2025 Q2 Dapp Market Report: AI Agent Applications Dominate, RWA and Gaming Drive NFT Revival - ChainCatcher

2025-07-09 15:14:13

Original Title: State of the Dapp Industry Q2 2025

Original author: Sara Gherghelas, DappRadar

Original compilation: Tim, PANews

AI agents dominate the market, RWA redefines the value of NFTs, DeFi attracts capital but is gradually losing momentum, and the $6.3 billion in hacker attacks in the second quarter exposed the industry's vulnerabilities.

Despite the rebound in prices and improving sentiment in the cryptocurrency market, the DApp ecosystem presents a different picture: AI agents are experiencing explosive growth, the value of NFTs is shifting from being a status symbol to functionality, and DeFi is navigating between rising TVL and shrinking financing. These data not only demonstrate market activity but also reveal the true directions of users, the areas that are falling behind, and the key trends that are reshaping the future of DApps.

The era we are in today, where market trends can be driven solely by hype, is no longer present. Users are beginning to pursue true value: whether it's AI agents that can accomplish tasks, NFTs associated with RWA, or DeFi platforms that provide sustainable returns. However, at the same time, risks remain high: losses from exploitation incidents have surged sharply, highlighting how fragile trust can be, and even minor oversights can be exploited by malicious actors.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of changes in the industry landscape, offering a comprehensive examination of data dynamics across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, AI, and other fields. From wallet activity, transaction volume to applications and capital flow, we track key signals and focus on observing the core narratives shaping the cryptocurrency industry in the second quarter of 2025.

Key points:

In the second quarter of 2025, the average number of daily active independent wallets for DApps was 24.3 million, a month-on-month decrease of 2.5%, but still a staggering 247% increase compared to the beginning of 2024.
The total value locked in DeFi reached $200 billion, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%, mainly benefiting from a 36% rebound in Ethereum. However, the financing amount in the DeFi sector declined by 50% quarter-on-quarter, with only $483 million raised in the second quarter, bringing the total financing amount to $1.4 billion in the first two quarters of 2025.
NFT trading volume plummeted by 45% to $867 million, but the number of sales surged by 78% to 14.9 million transactions, reflecting a sharp drop in the market average price, while the number of traders increased by 20%.
RWA NFT trading volume increased by 29%, rising to the second position in the track, with the Courtyard platform becoming the second largest NFT market by trading volume this quarter.
The trading volume of Guild of Guardians NFTs has surged to first and fourth place, surpassing BAYC and CryptoPunks, marking a pivotal moment for game-related NFTs.
Web3 suffered a loss of 6.3 billion USD due to security incidents, an increase of 215% compared to the previous period. The Mantra exploit alone resulted in a loss of 5.5 billion USD, making it the second largest security incident in the crypto industry since the FTX bankruptcy case in 2022, which resulted in an 8 billion USD loss.

1. The number of daily active independent wallets for Dapp remains stable at 24 million, with significant growth in the AI and social fields.

In this quarter, the activity of Dapps decreased by 2.5%, with the average daily active unique wallet count at 24.3 million. Nevertheless, we can still consider the ecosystem to have stabilized at this level, which is both a sign of the industry's increasing maturity and proof that users are continuously interacting with Dapps across multiple application areas. It is worth noting that many users operate multiple wallets, so there is a discrepancy between the daily active unique wallet count and the actual user count. However, this metric remains a strong basis for measuring user engagement. Just a few quarters ago, the daily active unique wallet count was around 5 million, and its growth rate is quite evident.

The number of active wallets in DeFi and GameFi has both declined, with DeFi down by 33% and GameFi down by 17%. On the other hand, Social and AI-related DApps have seen growth, which is in line with broader industry trends.

In the Social domain, the rise of InfoFi is noteworthy, with platforms like Kaito and Cookie DAO leading the way. In the AI field, agent-based Dapps are showing strong momentum, with Virtuals Protocol standing out.

As expected, these shifts at the sector level have also affected the distribution of dominance. The decline in activity in the DeFi and Gaming sectors has led to a reduction in their market share, while the AI and Social sectors have seized and expanded their share. Comparing the second quarter of 2025 with the first quarter, it is evident that the AI sector is experiencing rapid growth, while the Social sector is also following closely behind. I believe that by the end of this year, it would be no surprise if AI surpasses either Gaming or DeFi in dominance.

In fact, among the top-ranking Dapps in terms of independent wallet numbers this quarter, there is an artificial intelligence Dapp that ranks first.

The remaining spots on this list are occupied by many well-known projects, primarily from the DeFi sector. Given that these projects have maintained long-term stable operations amidst the Meme coin craze and Agent token frenzy, this distribution is quite understandable.

