In Q3 2024, the Hedera ecosystem continued to evolve, though it wasn’t immune to the broader market challenges that affected the blockchain industry. With the DeFi sector seeing a decline and the NFT market facing headwinds, Hedera followed similar trends. However, key developments, including updates to its dapps and initiatives across DeFi, gaming, and payments, demonstrate the ongoing activity within the network.
This report will explore Hedera’s performance throughout the quarter, focusing on on-chain activity, key dapps, and the state of NFTs. While challenges persist, the ecosystem shows steady progress and remains a notable player in the Web3 space.
Key Takeaways
- In Q2 2024, Hedera averaged 728 daily unique active wallets interacting with its dapps.
- The DeFi sector was the most active on Hedera, making up 83.2% of interactions, while the NFT sector followed with 9.8%.
- Hedera’s Total Value Locked (TVL) reached $86.5 million, with SaucerSwap contributing 62% of this value.
- NFT trading volume on Hedera reached $142,000 with 2,389 sales.
Table of Contents
- Hedera’s Key Developments in Q3 2024
- On-Chain Activity Overview
- DeFi Ecosystem Overview
- Q3 updates on Karate Combat
- NFT Activity Overview
- Closing words
1. Hedera’s Key Developments in Q3 2024
In Q3 2024, Hedera made notable progress, particularly in consumer engagement and Web3 gaming. A key focus for the HBAR Foundation during this period was connecting brands with their audiences through NFTs, spanning various industries such as media, sports, and entertainment. One prominent collaboration was with RealityPlus on Doctor Who: Worlds Apart, a collectible card game that uses Hedera’s blockchain to power its NFT-based game assets.
On the ecosystem front, Hedera took a major step, back in January 2024, by approving the allocation of $408 million worth of HBAR to fuel network development. This funding was directed toward supporting initiatives like the HBAR Foundation and the Hashgraph Association, which almost a year later can see how Hedera’s decentralized governance model and boosting network expansion has been reinforced. With over 71 billion real-world transactions recorded, Hedera continues to solidify its position as a high-performance blockchain.
Moreover, Hedera’s growing involvement in the payments sector is especially noteworthy. In Q3, the network worked on a stablecoin remittance platform with major financial institutions from South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, showcasing its potential to compete with other prominent blockchain networks in the global payment space.
These developments emphasize Hedera’s continued growth in strategic areas such as gaming, payments, and decentralized governance, positioning it as a leading player in the Web3 ecosystem.
2. On-Chain Activity Overview
Following the updates for this quarter, we now take a closer look at the on-chain activity for dapps listed on DappRadar. In Q3 2024, Hedera averaged 728 daily unique active wallets (UAW), representing wallets interacting with Hedera’s dapps. This signals consistent engagement with the ecosystem despite the broader market downturn.
In terms of activity dominance, Hedera remains primarily DeFi-oriented, with DeFi accounting for 83.2% of the chain’s total activity. NFTs follow with 9.8%, while Games and Social dapps each represent 3.5% of on-chain activity.
Among the top-performing dapps, SaucerSwap leads the DeFi sector, as discussed in the next section. For NFTs, the SentX NFT Marketplace stands out, while CoinFantasy and Circle of Games represent the top dapps in the gaming category.
3. DeFi Ecosystem Overview
As highlighted in the Q3 Dapp Industry report, the overall DeFi market has experienced a downward trend this quarter, with Total Value Locked (TVL) following suit. This slowdown has been compounded by price decreases in major crypto tokens. The Hedera ecosystem has not been immune to these trends, with its TVL reaching $86.5 million in Q3 2024, marking a 17% decline from the previous quarter.
One of the standout dapps in the Hedera ecosystem is SaucerSwap, listed on DappRadar and leading by unique active wallets (UAW), accounting for 62% of the network’s activity.
In Q3 2024, SaucerSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Hedera, continued to innovate with the launch of SaucerSwap V2. This upgrade introduced advanced trading mechanisms, allowing liquidity providers to set price ranges for their token pairs. These features enhance capital efficiency and reduce slippage, making trading more streamlined for users.
Another major development in this period was the rollout of the Liquidity-Aligned Reward Initiative (LARI), which incentivizes liquidity providers based on the efficiency of their liquidity provision. This initiative, combined with SaucerSwap’s multi-tiered fee structure, rewards liquidity providers according to risk levels, making it a more adaptive and rewarding platform.
Moreover, SaucerSwap has continued to benefit from Hedera’s low-cost, USD-denominated fee structure, which ensures cost-effective transactions, even during periods of high network usage. This remains a key advantage in attracting users and liquidity providers to the platform.
4. Q3 updates on Karate Combat
Karate Combat is one of the most well-known dapps on Hedera, and while it’s not yet listed on DappRadar, we hope to see it there soon. That said, we definitely need to talk about its growth in Q3 2024.
This quarter, Karate Combat further expanded its presence in Web3 by launching its Layer 2 blockchain platform, UP. Designed to boost fan engagement and streamline its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), this platform empowers users by allowing them to vote on fighters and make important league decisions using $KARATE tokens. This unique governance model blurs the lines between sports and gaming, offering a more interactive experience for fans.
The Karate Combat app also embraces a play-and-earn model, where users can earn $KARATE tokens by voting on fights and engaging with the platform. This gamified approach has helped Karate Combat stand out as one of the most innovative dapps on Hedera, blending traditional sports with blockchain technology and offering an immersive, fan-driven experience.
With these developments, Karate Combat continues to redefine the future of sports entertainment on Hedera, combining cutting-edge blockchain features with a strong community focus.
5. NFT Activity Overview
As mentioned earlier, Hedera has been placing more emphasis on the NFT industry. However, similar to the broader market trends discussed in the Q3 Dapp Industry Report, the NFT space has been hit hard, and Hedera’s NFT metrics have also followed a downward trend. It’s important to note that these metrics reflect the performance of NFT collections listed on DappRadar.
Despite the downturn, NFT activity remains present. Among the top NFT marketplaces on Hedera, we have notable platforms driving continued engagement:
In terms of the most traded NFT collections on Hedera, these collections stood out during Q3 2024:
Although the current NFT ecosystem on Hedera is relatively small, we remain optimistic about potential future growth in NFT collections and marketplace activity as the ecosystem continues to develop.
6. Closing words
In Q3 2024, Hedera has continued to make notable strides across various sectors, from DeFi and payments to NFTs and gaming. Despite market-wide challenges, the ecosystem remains resilient, driven by innovative dapps and strong community engagement. As we look ahead, it’s clear that Hedera is positioning itself as a key player in the evolving Web3 landscape.
If you’re a dapp developer building on Hedera, make sure to list your dapp on DappRadar to gain visibility within our growing ecosystem.
