of the transaction fees go into a funding pool. Once the protocol raises enough funds, it will purchase the cheapest CryptoPunk and then list it for sale at a price 20% higher than the purchase price.

When a CryptoPunk is sold on the open market, the protocol will use the obtained ETH to purchase PNKSTR from the market. These tokens will then be burned, exiting circulation. Therefore, PNKSTR becomes a way to access CryptoPunk without having to buy an expensive NFT.

NFTs are no longer just about collecting. These digital assets can represent ownership of physical assets and can also become part of automated DeFi protocols.

4 Hacker threats have never stopped, 434 million dollars stolen.

In Q3, hackers stole over $434 million in cryptocurrency. The largest attack involved social engineering and exploitation of vulnerabilities. In July, a hacker exploited a malicious contract in GMX V1 to manipulate internal accounting security measures, allowing them to withdraw funds beyond what they were entitled to, resulting in a loss of $42 million. A few days later, CoinDCX suffered a loss of $44 million due to a server breach.

In September, the social project UXLINK experienced a multi-signature vulnerability attack, resulting in the theft of assets worth $21.7 million. In addition, the hacker gained unauthorized minting rights and issued 1 billion UXLINK tokens. The sell-off caused the token's value to drop by 70%. Ironically, the hacker later lost tokens worth $48 million due to a phishing attack.

The second major event in Q3 was the hacking of the Turkish exchange BTCTurk. However, the top incident involved a victim who lost 783 bitcoins (approximately $91 million) through a social engineering scam. The attacker deceived the victim by impersonating customer service representatives from the exchange and wallet. Specific details are unknown, but with the rise of AI tools, such attacks seem more likely to occur.

These 5 incidents accounted for the majority of stolen funds in the third quarter. The amount stolen reached $434 million, and the intensity of attacks in this quarter seems to have weakened. However, with the tokenization of real-world assets, the rise of more advanced DeFi functionalities, and institutions seeking to adopt stablecoins, it is certain that crypto wallets will always be a target for scammers and hackers. Recent reports regarding the iOS operating system and WhatsApp zero-click vulnerabilities indicate that crypto users need to remain vigilant.

Conclusion

Q3 demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of Dapps in the rapidly changing cryptocurrency market. Despite a decline in daily active wallets and challenges in the SocialFi and AI sectors, Dapps continue to progress steadily and have achieved significant milestones. The TVL of DeFi reached a record of $237 billion, indicating strong growth and increasing interest from institutional investors, especially in stablecoins and tokenized assets.

The sales volume of the NFT market surged to 18.1 million, highlighting its evolving role that has transcended the realm of collectibles and integrated with DeFi and real-world assets. The gaming sector still dominates.

Dapps are gradually reaching the daily lives of users seeking financial services, fun games, or rare Pokémon cards. Currently, the number of active wallets is in the millions, but it will soon reach billions.