In addition, another perspective worth noting is that this quarter we have added the "Dormant Dapp" metric, specifically tracking decentralized applications that were active in the first quarter of 2025 but completely ceased activity in the second quarter.

We focus on analyzing several main categories: the number of inactive decentralized applications in the DeFi sector increased by 2%, gaming applications grew by 9%, and NFT applications rose by 10%. This analysis particularly includes high-risk applications, which have actually seen a significant decrease in inactivity of 40%, indicating that they are still in use and rarely abandoned. But the most surprising is the field of artificial intelligence, where inactive AI applications surged by 129%. Although this percentage seems astonishing, it actually corresponds to only 16 applications. Nevertheless, this phenomenon raises important considerations: it highlights that these projects (especially in gaming and AI) are still in their early stages of development, and without sufficient funding support, achieving mainstream application is incredibly difficult. In the Web3 space, user retention remains the most challenging issue, and this data undoubtedly confirms that.

Total value locked in DeFi soared to $200 billion in Q2 2025, but financing dropped by 50%.

This quarter's macroeconomy has been like a roller coaster, and the DeFi sector has not been able to remain unaffected amidst this turmoil. Nevertheless, the market is still showing positive signs: firstly, the crypto market prices have rebounded strongly, with Bitcoin rising 30% compared to the first quarter of 2025, Ethereum climbing 36%, and the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies increasing by 25% quarter-on-quarter. Naturally, the DeFi sector follows this upward trend, with the total locked value surpassing $200 billion, achieving a quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%.

Observing the total locked value performance of various major blockchains, most chains recorded stable growth, while Tron showed a downward trend with a decline of 8%. In terms of market share, Ethereum still holds a dominant position in the DeFi sector, occupying 62% of the total TVL, followed closely by Solana with a share of 10%.

The standout this quarter is Hyperliquid L1, which saw a staggering 547% increase in TVL. This high-performance Layer 1 blockchain is designed for on-chain perpetual contracts and spot trading, utilizing a HyperBFT consensus model inspired by HotStuff.

We also researched the most active DeFi decentralized applications in the second quarter of 2025, deeply analyzing the areas with the highest current user participation.

In the end, we analyzed the investments flowing into the DeFi sector this quarter. The sector raised a total of $483 million, a decrease of 50% compared to the first quarter. So far in 2025, DeFi projects have raised approximately $1.4 billion. Although this figure indicates a slowdown compared to the explosive growth we have seen in previous cycles, it still shows stable interest from capital in the sector, which may also suggest a more mature direction for capital allocation. Let's see how the trends unfold for the rest of the year, but for now, it seems that the trend is stabilizing.

3.NFT sales surged by 78%, but trading volume declined: RWA and gaming lead market shift

We all hope that the NFT market will see a revival. Although overall attention remains, some core data is still not optimistic. This quarter, NFT trading volume plummeted by 45%, but transaction volume increased by 78% against the trend. This corroborates the trend we have long observed: NFTs are becoming increasingly affordable, but the market enthusiasm has not waned; instead, it has shifted in nature.

To better understand the reasons behind this shift, we have compiled the highest trading volume NFT categories for this quarter. The data reveals an interesting phenomenon: new narrative stories are emerging, while old narrative patterns are making a comeback.

Data shows that the trading volume of personal avatar NFTs has suffered a heavy blow, plummeting by 72%. In contrast, real-world asset (RWA) NFTs have risen to second place in the trading volume rankings with a 29% increase. The trading volume of art NFTs has decreased by 51%, but the transaction volume has surged by 400%, indicating that the prices of artworks have significantly dropped, making art NFTs more accessible to ordinary buyers.

The recent trend of domain NFTs has seen a surge in both trading volume and sales. This growth is primarily driven by the TON blockchain ecosystem, where Telegram users are rushing to purchase anonymous domain names based on digital numbers. These domain names can be linked to Telegram accounts without the need for a SIM card, and this use case, which perfectly meets specific needs, has clearly sparked market enthusiasm.

After understanding which categories are becoming trends, we began to pay attention to the number of traders to determine whether market participants are continuously increasing or are returning.

In this quarter, the average monthly NFT traders reached 668,598, an increase of 20% compared to the previous quarter. Combined with the phenomenon of soaring sales, this indicates that users are slowly and steadily returning to the NFT space, although their motivations may differ from those during past booms.

