DApp Industry 2022 Development Review: Active Addresses and Revenue Decline Significantly, Social Media Applications Rise Against the Trend

In 2022, influenced by changes in the overall market environment, the development of the DApp industry remained relatively stable, without the breakthrough progress seen in the previous two years. Aside from the M2E craze that emerged at the beginning of the year, storage and social media DApps also received attention, but these new changes are still in the stage of quantitative accumulation and have not yet formed the force to drive qualitative change in the industry.

This article will comprehensively review the development of DApps in 2022 from the intersecting perspective of “public chain x type x users”. We analyzed the status of a total of 4,464 active DApps across 8 public chains: Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Optimism, and focused on the top 50 applications by user activity in the 5 major categories of DApps: games, DeFi, trading markets, NFT collections, and social media.

The main findings are as follows:

1. The DApp ecosystem on BNB Chain and Ethereum is the most abundant, covering all types. The ecosystems on the other 6 public chains mainly consist of 1-2 types, with some types missing. It is worth noting that NFT collectible applications on Ethereum have surpassed DeFi to become dominant, accounting for about 50% of the total.

2. Based on the average daily active Address number of each active DApp over the last 30 days, the total number of annual active Addresses for 4464 active DApps on 8 public chains is approximately 113 million. Among them, BNB Chain users are the most active, followed by Polygon, Ethereum, and Optimism.

3. This year, only the active addresses of top social media applications showed a rise trend, with a cumulative active address growth of 1583.75% from January to December. The decline in the other 4 categories of DApps ranged between 50% and 80%.

4. Similarly, only the trading volume of leading social media applications is on the rise, with a cumulative trading volume increase of 715.26% from January to December. The other four categories have decreased to varying degrees, with the gaming category decreasing by 17.47%, showing a relatively small decline.

5. The top 20 DApps have an average monthly total revenue of about $15.2 million, showing a significant downward trend for the year. Total revenue in January was $515 million, dropping to $24 million in December, with an annual decline of 95.34%. The average total revenue for the 20 DApps for the year was about $8.3 million.

Current Status of DApp Ecosystem: BNB Chain Surpasses Ethereum to Become the Largest Ecosystem, NFT Becomes the Dominant Application on Ethereum

According to monitoring by DappRadar, the public blockchains with a large number of DApps and high activity levels are mainly Ethereum, EOS, Tron, Solana, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Optimism. We have captured the DApps from these 8 public blockchains that have had active addresses in the last 30 days not equal to 0, resulting in a total of 4464 active DApps.

From the perspective of “public chain x type”:

BNB Chain has surpassed Ethereum to become the public chain with the highest number of active DApps, totaling 1779. Among them, DeFi is the dominant type, with 709, accounting for about 40%. High-risk and gaming types are also major categories, with 456 and 346 respectively, accounting for about 26% and 20%.

The number of active DApps on Ethereum has reached 1259. The NFT collection category has surpassed DeFi to become dominant, with 625, accounting for approximately 50%. DeFi and gaming categories have 304 and 160 respectively, accounting for about 24% and 13%.

Overall, DApps on BNB Chain and Ethereum cover all types, while the ecosystems of the other six public chains are mainly composed of 1-2 types, with some types missing. For example, among the 887 active DApps on Polygon, 442 in the DeFi category account for 50%, and 162 in the gaming category account for 18%. Among the 197 active DApps on Avalanche, 106 in the DeFi category account for 54%. The number of active DApps on TRON, EOS, Optimism, and Solana is relatively small, mainly focusing on DeFi.

From the perspective of “public chain x users”:

Based on the average number of active addresses per active DApp over the last 30 days, the estimated total number of active addresses for the year is approximately 113 million for 4,464 active DApps across 8 public chains. Among them, BNB Chain users are the most active, followed by Polygon, Ethereum, and Optimism.

The estimated annual active address total for 17,779 active DApps on the BNB Chain is 53.02 million, far exceeding other public chains. The estimated annual active address total for 887 active DApps on Polygon is 24.65 million, while Ethereum and Optimism also exceed 10 million. The other four public chains are less affected by the total number of active DApps, resulting in a lower estimated annual active address total.

It should be noted that due to the recent market downturn, the number of active addresses in the last 30 days has decreased, which may lead to an underestimation of the total number of active addresses for the year. However, as a unified standard, this does not affect the comparison of activity across various public chains.

To eliminate the impact of the total number of active DApps, we also calculated the average estimated annual active Addresses for individual DApps on each public chain. After removing outliers, the median estimated annual active Addresses for an individual DApp is highest for Solana, at about 1782, followed by Optimism at about 1387. Other public chains are generally around 100-300.

Considering the impact of long-tail DApps on overall activity, we also focused on observing the estimated annual average active Addresses of the top 50 DApps by activity on various public chains. The median estimated annual active Addresses of the top 50 DApps on BNB Chain and Polygon is the highest, approximately 155,100 and 143,600 respectively, followed by Ethereum at about 65,900. Most other public chains are around 5,000 to 7,000.

