Blockchain Activity Surged 70% in Q3 2024

Decentralized applications (DApps) experienced significant growth in the third quarter of 2024, driven by an increase in blockchain activity related to artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

According to a DappRadar report from Oct. 8, daily unique active wallets (UAWs) hit a record 17.2 million, representing a 70% jump from the previous quarter.

This growth was largely fueled by AI-related DApps, which saw a 71% increase during the period, accounting for nearly 4.3 million daily UAWs.

Leading the charge in this trend are key players such as Data Intelligence Network (DIN) and Alaya AI.

DIN, a modular data pre-processing protocol launched in April 2024, reached 1 million daily UAWs in the last quarter.

Alaya, a data collection and labeling platform, maintained steady activity with 100,000 wallets over the past 90 days.

In contrast, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications saw a decline in activity, with total value locked (TVL) dropping from $168 billion to $160 billion quarter-over-quarter.

The Ethereum network experienced a 20% reduction in value locked, falling to $95 billion.

Meanwhile, other layer-1 blockchains like Sui and Aptos emerged as standout performers, each achieving a 78% increase during the period, with Sui reaching $1.6 billion and Aptos $1.3 billion in TVL.

The non-fungible token (NFT) sector faced a sharp decline this quarter, in stark contrast to its strong performance in the previous 90 days.

Trading volume dropped by 60% to $1.6 billion, while NFT sales fell to 11.5 million, marking a 23% decrease from the prior quarter.

The report noted that NFT platform OpenSea saw a “significant rebound,” solidifying its position as the dominant platform in terms of number of sales, active traders, and trading volume, which totaled $570 million over the period.

Conversely, competitors like Blur and Magic Eden suffered steep declines.

Blur, which had led trading volume in the second quarter, saw a 78% drop due to the winding down of its airdrop incentives.

Magic Eden’s reduction in royalties also contributed to a decline in activity, pushing creators and traders toward OpenSea.

Additionally, the fading hype around Bitcoin Ordinals, which had significantly boosted Magic Eden’s popularity, further impacted the platform’s performance, according to the analysis.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-activity-soars-q3-ai-dapps

https://dappradar.com/blog/state-of-the-dapp-industry-q3-2024