2025 Q2 Dapp Market Report: AI agent applications dominate, RWA and gaming drive NFT recovery

Author: Sara Gherghelas, DappRadar

Compiled by: Tim, PANews

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

Despite the rebound in prices and improved sentiment in the crypto market, the DApp ecosystem presents a different picture: AI agents are experiencing explosive growth, the value of NFTs is shifting from ostentation to functionality, and DeFi is navigating between rising TVL and shrinking financing. These data not only demonstrate market activity but also reveal the real user flow, lagging areas, and 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 in existence. Users are beginning to pursue true value: whether it's AI agents that can complete tasks, NFTs linked to RWA, or DeFi platforms that offer sustainable returns. However, at the same time, risks remain high: losses due to exploitation events have surged dramatically, revealing how fragile trust is, and even minor oversights can be exploited by malicious actors.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of changes in the industry landscape, comprehensively analyzing data dynamics in areas such as DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and AI. From wallet activity, transaction volume to application and capital flow, we track key signals and focus on observing the core narratives shaping the crypto industry in the second quarter of 2025.

Key Points:

• In the second quarter of 2025, the average daily active independent wallets for DApps was 24.3 million, a decrease of 2.5% compared to the previous quarter, but still a surge of 247% compared to the beginning of 2024.
• The total locked value 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 fell by 50% quarter-on-quarter, with only $483 million raised in the second quarter, resulting in a total financing amount of $1.4 billion for the first two quarters of 2025.
• NFT trading volume plummeted 45% to $867 million, but the number of sales surged 78% to 14.9 million, reflecting a sharp drop in the average market price, while the number of traders increased by 20%.
• RWA NFT trading volume increased by 29%, rising to the second position in the sector, 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 turning point for game-related NFTs.
• Web3 suffered losses of $6.3 billion 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, making it the second largest security incident in the crypto industry since the FTX bankruptcy in 2022, which resulted in a loss of $8 billion.

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

This quarter, the activity of Dapps decreased by 2.5%, with an average of 24.3 million daily active unique wallets. Nevertheless, we can still consider that 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 basis for measuring 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 by 33% and GameFi down by 17%. On the other hand, Social and AI Dapps have seen growth, which aligns with broader industry trends.

In the Social sector, the rise of InfoFi is notable, 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 shifts at the sector level have also impacted 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 captured and expanded more share. Comparing the second quarter of 2025 with the first quarter, it is clear to see the rapid rise of the AI sector, with the Social sector also following closely behind. I believe that by the end of this year, it would be no surprise if AI surpasses one of Gaming or DeFi in terms of dominance.

In fact, among the top-ranking Dapps by 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 consistently maintained long-term stable operations amidst the Meme coin craze and Agent token frenzy, such a distribution is also understandable.

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

We focus on analyzing several major categories: the number of inactive decentralized applications in the DeFi sector has increased by 2%, game-related applications have grown by 9%, and NFT applications have risen by 10%. This analysis particularly includes high-risk applications, whose inactivity has actually decreased significantly by 40%, indicating that they are still in use and rarely abandoned. However, the most surprising area is artificial intelligence, where inactive AI applications have 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 extremely difficult. In the Web3 space, user retention remains the most formidable challenge, and this data undoubtedly confirms that.

In the second quarter of 2022, the total value locked in DeFi surged to $200 billion, but the financing amount plummeted by 50%.

This quarter's macroeconomics has been as tumultuous as a roller coaster, and the DeFi sector has not been able to remain unscathed in this turmoil. Nevertheless, the market still shows positive signals: first, the cryptocurrency market has rebounded strongly, with Bitcoin rising 30% compared to the first quarter of 2025, Ethereum climbing 36%, and the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies growing by 25% quarter-on-quarter. Naturally, the DeFi sector follows this upward trend, with the total value locked surpassing $200 billion, achieving a 28% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Observing the total locked value performance of 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 sector with an absolute advantage, occupying 62% of the total TVL, followed by Solana with a share of 10%.

