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

Original Title: State of the Dapp Industry Q2 2025

Original Author: Sara Gherghelas, DappRadar

Original Compilation: Tim, PANews

AI agents top the market, RWA redefines NFT value, DeFi attracts capital but loses momentum, and the $6.3 billion in hacker attacks in the second quarter exposes the industry’s vulnerabilities.

Despite a rebound in cryptocurrency market prices and improved sentiment, the DApp ecosystem presents a different picture: AI agents have seen explosive growth, NFT value has shifted from ostentatious to functional, while DeFi navigates the gap between rising TVL and shrinking financing. These data not only showcase market activity but also reveal the true direction of users, lagging sectors, and key trends reshaping the future of DApps.

The era we are in no longer allows market trends to be driven solely by hype. Users are beginning to pursue real value: whether it’s AI agents that can accomplish tasks, NFTs linked to RWA, or DeFi platforms that provide sustainable returns. However, risks remain high: losses from exploits have surged, highlighting the fragility of trust, where even minor oversights can be exploited by malicious actors.

This report delves into the changes in the industry landscape, providing a comprehensive analysis of data dynamics in DeFi, NFTs, gaming, AI, and more. From wallet activity and transaction volume to application and capital flows, we track key signals and focus on the core narratives shaping the cryptocurrency industry in Q2 2025.

Key Points:

• In Q2 2025, the average daily active unique wallets for DApps was 24.3 million, a decrease of 2.5% quarter-on-quarter, but still a staggering 247% increase compared to early 2024.
• The total locked value in DeFi reached $200 billion, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 28%, primarily benefiting from a 36% rebound in Ethereum. However, financing in the DeFi sector fell by 50% quarter-on-quarter, with only $483 million raised in Q2, totaling $1.4 billion in financing for the first two quarters of 2025.
• NFT transaction volume plummeted 45% to $867 million, but sales surged 78% to 14.9 million transactions, reflecting a sharp drop in average market prices, while the number of traders increased by 20%.
• RWA NFT transaction volume grew by 29%, ranking second in the sector, with the Courtyard platform becoming the second-largest NFT market by transaction volume this quarter.
• Guild of Guardians NFT transaction volume soared to first and fourth places, surpassing BAYC and CryptoPunks, marking a pivotal moment for gaming NFTs.
• Web3 suffered $6.3 billion in losses due to security incidents, a 215% quarter-on-quarter increase. The Mantra exploit alone accounted for $5.5 billion, making it the second-largest security incident in the crypto industry since the $8 billion loss from the FTX bankruptcy in 2022.

1. Dapp Daily Active Unique Wallets Stabilize at 24 Million, Significant Growth in AI and Social Sectors

This quarter, DApp activity decreased by 2.5%, with an average of 24.3 million daily active unique wallets. Nevertheless, we can consider the ecosystem stable at this level, which is both a sign of the industry’s maturation and proof that users are continuously interacting with DApps across multiple application areas. It is worth noting that many users operate multiple wallets, so the number of daily active unique wallets differs from the actual number of users. However, this metric remains a strong indicator of user engagement. Just a few quarters ago, the number of daily active unique wallets was around 5 million, showing a significant growth trajectory.

The number of active wallets in DeFi and GameFi both saw declines, with DeFi down 33% and GameFi down 17%. On the other hand, Social and AI DApps experienced growth, aligning with broader industry trends.

In the Social sector, the rise of InfoFi is noteworthy, with platforms like Kaito and Cookie DAO leading the way. In the AI sector, agent-based DApps showed strong momentum, with Virtuals Protocol standing out.

As expected, these sector-level shifts also affected the distribution of dominance. The decline in activity in DeFi and Gaming led to a decrease in their market share, while the AI and Social sectors captured and expanded more share. Comparing Q2 2025 with Q1, it is evident that the AI sector is rapidly rising, with the Social sector closely following. I believe that by the end of this year, it would not be surprising if AI surpasses either Gaming or DeFi in dominance.

