Web3 Apps Gained Users In June Despite Regulatory Challenges: DappRadar

Web3 activity increased in June despite regulatory actions targeting top centralized exchanges, according to a new report from DappRadar.

The report found that nearly 2M wallets interacted with dApps daily in June, a 1.4% increase compared to May. While web3 gaming held its position as the top sector with 36% of users, DeFi closely followed with 35% after growing 14%. Six of the ten most popular dApps represent the DeFi sector.

DappRadar attributed the increased adoption to airdrop hunters racking up transactions on Layer 2s zkSync Era and StarkNet, in addition to the cross-chain bridging protocol LayerZero.

The increase in web3 activity follows June’s tumultuous news cycle. The month began with the crypto markets tumbling after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed lawsuits against top centralized exchanges Coinbase and Binance.

However, the SEC went on to approve a new custodial crypto exchange backed by financial incumbents Citadel Securities and Charles Schuab the following week. With the news coinciding with a flurry of filings for Bitcoin ETFs, Wall Street’s renewed interest ignited bullish momentum for digital asset prices.

Ethereum Users Plummet

Despite the broader dApp sector hosting an increase in users, the number of active wallets on Ethereum crashed by 50% to 77,000 in June. DappRadar attributed the decline to a sharp drop in NFT activity. Ethereum is now the sixth-ranked chain by unique active wallets, slipping two spots since May.

BNB Chain retained its sizable lead by active users with 545,000, followed by Wax with 380,000, and Polygon with 162,000. ZkSync Era ranked fourth with 105,000 after a 52% monthly gain.

Stargate, a cross-chain bridge, held its position as the most popular protocol, with 2.4M unique users in June. The popular PancakeSwap DEX’s v2 and v3 iterations ranked second and third with 987,000 and 850,000, respectively. Sweat Economy, an Ethereum and Near-based move-to-earn protocol, was fourth with 770,000 unique wallets.

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Active NFT Traders Drop 44%

NFTs drove $888M in volume from 4.24M sales, a 17% increase over May.

Blur continues to outpace OpenSea with 61% of trade volume after growing 20% in June. OpenSea hosted just 19% of volume— its lowest market share since January 2021.

Blur’s NFT lending protocol, Blend, commanded 95% of NFTfi activity in June and surpassed $1B in cumulative trade volume since launching in May.

However, the NFT sector suffered a 44% drop in daily active users. Nearly 87,000 unique wallets interacted with NFT protocols, the sector’s lowest level since March 2021. The bearish milestone came as the floor price for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs dropped to a 20-month low.

Ethereum hosted 72% of NFT trade volume despite accounting for only 12% of total trades. Polygon was the top network by NFT transaction volume, with 1.3M active traders executing 35% of June’s NFT transactions.

Bitcoin Ordinals ranked second by volume with $96.4M. UniSat, a wallet extension for Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens, was the third-ranked NFT marketplace with $40M.

DappRadar also noted a 7.5% uptick in peer-to-peer NFT trades.