Decentralized applications (dApps) saw a rise of 77% in activity in the first quarter of 2024 and a 7 million total daily active user wallet count.
This growth comes as Bitcoin hit an all-time high in Q1 2024, reaching above $73,000.
DApp Activity Resurges
According to DappRadar, the recent increase in new users shows a strong recovery, indicating the end of the longest bear market experienced.
The growth has been attributed to the approval of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which sent BTC to multiple new all-time highs.
DappRadar also noted the renewed interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) throughout 2023, following a drop in usage in 2022. The unique active daily users’ wallet counts surged to 4.8 million in 2023, doubling from 2022. In addition, NFTs had the most growth, 166% over the previous year.
This strength has remained well into 2024, with DappRadar noting a 50% surge in trading volume to $3.9 billion and a 13% increase in sales to $11.6 million in Q1 2024.
Blockchain gaming continues to lead in Web3, commanding a 30% dominance and attracting about 2.1 million daily unique active wallets, a 59% increase from last quarter. NFT gaming collections also performed well, with the highest sales in Q1 2024 being Gods Unchained with 1 million, Axie Infinity with 459K, and Arena of Faith with 19.5K.
However, in the first quarter of 2024, the social vertical became the frontrunner in the sector’s growth with a 324% surge in active wallets. While decentralized finance, gaming, and NFTs performed well, the increase in social media dApps could show an emerging trend in the industry.
Hacks and Exploits Remain Persistent
In the first quarter of 2024, the blockchain space experienced a loss of $407 million due to hacks and exploits. While the amount was a 32% decrease from Q4 2023, compared to the first quarter of 2023, it is an increase of 9%, showing that security challenges persist.
Ethereum led, accounting for 57% of the total losses, followed by BNB Chain at 17% and Arbitrum at 14%. Other chains collectively constituted the remaining 12%.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s Ripple chain account was compromised, leading to a loss of 213 million XRP tokens valued at around $112.5 million. Another incident was with the hacked Munchables protocol, which led to a loss of 17.4k ETH, equal to $62.5 million. Additionally, the exchange sector was hit after BitForex was implicated in an exit scam with suspicious outflows amounting to $56.5 million across multiple blockchains.