Q2 2025 DApp Market Report: AI Applications Surge, RWA and Gaming Drive NFT Market Transformation

This quarter, the DApp ecosystem has shown a trend of diversified development. Although the overall market activity has slightly declined, the rapid growth in the AI and social sectors, along with structural changes in the NFT market, indicates that the industry is moving towards a more mature and diversified direction.

Main Observations

1. The average number of daily active unique wallets for DApps is 24.3 million, a slight decrease of 2.5% month-on-month.

2. The activity level of AI and social applications has significantly increased, with a certain AI proxy application becoming the most active DApp.

3. The total value locked in DeFi reached $200 billion, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%, but the financing amount declined by 50% quarter-on-quarter to $483 million.

4. NFT trading volume decreased by 45% to $867 million, but the number of sales increased by 78% to 14.9 million transactions, with the number of traders rising by 20%.

5. RWA NFT trading volume increased by 29%, becoming the second largest NFT category. Game NFT projects have surpassed traditional blue-chip NFT projects for the first time.

6. This quarter, Web3 security incidents caused losses of $6.3 billion, a 215% increase compared to the previous quarter, with the Mantra incident alone resulting in losses of up to $5.5 billion.

DApp Activity Analysis

The average number of daily active unique wallets for DApps this quarter is 24.3 million, a slight decrease of 2.5% compared to the previous quarter. Nevertheless, this figure still demonstrates the overall stability of the industry and shows a significant improvement from about 5 million a year ago.

The activity in the DeFi and GameFi sectors has decreased, dropping by 33% and 17% respectively. Meanwhile, Social and AI applications have seen growth. The InfoFi concept has emerged, with platforms like Kaito and Cookie DAO performing impressively. In the AI field, agent-based applications are showing strong momentum, with Virtuals Protocol being particularly noteworthy.

In terms of market share, the AI and Social sectors have significantly increased their proportions. A certain AI agency application has even become the top-ranked DApp in terms of independent wallet numbers this quarter, highlighting the rapid rise of AI in the Web3 space.

It is worth noting that the newly added "Dormant DApp" metric for this quarter shows that the inactivity rate of AI applications has surged by 129%. Although the actual number is only 16, this phenomenon reflects that AI projects are still in the early stages of development, facing the dual challenges of funding and user retention.

DeFi Development Trends

The total locked value in DeFi has exceeded $200 billion this quarter, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%. This growth is mainly attributed to the overall rebound of the crypto market, with Bitcoin and Ethereum prices increasing by 30% and 36%, respectively.

In the performance of TVL across various public chains, most chains recorded steady growth, with only TRON showing a downward trend. Ethereum still holds the leading position with a 62% share, while Solana ranks second with a 10% share. It is worth mentioning that Hyperliquid L1, which focuses on on-chain perpetual contracts and spot trading, performed impressively, with TVL surging by 547%.

However, the financing heat in the DeFi sector has cooled down. This quarter, only $483 million was raised, a 50% decrease compared to the previous quarter. In the first two quarters of 2025, DeFi projects raised a total of about $1.4 billion. Although this figure is lower than in previous years, it still shows ongoing interest from capital in this sector.

NFT Market Transformation

This quarter, the NFT market has shown a unique phenomenon of declining transaction value but rising transaction volume. The transaction value plummeted by 45% to $867 million, while the sales volume surged by 78% to 14.9 million transactions. This trend indicates that NFTs are becoming more affordable, and the market enthusiasm has not waned but rather shifted in nature.

From the NFT category perspective, the trading volume of personal avatar NFTs plummeted by 72%, while RWA NFTs jumped to second place in the trading volume rankings with a 29% increase. The trading volume of art NFTs decreased by 51%, but the transaction volume soared by 400%, reflecting a significant drop in art prices.

Domain NFTs have become a hotspot again, with both trading volume and sales soaring, mainly thanks to the promotion of the TON public chain ecosystem. Telegram users have a strong demand for anonymous domain names based on digital numbers, driving the growth of this niche market.

In terms of trading platforms, OpenSea still maintains its leading position, but sales volume has risen in sync with the Courtyard platform. The Courtyard platform has quickly risen to second place in the industry, highlighting the rise of RWA in the NFT space.

The most notable thing is that the game NFT collection Guild of Guardians has topped the quarterly trading volume rankings for the first time, surpassing traditional blue-chip projects such as CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. This phenomenon confirms that RWA and gaming assets are becoming the main driving forces behind the NFT market.

Security Incident Analysis

In the second quarter of 2025, the Web3 sector suffered losses of $6.3 billion due to security incidents, a month-on-month increase of 215%, marking one of the heaviest loss records since the collapse of FTX. Among these, 87% of the losses came from a single event—the Mantra crash incident.

It is worth noting that the total number of security incidents this quarter is only 31, but the severity of individual cases has increased the overall losses. This phenomenon raises deep reflections on the industry's security construction: Are we truly building safer and more reliable products, or are we merely relying on luck to evade disasters?

The five major security incidents include:

1. Mantra Insider Selling Incident: $5.5 Billion Market Value Evaporated
2. Individual users had their private keys stolen: loss of $330.7 million
3. Cetus Protocol Hack Incident: Loss of $260 million
4. Nobitex exchange attacked: losses exceed 82 million USD
5. UPCX protocol vulnerability incident: approximately $70 million in losses

These events remind us once again that security issues remain one of the biggest challenges facing the Web3 space. Developers, investors, and users all need to stay highly vigilant and take necessary security measures.

Conclusion

In the second quarter of 2025, the DApp ecosystem shows clear signs of transformation. The rise of AI and social applications, the shift of the NFT market towards practical value, the robust growth of DeFi, and the ongoing presence of security issues together shape a more diverse and complex industry landscape.

Users have not left the Web3 space, but have chosen different ways to participate. The challenge for the future lies in how to create DApps that are both attractive and secure, balancing innovation with risk control, and pursuing long-term value in development. We will continue to monitor the developments in this field and provide readers with timely and in-depth analysis.