The gaming category has the most active addresses annually, while the social media category sees a rise in activity and trading volume.

We selected the top 10 DApps based on the number of active Addresses in the past 30 days from the 5 major categories of games, DeFi, trading markets, NFT collections, and social media, totaling 50 (.

From the perspective of multi-chain layout, 6-7 leading DApps in the trading market and DeFi category have implemented multi-chain layouts with more than 2 public chains, among which 4-5 have implemented multi-chain layouts with more than 5 public chains. In the gaming category, 5 DApps have completed dual-chain layouts, but only 1-2 in the NFT collectibles and social media categories have achieved multi-chain layouts. Overall, multi-chain layout is a major trend, but several types, including gaming, still have room for expansion.

From the perspective of “type x users”, the total number of active addresses for the top 50 DApps in 5 categories throughout the year is approximately 455 million. Among them, the gaming category is the highest, reaching 245 million. Next is DeFi, reaching 114 million. The lowest is the NFT collectibles category, with only 5.67 million.

The difference in active addresses among top NFT collectible applications is not significant, with the median of annual active addresses for individual top DApps being only 81,300, and the highest reaching 3.2 million. Social media applications are also relatively low, with a median of about 271,900. In contrast, top gaming and DeFi applications have a larger number of annual active addresses, with medians reaching 9,744,300 and 2,984,300 respectively, and both maximum values exceeding 80 million. The differences in annual active addresses for top trading market applications are considerable, with the maximum value exceeding 36 million, but the median is only 1,446,100.

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It is worth noting that this year, only the active Addresses of top social media applications showed a rise trend, increasing from a cumulative 400,000 in January to a cumulative 6.68 million in December, with an annual rise of 1583.75%. The active Addresses of the other four categories of DApps declined throughout the year, with a decrease of 50%-80% in cumulative active Addresses from January to December.

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In terms of transaction frequency, the total transaction count for the top 50 DApps across 5 categories is approximately 8.275 billion times for the entire year. Among them, the gaming category has the highest count, at about 7.14 billion times, accounting for 86% of the total. Next is the trading market category with approximately 777 million times. The NFT collectibles and social media categories are lower, with only 30.26 million and 56.82 million times, respectively. This is related to the characteristics of the application types; games have extremely high-frequency interaction features, while NFT collectibles and social media typically require interaction only when minting NFTs, resulting in lower frequency.

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From the annual changes in transaction volume, only the social media category is on the rise, increasing from 1,554,900 times in January to 12,676,300 times in December, a full-year increase of 715.26%. The other four categories have all declined to varying degrees, with the gaming category dropping by 17.47% from January to December, which is a relatively small decline, while the NFT collectibles category saw a much larger drop of over 84%.

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In terms of transaction amount, the total transaction amount of 50 leading DApps in 5 categories for the entire year is approximately $2.21 trillion. Among them, the DeFi category accounts for about $2.19 trillion, making up 99% of the total. Other categories have relatively small transaction amounts, with the lowest being the social media category, which is around $6 million for the whole year.

Combining the number of transactions, games show small amount ultra-high frequency interactions, DeFi shows ultra-high amount mid-frequency interactions, while NFT collectibles and social media show ultra-small amount ultra-low frequency interactions.

Affected by the market environment, the total transaction amount of the five major categories of leading DApps has significantly decreased throughout the year. Among them, the transaction amount of NFT collectibles, games, and trading markets has dropped by over 95% from January to December. The category with the lowest decline during the same period is social media, at about 20%.

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The average number of developers for top applications is 437, and the average monthly total revenue has significantly dropped to 24 million USD.

According to TokenTerminal data, the 15 DApps with the highest number of developers have an average monthly total of about 437 developers. The total number of developers per month in the first half of the year is higher than in the second half, showing a downward trend throughout the year. March, April, and June are periods of higher development activity, with total monthly numbers exceeding 480 developers. October and December are lower, with total monthly numbers below 400 developers.

Looking at a single DApp, the average total number of users per month for each DApp throughout the year is about 29 people. Chainlink is the highest, with an average of 75 people per month. Following that, MakerDAO, The Graph, and yearn.Finance all have an average of over 30 people per month.

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According to TokenTerminal data, the total revenue accumulated is ), and the total fee received is (. The average monthly total revenue of the top 20 DApps is approximately $152 million, showing a significant downward trend throughout the year. Total revenue in January was $515 million, dropping to $24 million in December, with an annual decline of 95.34%. After June, the monthly total revenue has consistently remained below $70 million, indicating that DApp revenue is greatly affected by the market environment.

Looking at individual DApps, the two NFT trading markets, LooksRare and Opensea, had the highest total revenue for the year, reaching $552 million and $450 million, respectively. Other DApps had lower total revenues for the year, with only the two DeFi applications, dYdX and PancakeSwap, exceeding $100 million. The average total revenue for 20 DApps for the year was approximately $83 million, with a median of $35 million. Overall, the top DApps performed relatively well in terms of revenue.

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