1. Overall Dapp Usage Drops—Gamers Hold the Line
Daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) fell 22.4 % quarter-on-quarter to 18.7 mln. Social and AI dapps took the biggest hit, while games kept a 25 % category share, followed by NFT (18.5 %) and DeFi (17.9 %).

• AI cooled fastest: Virtuals Protocol went from 10 k dUAW in Q2 to ≈ 1.2 k; category share slid from 18.6 % → 16.8 %.

• Social collapsed from 3.8 mln → 1.57 mln dUAW and 15.9 % → 8.4 % share.

• Games consolidated leadership; top-five most-used dapps include three game-centric titles plus shopping app KAI-CHING.

2. DeFi TVL Prints Record $237 Bln—Ethereum Flat, Solana Slides
Total Value Locked reached an all-time high of $237 bln (+12 % QoQ), powered by:

• Stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) and TradFi inflows via BTC ETFs.

• Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenisation and memecoin/AI-token liquidity mining.

Chain-level snapshot

• Ethereum still dominates at $119 bln (-4 % QoQ).

• Solana stays second but TVL down 33 % to $13.8 bln after Pump.fun mania faded.

• BNB Chain & Hyperliquid shone: Hyperliquid TVL +29 % to $2.85 bln on perpetual-DEX traction.

• Cross-chain liquidity layers and “CEX-like” DEX UX are the quarter’s narrative.

3. NFTs: 18.1 M Items Sold—Biggest Quarter Since 2022
Sales volume doubled to $1.58 bln on 18.1 mln assets (+45 % QoQ), the highest unit count since Q1 2022.
Average wallets active: 2.14 mln (+28.6 % QoQ) but each wallet bought 8.4 NFTs vs 4.2 in Q1—indicating super-users, not newbies, drove growth.

Category break-down

• Sports NFTs +337 % to $71.1 mln; 4.1 mln pieces sold (+143 %).

• PFPs (CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins, BAYC) +187 % to $544 mln.

• Gaming NFTs only segment in red: volume -17 %, units -32 %.

Stand-out platforms / experiments

• Courtyard tokenised physical Pokémon & baseball cards → 1.55 mln items, $145 mln volume.

• PunkStrategy automates buy-low/sell-high on CryptoPunks; holders of PNKSTR share upside without owning a full Punk.

• OpenSea pre-token airdrop campaign lifted its quarterly sales 29 % to 9.27 mln assets.

4. Hack Losses Lowest This Year—But Attacks Are Smarter
Exploits totalled $434 mln, the quietest quarter of 2025, yet vectors are growing more sophisticated:

• GMX V1 logic flaw: $42 mln

• CoinDCX server breach: $44 mln

• UXLINK multi-sig compromise + infinite mint: $21.7 mln (attacker later phished for $48 mln)

• Social-engineering single victim: 783 BTC (~$91 mln)

RWA tokenisation, on-chain perps and stablecoin rails enlarge the attack surface; iOS & WhatsApp zero-click bugs remind users that keys are only as safe as the handset.

5. Outlook: From Millions to Billions of Wallets
Q3 proved crypto dapps can expand total value locked, unit sales and cultural reach even as headline user numbers slip. DeFi is absorbing institutional liquidity; NFTs are morphing into wrappers for real assets and automated strategies; games keep ordinary consumers clicking.
The next catalysts—lower rates, spot ETH ETFs, stablecoin rails in Big-Tech apps—could flip the funnel from “millions of degens” to “billions of everyday users” looking for yield, fun or a holographic Charizard.

1. Overall Dapp Usage Drops—Gamers Hold the Line
Daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW) fell 22.4 % quarter-on-quarter to 18.7 mln. Social and AI dapps took the biggest hit, while games kept a 25 % category share, followed by NFT (18.5 %) and DeFi (17.9 %).

• AI cooled fastest: Virtuals Protocol went from 10 k dUAW in Q2 to ≈ 1.2 k; category share slid from 18.6 % → 16.8 %.

• Social collapsed from 3.8 mln → 1.57 mln dUAW and 15.9 % → 8.4 % share.

• Games consolidated leadership; top-five most-used dapps include three game-centric titles plus shopping app KAI-CHING.

2. DeFi TVL Prints Record $237 Bln—Ethereum Flat, Solana Slides
Total Value Locked reached an all-time high of $237 bln (+12 % QoQ), powered by:

• Stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) and TradFi inflows via BTC ETFs.

• Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenisation and memecoin/AI-token liquidity mining.

Chain-level snapshot

• Ethereum still dominates at $119 bln (-4 % QoQ).

• Solana stays second but TVL down 33 % to $13.8 bln after Pump.fun mania faded.

• BNB Chain & Hyperliquid shone: Hyperliquid TVL +29 % to $2.85 bln on perpetual-DEX traction.

• Cross-chain liquidity layers and “CEX-like” DEX UX are the quarter’s narrative.

3. NFTs: 18.1 M Items Sold—Biggest Quarter Since 2022
Sales volume doubled to $1.58 bln on 18.1 mln assets (+45 % QoQ), the highest unit count since Q1 2022.
Average wallets active: 2.14 mln (+28.6 % QoQ) but each wallet bought 8.4 NFTs vs 4.2 in Q1—indicating super-users, not newbies, drove growth.

Category break-down

• Sports NFTs +337 % to $71.1 mln; 4.1 mln pieces sold (+143 %).

• PFPs (CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins, BAYC) +187 % to $544 mln.

• Gaming NFTs only segment in red: volume -17 %, units -32 %.

Stand-out platforms / experiments

• Courtyard tokenised physical Pokémon & baseball cards → 1.55 mln items, $145 mln volume.

• PunkStrategy automates buy-low/sell-high on CryptoPunks; holders of PNKSTR share upside without owning a full Punk.

• OpenSea pre-token airdrop campaign lifted its quarterly sales 29 % to 9.27 mln assets.

4. Hack Losses Lowest This Year—But Attacks Are Smarter
Exploits totalled $434 mln, the quietest quarter of 2025, yet vectors are growing more sophisticated:

• GMX V1 logic flaw: $42 mln

• CoinDCX server breach: $44 mln

• UXLINK multi-sig compromise + infinite mint: $21.7 mln (attacker later phished for $48 mln)

• Social-engineering single victim: 783 BTC (~$91 mln)

RWA tokenisation, on-chain perps and stablecoin rails enlarge the attack surface; iOS & WhatsApp zero-click bugs remind users that keys are only as safe as the handset.

5. Outlook: From Millions to Billions of Wallets
Q3 proved crypto dapps can expand total value locked, unit sales and cultural reach even as headline user numbers slip. DeFi is absorbing institutional liquidity; NFTs are morphing into wrappers for real assets and automated strategies; games keep ordinary consumers clicking.
The next catalysts—lower rates, spot ETH ETFs, stablecoin rails in Big-Tech apps—could flip the funnel from “millions of degens” to “billions of everyday users” looking for yield, fun or a holographic Charizard.