In fact, looking at the top-ranking DApps by unique wallets this quarter, one AI DApp topped the list.

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

Additionally, another noteworthy perspective is that we have introduced a “Dormant DApp” metric this quarter, specifically tracking those decentralized applications that were active in Q1 2025 but completely ceased activity in Q2.

We focused on several major categories for analysis: the number of inactive decentralized applications in the DeFi sector increased by 2%, gaming increased by 9%, and NFT applications rose by 10%. This analysis particularly included high-risk applications, whose inactivity actually decreased by 40%, indicating that they are still in use and rarely abandoned. But most surprisingly, in the AI sector, inactive AI applications surged by 129%. While this percentage seems astonishing, it corresponds to only 16 applications. Nevertheless, this phenomenon raises important considerations: it highlights that many of these projects (especially in gaming and AI) are still in their early stages of development, and without sufficient funding support, achieving mainstream application is extremely challenging. In the Web3 space, user retention remains the most daunting challenge, and this data undoubtedly confirms that.

2. Total Locked Value in DeFi Soars to $200 Billion in Q2 2025, but Financing Plummets by 50%

The macroeconomic environment this quarter has been like a roller coaster, and the DeFi sector has not been immune to this turbulence. Nevertheless, the market still shows positive signals: first, the cryptocurrency market prices rebounded strongly, with Bitcoin up 30% compared to Q1 2025 and Ethereum climbing 36%, leading to a 25% quarter-on-quarter increase in total cryptocurrency market capitalization. Naturally, the DeFi sector followed this upward trend, with total locked value surpassing $200 billion, achieving a 28% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Observing the total locked value performance across major blockchains, most chains recorded steady growth, with only Tron showing a decline of 8%. In terms of market share, Ethereum still holds a dominant position with an absolute advantage, accounting for 62% of the total TVL in the DeFi sector, followed by Solana with a 10% share.

The standout this quarter was Hyperliquid L1, whose TVL skyrocketed by 547%. 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 Q2 2025, delving into the current areas with the highest user participation.

Ultimately, we analyzed the investments flowing into the DeFi sector this quarter. The sector raised a total of $483 million, a 50% decrease compared to Q1. So far in 2025, DeFi projects have secured approximately $1.4 billion in financing. Although this figure indicates a slowdown compared to the explosive growth seen in previous cycles, it still demonstrates stable interest in the sector, which may suggest a more mature direction for capital allocation. Let’s see how the trends unfold for the rest of this year, but for now, it seems the trend is stabilizing.

3. NFT Sales Surge 78%, but Transaction Volume Declines: RWA and Gaming Lead Market Shift

We all hope for a recovery in the NFT market; despite ongoing overall attention, some core data remains concerning. This quarter, NFT transaction volume plummeted by 45%, yet transaction count increased by 78%. This confirms a long-observed trend: NFTs are becoming increasingly affordable, but market enthusiasm has not waned; rather, it has shifted in nature.

To better understand the reasons behind this shift, we analyzed the NFT categories with the highest transaction volumes this quarter, revealing an interesting phenomenon: new narratives are emerging, while old narrative patterns are making a comeback.

Data shows that personal avatar NFTs suffered a severe blow, plummeting by 72%. In contrast, real-world asset (RWA) NFTs surged to second place in transaction volume with a 29% increase. Art NFTs saw a 51% decline in transaction volume, but their transaction count skyrocketed by 400%, indicating that art prices have significantly dropped, making art NFTs more accessible to average buyers.

A recently returning trend is domain NFTs, with both transaction volume and sales climbing. 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 domains can be linked to Telegram accounts without needing a SIM card, clearly meeting a specific demand that has sparked market interest.

After identifying which categories are trending, we began to focus on the number of traders to determine whether market participants are steadily increasing or returning.

This quarter, the average monthly NFT traders reached 668,598, a 20% increase from the previous quarter. Coupled with the surge in 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 the significant drop in transaction volume, OpenSea remains the leader. However, its sales volume has risen in tandem with the Courtyard platform. This surge for OpenSea is closely related to the news of its upcoming SEA token launch. This 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 accumulate points, attempting to maximize future reward gains, a classic maneuver seen in other airdrop events.