The most eye-catching this quarter is Hyperliquid L1, with its TVL skyrocketing by 547%. This high-performance Layer 1 blockchain is designed for on-chain perpetual contracts and spot trading, utilizing the HyperBFT consensus model inspired by HotStuff.

We also researched the most active DeFi decentralized applications in the second quarter of 2025, analyzing in depth 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 decrease of 50% compared to the first quarter. 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 have seen in previous cycles, it still shows a stable interest from capital in the sector and may suggest a more mature direction in capital allocation. Let’s see how the trends unfold for the rest of the year, but for now, it appears the trend is stabilizing.

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

We all look forward to a revival of the NFT market. Although overall attention remains, some core data is still not optimistic. This quarter, the NFT trading volume plummeted by 45%, but the transaction volume actually increased by 78%. This confirms the trend we have observed for a long time: 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 have sorted the highest trading volume NFT categories for this quarter. The data reveals an interesting phenomenon: new narratives are emerging, while old narrative patterns are making a comeback.

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

The recent trend of returning is domain NFTs, with both trading volume and sales soaring. This growth is mainly driven by the TON public chain ecosystem, as Telegram users are rushing to buy anonymous domain names based on digital numbers. These domain names can be associated with Telegram accounts without the need to bind a SIM card, and this very specific use case has clearly sparked market enthusiasm.

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

In this quarter, the average monthly NFT traders reached 668,598, an increase of 20% compared to the previous quarter. Coupled with the surge in sales, this indicates that users are gradually 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 risen in tandem 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. This has resulted in many users actively trading low-priced NFT collectibles to earn points, trying to maximize future reward gains, which is a classic move commonly seen in other airdrop activities.

Meanwhile, the Courtyard platform has quickly risen to the second position in the industry. This clearly indicates that the narrative of RWA is not only gaining momentum in the DeFi space but is also creating waves in the NFT sector. Frankly speaking, this development trend is gratifying. The tokenization process of physical assets is likely to become a key catalyst in pushing NFTs into the mainstream.

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

After a considerable amount of time (possibly several years), a game NFT collection has topped the quarterly trading volume charts for the first time. Guild of Guardians not only made it into the top five but also took up two spots, 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 primarily driven by RWA and gaming assets. Now, we finally have data to support this conclusion.

4. In the second quarter, a loss of 6.3 billion dollars due to a vulnerability attack marked one of the worst quarters since the FTX collapse.

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

If there is still a glimmer of hope in the situation, despite the extreme unlikelihood of it, it is that 87% of the losses came from a single event: the Mantra crash event. From certain perspectives, this may be a positive signal: there were only 31 security incidents throughout the year, which is not many; it is just the severity of a single case that elevated the overall losses. That said, it inevitably raises the question: are we truly building safer and more reliable products, or are we merely relying on luck to escape disaster?

To be specific, 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 capitalization evaporating instantly by $5.5 billion. This incident was confirmed to be caused by collusion among internal personnel to sell, 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, totaling 3,520 bitcoins (approximately $330.7 million).
• Cetus Protocol hacking incident (May 22, 2025): The mainstream DEX of the Sui ecosystem was attacked, resulting in a theft of $260 million, causing the platform's token price to plummet by more than 90%, and smart contract activities were forced to suspend.
• 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: Attackers infiltrated the ProxyAdmin smart contract, executed unauthorized upgrades, and abused administrative privileges to drain funds from three management accounts in three transactions, stealing a total of 18.4 million UPC (approximately 70 million USD).

This is really frustrating. It makes you question how much progress we have actually made. But at the same time, we know that many projects are actively working on improving their 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 are interacting 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, characterized 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 areas of the industry. Driven by emerging narratives such as InfoFi and the AI agency economy, AI and social DApps are rapidly rising. The NFT sector is also undergoing transformation, with RWA and gaming assets taking the lead, indicating that the 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 caused by vulnerabilities serves as a stark reminder to the industry: the lack of reliable security measures in this development boom may hinder its progress.

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 both attractive and ensure safety, sustainability, and real value creation. We will closely monitor these future developments and continue to provide in-depth coverage.