The bear market is over for the web3 ecosystem. This was one of many conclusions of DappRadar’s newest Yearly Trade Report, which recognized a number of bullish alerts for this new yr. Amongst these, DappRadar discovered that 2023 closed with over 4.2 million every day Distinctive Energetic Wallets (UAW), representing a 124% YoY improve.
Final yr noticed the top of one of many longest winters within the brief historical past of the crypto ecosystem regardless of the a number of controversies and challenges. Fallen idols, regulatory crackdowns, and hundred-million-dollar hacks all made for a turbulent yr through which buyers have been saved on the sting of their chairs.
Web3, nevertheless, grew in additional methods than simply market capitalization, a sign of its rising relevance on the worldwide stage.
A Yr of Development for NFTs
DappRadar’s report discovered that along with the 124% development in UAW, 2023 additionally introduced 166% extra customers to the NFT group. Regardless of changing into considerably cheaper by way of 2023, NFTs nonetheless managed to maneuver over $12.6B in buying and selling quantity. Whereas this represents a drop of 49% in worth, it is usually the results of a rise of 445% in buying and selling exercise as 60 million NFTs have been bought.
This yr additionally noticed the NFT area crown a brand new king as OpenSea handed from being the dominant NFT market to being second to Blur. With a 56% dominance, Blur gained the primary spot by way of buying and selling quantity. Opensea, nevertheless, continues to be first in terms of dealer rely for the yr, with OKX displacing it over the past quarter of the yr.
These statistics recommend that hypothesis round NFTs has cooled down after years of NFT craze. This has allowed new gamers to emerge within the ecosystem each on the market and assortment stage, resulting in elevated adoption and curiosity by the group. The rising adoption of NFTs by main manufacturers has additionally performed an vital function, one that’s more likely to proceed over the subsequent yr.
Blockchain Gaming Stays King
Gaming has lengthy been seen as one of many purposes of blockchain expertise with essentially the most potential for mass adoption. Blockchain advocates have additionally a lot to have a good time on this space because it has emerged as essentially the most distinguished phase within the dapp area. The report discovered that blockchain gaming introduced “a median of 1.1 million UAW per day”, which represents a dominance of 34% within the trade.
Whereas no blockchain report is but obtainable for the whole thing of the yr, the Q3 “State of Blockchain Gaming” report discovered a rise of 12% over the second quarter of 2023. This surge in exercise is more likely to have continued in the course of the fourth quarter of the yr given historic information.
Not every part appears to have been excellent news for the blockchain gaming area, tho. The Q3 report discovered that investments in web3 gaming tasks dropped considerably, virtually halving for the third quarter of 2023 in comparison with that of 2022. DappRadar analysts attributed this modification to “distinct market dynamics” whereas highlighting strikes by corporations like A16Z that point out rising institutional curiosity.
DeFi Was Additionally a Winner
Regardless of not being within the highlight as a lot as in earlier years as a result of excessive variety of regulatory enforcement actions and rising traits, DeFi additionally had an excellent yr. The report discovered that there was a 77% improve in Whole Worth Locked (TVL), taking all of it the way in which to $103 billion. This surge was led by Ethereum, which noticed immense development because of its a number of upgrades and reached a 52-week excessive in late December.
Whereas the surge in TVL in Ethereum appears to be unbiased of transaction counts, this was not the case for L2 networks like Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, and zkSync. The rising adoption of those networks suggests a flip in choice as builders and customers search for options that present extra effectivity and decreased transaction prices.