Meanwhile, the Courtyard platform has rapidly ascended to the second position in the industry. This clearly indicates that the RWA narrative is not only gaining traction in the DeFi sector but is also making waves in the NFT space. Frankly, this development is encouraging. The tokenization of physical assets could very well become a key catalyst in pushing NFTs into the mainstream spotlight.

We also investigated which product series dominated in Q2 2025, and the data revealed an unexpected shift.

After a considerable period (possibly years), a gaming NFT collection has topped the quarterly transaction volume leaderboard for the first time. Guild of Guardians not only made it into the top five but secured two positions, surpassing blue-chip projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. This confirms the overall trend we have observed: the activity in the NFT market in Q2 was primarily driven by RWA and gaming assets. Now, we finally have data to support this assertion.

We had hoped that after so many years, the entire industry would have learned lessons and remained vigilant, treating user funds with greater caution and achieving at least a certain level of maturity. Unfortunately, the reality this quarter is quite the opposite. In Q2 2025, the Web3 sector suffered $6.3 billion in losses due to hacker attacks and security vulnerabilities, a 215% increase from the previous quarter, marking one of the most severe loss records since the FTX collapse.

If there is a glimmer of hope, albeit extremely faint, it is that 87% of the losses stemmed from a single event: the Mantra collapse. From certain perspectives, this could be seen as a positive signal: there were only 31 security incidents throughout the year, which is not many; it was just the severity of a single case that inflated 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 avoid disaster?

To be precise, the top five incidents this quarter are as follows:

• Mantra Insider Selling Incident (April 13, 2025): The price of Mantra’s token OM plummeted over 90%, evaporating $5.5 billion in market value. This incident was confirmed to be caused by coordinated selling by internal personnel, rather than a technical vulnerability in the smart contract.
• Individual User Private Key Theft Incident (April 28, 2025): A personal user’s crypto wallet was stolen of 3,520 Bitcoins (approximately $330.7 million) due to a social engineering attack.
• Cetus Protocol Hacking Incident (May 22, 2025): The mainstream DEX of the Sui ecosystem was attacked, resulting in $260 million stolen, causing the platform’s token price to plummet by over 90%, and smart contract activities were forced to pause.
• Nobitex Exchange Hacking Incident (June 18, 2025): The Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex was hacked, resulting in losses exceeding $82 million. The pro-Israel hacker group Gonjeshke Darande claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to leak the platform’s internal code and user data.
• UPCX Protocol Vulnerability Incident on April 1, 2025: Attackers infiltrated the ProxyAdmin smart contract, executed unauthorized upgrades, and abused admin privileges to drain funds from three management accounts in three transactions, stealing a total of 18.4 million UPC (approximately $70 million).

This is truly disheartening. It makes one question how much progress we have actually made. At the same time, we know that many projects are actively advancing more robust security infrastructures, audits, and emergency response plans.

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

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

5. Conclusion

As Q2 2025 comes to a close, DApps are clearly entering a new phase, marked by integration and transformation. Although overall activity (in terms of daily active wallet numbers) remains stable at around 24 million, we are witnessing a noticeable shift in user behavior and the dominant sectors of the industry. Driven by emerging narratives such as InfoFi and the AI agent economy, AI and social DApps are accelerating their rise. The NFT sector is also undergoing transformation, with RWA and gaming assets taking the lead, indicating a directional shift from speculative hype to practical value.

Even as capital cools, DeFi maintains its core pillar status with strong total locked value growth and price recovery. However, the surge in losses due to exploits sends a stark reminder to the industry: the lack of reliable security measures could hinder its development.

It is evident that users have not left the space; they have simply chosen different ways to engage. The current challenge lies in creating DApps that are not only attractive but also ensure safety, sustainability, and real value creation. We will closely monitor these future developments and continue to provide in-depth reporting.

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