Despite a significant drop in trading volume, OpenSea still maintains its leading position. However, its sales volume has been rising in sync with the Courtyard platform. This surge for OpenSea is closely related to the news of its upcoming SEA token launch. The airdrop will target both long-time users and those currently active on the updated version of the platform. As a result, many users are actively trading low-priced NFT collectibles to earn points, trying to maximize future rewards, which is a classic move often seen in other airdrop activities.

At the same time, the Courtyard platform has rapidly climbed to the second position in the industry. This clearly indicates that the narrative of RWA is not only continuing to heat up in the DeFi sector but is also creating waves in the NFT space. Frankly, this trend is encouraging. The tokenization process of physical assets could very well become a key catalyst for pushing NFTs into the mainstream.

We also investigated which product lines will dominate in the second quarter of 2025, and the data shows an unexpected shift.

After a considerable period of time (possibly several years), a game NFT collection has topped the quarterly trading volume rankings for the first time. Guild of Guardians not only made it into the top five but also occupied two positions, surpassing blue-chip projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. This confirms the overall trend we have observed: the NFT market activity in the second quarter was mainly driven by RWA and gaming assets. Now, we finally have data to support this conclusion.

4. The loss of 6.3 billion dollars in the second quarter due to a vulnerability attack is one of the worst quarters since the FTX collapse.

We had hoped that after so many years, the entire industry would have learned its lessons and remained vigilant, treating user funds more cautiously and achieving a certain level of mature development. Unfortunately, the reality of this quarter is quite the opposite. In the second quarter of 2025, the Web3 sector lost $6.3 billion due to hacking attacks and security vulnerabilities, an increase of 215% compared to the previous quarter, marking one of the heaviest loss records since the collapse of FTX.

If there is still a glimmer of hope in the situation, despite this hope being extremely slim, it is that 87% of the losses came from a single event: the Mantra crash incident. From certain perspectives, this could be seen as a positive signal: there were only 31 security incidents throughout the year, which isn't many; it's just the severity of a single case that raised the overall losses. That said, it raises the question: are we truly building safer and more reliable products, or are we merely relying on luck to escape disaster?

To elaborate, the top five events of this quarter are as follows:

Mantra Insider Selling Incident (April 13, 2025): The price of Mantra's token OM plummeted over 90%, with a market value of $5.5 billion evaporating in an instant. This incident was confirmed to be caused by collusion among internal personnel for selling, rather than a technical flaw in the smart contract.
Individual user private key theft incident (April 28, 2025): Due to a social engineering attack, a personal user's crypto wallet was stolen of 3,520 Bitcoins (approximately $330.7 million).
Cetus Protocol Hacking Incident (May 22, 2025): The mainstream DEX in the Sui ecosystem was attacked, resulting in the theft of $260 million, leading to a more than 90% drop in the platform's token price, and the smart contract activities were forced to be suspended.
Nobitex Exchange Hacking Incident (June 18, 2025): The Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex was attacked by hackers, resulting in losses exceeding $82 million. The pro-Israel radical hacker group Gonjeshke Darande claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to leak the platform's internal code and user data.
Regarding the UPCX protocol vulnerability incident that occurred on April 1, 2025: The attacker infiltrated the ProxyAdmin smart contract, executed unauthorized upgrades, and abused admin privileges, emptying the funds of three management accounts in three stages, stealing a total of 18.4 million UPC (approximately 70 million USD).

This is truly frustrating. It makes you question how much progress we have really made. But at the same time, we know that many projects are actively working on better security infrastructure, audits, and emergency response plans.

As developers, investors, and users, the most we can do is to pay attention to security, stay informed, and act cautiously.

Use tools similar to DappRadar to verify the projects you interact with. While this is not always foolproof, it is a good starting point.

Conclusion

As the second quarter of 2025 comes to a close, DApps are clearly entering a new phase, one marked by integration and transformation. Although overall activity (referring to the number of daily active wallets) remains stable at around 24 million, we are witnessing a significant shift in user behavior and the dominant sectors of the industry. Driven by emerging narratives such as InfoFi and the AI agency economy, AI-based and social DApps are rapidly rising. The NFT space is also undergoing a transformation, with RWA and gaming assets taking the lead, indicating that this sector is experiencing a directional shift from speculative hype to practical value.

Even with the cooling of capital, DeFi continues to maintain its core pillar status with strong growth in total locked value and price recovery. However, the surge in losses due to vulnerabilities serves as a stark reminder to the industry: the lack of reliable security measures may hinder its development.

It is evident that users have not left this field; they have simply chosen different ways to experience it. The current challenge is to create Dapps that are not only attractive but also ensure safety, sustainability, and create real value. We will closely monitor these future developments and continue to provide in-depth coverage.