Q2 2025 DApp Market Analysis: AI Applications Gaining Momentum, RWA and Game NFTs Leading the Recovery

The market share of AI agent applications has surged, RWA has redefined the value orientation of NFTs, DeFi locked assets are rising but funding is cooling down, and the $6.3 billion security incidents in the second quarter have exposed the vulnerabilities of the industry.

Despite the rebound in cryptocurrency prices and improved market sentiment, the DApp ecosystem presents a complex situation: AI applications are experiencing explosive growth, the value of NFTs is shifting from ostentatiousness to functionality, while DeFi is progressing amidst rising TVL and shrinking financing. These data not only showcase market activity but also reveal user flows, the rise and fall of sectors, and key trends that are reshaping the future of DApps.

In the current era, the phenomenon of relying solely on hype to drive market trends has disappeared. Users are beginning to pursue actual value: AI agents that can complete tasks, NFTs linked to physical assets, or DeFi platforms that provide sustainable returns. However, the risks remain high: losses from exploit incidents have surged dramatically, exposing the fragility of trust, where even minor oversights can be maliciously exploited.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the changes in the industry landscape, offering a comprehensive analysis of data dynamics in fields such as DeFi, NFT, gaming, and AI. It tracks key signals from wallet activity, trading volume to application and fund flows, with a focus on observing the core narratives shaping the cryptocurrency industry in the second quarter of 2025.

Key Findings

• Q2 2025, the average daily active independent wallets for DApp was 24.3 million, a decrease of 2.5% month-on-month, but a surge of 247% compared to the beginning of 2024.

• The total locked value in DeFi reached $200 billion, with a quarter-on-quarter increase 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 Q2, and a total financing amount of $1.4 billion in the first half of 2025.

• NFT trading volume fell by 45% to $867 million, but the number of sales surged by 78% to 14.9 million, reflecting a sharp decline in the market average price, while the number of traders increased by 20%.

• RWA NFT trading volume increased by 29%, rising to second place, with the Courtyard platform becoming the second largest NFT market by trading volume in Q2.

• The trading volume of Guild of Guardians NFT has surged to first and fourth place, surpassing BAYC and CryptoPunks, marking a pivotal moment for game-related NFTs.

• Web3 lost $6.3 billion due to security incidents, an increase of 215% compared to the previous period. The Mantra exploit case alone resulted in a loss of $5.5 billion, making it the second largest security incident in the crypto industry since the FTX bankruptcy case in 2022.

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

The activity level of DApps decreased by 2.5% this quarter, with the average number of daily active unique wallets at 24.3 million. Nevertheless, the ecosystem has 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 number of daily active unique wallets and 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, and its growth rate is quite evident.

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

In the social domain, the rise of InfoFi is remarkable, with platforms like Kaito and Cookie DAO leading the way. In the AI sector, agent-based DApps are showing strong momentum, with Virtuals Protocol standing out.

As expected, these changes 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 Q2 2025 with Q1, it is evident that the AI sector is rising rapidly, with the Social sector following closely behind. By the end of this year, it would not be surprising if AI surpasses either Gaming or DeFi in terms of dominance.

In fact, among the top-ranked DApps in terms of the number of independent wallets this quarter, there is an AI 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 the Agent token frenzy, such a distribution is understandable.

In addition, another perspective worth noting is that this quarter we have added the "Dormant DApp" metric, specifically tracking those decentralized applications that were active in Q1 2025 but completely ceased activity in Q2.

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

2. Total locked value in DeFi soars to $200 billion in Q2 2025, but financing amount plummets by 50%

This quarter's macro economy has been fluctuating like a roller coaster, and the DeFi sector has not been able to remain unaffected amidst this turmoil. Nevertheless, the market still shows positive signals: first, the crypto market prices have rebounded strongly, with Bitcoin rising 30% compared to Q1 2025 and Ethereum climbing 36%. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has grown 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 increase of 28%.

Observing the total value locked performance of various major blockchains, most chains recorded steady growth, while Tron showed a declining trend with a drop of 8%. In terms of market share, Ethereum still holds a dominant position in the DeFi space with an absolute advantage of 62% of the total TVL, followed by Solana with a share of 10%.

The standout this quarter is Hyperliquid L1, with its TVL soaring 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, 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 Q1. So far in 2025, DeFi projects have secured approximately $1.4 billion in funding. Although this figure indicates a slowdown compared to the explosive growth we witnessed in previous cycles, it still shows a stable interest in the sector from investors, which may also suggest a more mature direction in capital allocation. Let's see how the trends develop for the rest of this 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 recovery. Although overall attention remains, some core data is still not optimistic. This quarter, NFT trading volume plummeted by 45%, but trading volume grew against the trend by 78%. This confirms the trend we have observed for a long time: NFTs are becoming more affordable, but the market enthusiasm has not waned; instead, it has shifted in nature.

To better understand the reasons behind this transformation, we have sorted the NFT categories with the highest trading volume this quarter, and the data reveals an interesting phenomenon: new narratives are emerging while old narrative patterns are making a comeback.

Data shows that the trading volume of personal avatar NFTs has been severely impacted, plunging by 72%. In contrast, real-world asset (RWA) NFTs have jumped 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 dropped significantly, making art NFTs more accessible to average buyers.

The recent trend of returning is domain NFTs, with both transaction volume and sales climbing. This growth is mainly driven by the TON public chain ecosystem, as Telegram users are rushing to purchase anonymous domain names based on digital numbers. Such domain names can be linked to Telegram accounts without binding a SIM card, and this usage scenario that perfectly meets specific needs has clearly sparked market enthusiasm.

After understanding which categories are becoming trends, we began to focus on the number of traders to determine whether market participants are continuously increasing or 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 decline in trading volume, a certain trading platform still maintains its leading position. However, its sales volume has risen in sync with the Courtyard platform. This surge for the trading platform is closely related to the news of its upcoming token launch. This airdrop will target both old 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 reward returns, which is a classic operation often seen in other airdrop activities.

Meanwhile, the Courtyard platform has rapidly ascended to the second position in the industry. This clearly indicates that the narrative of RWA is not only gaining traction in the DeFi space but is also making waves in the NFT sector. Frankly speaking, this development trend is quite encouraging. The tokenization process of physical assets is likely to become a driving force for NFTs to reach mainstream visibility.