DeFi Transactions at One-Year Low, NFTs and Games Standing Strong

Transactions related to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications have hit a one-year low, with DeFi being the niche within crypto that is most affected by this year’s downturn in crypto prices, a new report from the decentralized application tracking site DappRadar has said.

The one-year low in DeFi transactions seen in the first quarter of this year shows that interest in the DeFi space has fallen considerably since last summer, the report said. It added that the fall in DeFi transactions was larger than the fall in the crypto game category, while transactions related to non-fungible token (NFT) trading rose through the quarter.

Despite the falling number of transactions, total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols continued to rise through the quarter, the report said.

The rise was helped by strong growth in the amount of money held on DeFi protocols built on Ethereum (ETH)-alternatives, such as Terra (LUNA), Solana (SOL), and Avalanche (AVAX). 

Looking at Ethereum alone, TVL has gone down over the course of the first quarter, data from DappRadar shows. From USD 132.8bn as of January 1, Ethereum’s TVL stood at USD 115.9bn when the quarter ended on March 31.

Worth noting, however, is that the decline in TVL has come as the price of ETH has also gone down, falling from USD 3,680 at the beginning of the quarter, to USD 3,280 as the quarter ended – a decline of about 10%.

Ethereum TVL:

Meanwhile, DappRadar’s report said that NFT-related transactions peaked in the first quarter of this year, growing by 153% compared to the same quarter last year. Most of the growth was seen on alternative chains such as Avalanche and Solana, while NFT-related transactions on Ethereum have remained largely stable since January.

Similarly, crypto-based gaming saw a rise in the number of transactions of a massive 520% compared to Q1 last year, strongly outperforming activity in DeFi. According to the report, both NFTs and crypto gaming have reached a point where they are now “critical to the evolution of the crypto industry.”

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