Daily DApp users surge to 2.4 million in Q1 2022 despite headwinds

According to a new industry report published by DappRadar, the number of users engaging with decentralized applications, or DApps, on a daily basis increased by 396% year-on-year to 2.4 million. This is just 5.8% below the same level of user activity as in Q4 2021.

The overall growth was impressive considering the cryptocurrency sector experienced a short-lived bear market during the quarter, seeing $1.19 billion in decentralized finance, or DeFi, hacks and exploits.

Two of the worst affected Token Bridge protocols were Ronin and Wormhole. Last month, Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge was breached for over $600 million after an attacker used hacked private keys to spoof fake payouts. Meanwhile, the Wormhole protocol lost $321 million to a minting exploit in February. However, in a rather heroic move, venture capital firm Jump Crypto reached into their own wallets and replenished lost funds.

Additionally, the staff at DappRadar wrote:

“The first quarter of 2022 had its ups and downs, but was overshadowed by the war in Ukraine. This was one of the biggest events since the 2008 global financial crisis that shook world markets and negatively impacted the industry.”

Number of unique active wallets interacting with DApps | Source: DappRadar

Gaming DApps accounted for over 50% of all user activity in Q1 2022. At the same time, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, generated $12 billion in trades despite bubble warnings. In terms of total DeFi locked value, Ethereum (ETH) again took the top spot at $127 billion, followed by Terra Luna (LUNA) at $29 billion and BNB Chain at $13 billion.