Q3 2025 Dapp Report: DeFi TVL reaches a new high, NFT trading volume doubles in rise.

Original author: DappRadar

Original text compiled by: Felix, PANews

Despite Bitcoin reaching new highs in the first week of October, the third quarter of 2025 has laid a perfect foundation for the end of the year. Dapps have been affected by the downturn in the crypto market, but innovation has never ceased. In the past three months, we have witnessed the continued rise of Dapps, tokenization becoming an important pillar of the industry, NFTs gaining momentum, and DeFi TVL also reaching an all-time high.

Key Points:

The daily active wallet count for Dapps is 18.7 million, a decrease of 22.4% compared to the previous quarter.

The game has 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 USD.

The NFT trading volume nearly doubled this quarter, reaching 1.58 billion dollars. At the same time, NFT sales hit a quarterly record high of 18.1 million.

Sports has become the main growth market for NFTs, with a trading volume increase of 337%, reaching 71.1 million dollars.

The losses caused by hacker attacks have dropped to a record low this year, at $434 million, but the threats are becoming increasingly complex.

1 With the momentum of SocialFi and AI weakening, the usage rate of Dapps is declining.

The average daily number of active independent 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 dropping 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. Now, it attracts 1,000 to 1,500 active wallets daily, with an average daily trading volume of about 100,000 USD.

Apart from AI, social Dapps have also been impacted. In the second quarter of this year, the daily active wallet count for social Dapps reached 3.8 million. However, in Q3, this number plummeted by more than half, dropping 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.

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

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

If you look at each Dapp individually, you'll find that gaming Dapps still dominate. Although the shopping app KAI-CHING attracts the most active wallets, gaming Dapps account for a significant portion of the top five Dapps. "World of Dypians" is a social gaming metaverse, HOT Protocol offers gamified services, and KGeN is an interactive gaming platform.

2. DeFi TVL reached a historic high of 237 billion dollars.

As cryptocurrency prices rise, innovation is pushing the DeFi market to historic 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. Furthermore, the rise of stablecoins is bringing DeFi into the spotlight of traditional finance.

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

Against this backdrop, 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 continued progress in the stablecoin-related field, this may be the beginning of a significant influx of liquidity.

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

Solana successfully maintained its second position, but it recorded the largest drop among the top ten blockchains. Solana's TVL decreased 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 list is much more optimistic. BNB Chain launched the perpetual DEX Aster, causing a stir. Hyperliquid, designed specifically 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 functionality of DEXs is gradually becoming as rich as that 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, and the second quarter reached 12.5 million. This upward trend is still continuing. 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 number in the past 12 months, the increase is negligible compared to 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 massive influx of new users.

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

The surge in trading volume is also attributed to some developments. For example, OpenSea launched a campaign for its upcoming token, rewarding the most active traders on its 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-on-quarter, reaching $544 million. While CryptoPunks remain the holy grail for NFT collectors, Pudgy Penguins is gradually evolving into an entertainment brand integrated with Web3, encompassing games 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 a standout project this quarter with a sales volume of 8,311 NFTs and a transaction amount 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.

Putting data aside, a real transformation is quietly taking place. NFTs are no longer just a JPEG image of a monkey; they are integrating 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 the physical collectibles or redeem them for the physical cards. In just Q3, Courtyard sold 1.55 million items, with a trading volume exceeding 145 million dollars.

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 fund 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 CryptoPunks are sold on the open market, the protocol will use the obtained ETH to purchase PNKSTR from the market. These tokens will then be destroyed, exiting circulation. Therefore, PNKSTR becomes a way to access CryptoPunks without having to buy expensive NFTs.

NFTs are no longer just about collecting. This digital asset 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 worth of cryptocurrency. The largest attack incident involved social engineering and exploit vulnerabilities. In July, a hacker manipulated internal accounting security measures using a malicious contract from GMX V1, allowing them to withdraw funds beyond what they were entitled to, resulting in a loss of $42 million. A few days later, CoinDCX lost $44 million due to a server breach.

In the most recent incident in September, the social project UXLINK suffered a multi-signature vulnerability attack, resulting in the theft of assets worth 21.7 million dollars. 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 dollars due to a phishing attack.

The second major event in Q3 was the hack of the Turkish exchange BTCTurk. However, the top ranking victim lost 783 bitcoins (approximately $91 million) through a social engineering scam. The attackers deceived the victim by impersonating customer service for 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 account 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 features, and institutions seeking to adopt stablecoins, it is certain that crypto wallets will always be a target for scammers and hackers. Recent reports regarding iOS operating system and WhatsApp zero-click vulnerabilities indicate that crypto users need to remain vigilant.

Conclusion

Q3 demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of Dapp in the ever-changing crypto market. Despite a decline in daily active wallets and challenges in the SocialFi and AI sectors, Dapp continues to progress steadily and has achieved significant milestones. The TVL of DeFi reached a record of 237 billion USD, indicating strong growth and increasing interest from institutional investors, particularly in stablecoins and tokenized assets.

NFT market sales surged to 18.1 million, highlighting its evolving role that has transcended collectibles to integrate 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.