The dapp industry moves in cycles as some sectors slow down, and others rise again from the ashes. In 2025, NFTs proved that nothing in Web3 ever truly fades. Once written off as a passing trend, they’ve evolved into a more accessible, utility-driven, and brand-connected sector, regaining momentum through real-world use cases and stronger onchain communities.
October’s data reflects this shift. NFT trading volume surged 30%, sales count hit their highest level of the year reaching 10.1 million. Prices dropped sixfold since January, opening the market to a new wave of users.
Across the broader ecosystem gaming continues to dominate, AI dapps are thriving, and DeFi faces renewed regulatory pressure. Yet despite volatility, the numbers tell a consistent story: Web3 is maturing, and users are staying active where innovation meets purpose.
Key Takeaways
- 16M daily active wallets in October, down 3% MoM, showing users are becoming more selective amid global uncertainty.
- Blockchain gaming reached a 27.9% dominance, the highest of 2025, standing as the only sector to grow in UAW this month.
- DeFi TVL fell 6.3% to $221B, hit by market pressure and U.S. regulation debates, yet innovation continues through perpetual trading and ETFs.
- NFTs rebounded with $546M in volume (+30% MoM) and 10.1M sales, the highest of the year.
- Only $38M lost to hacks, a 76% drop from September, the second-lowest month of 2025.
Table of Contents
- Dapp activity slows down
- Most used dapps in Web3 in October 2025
- 46% of global VC funding goes towards AI
- DeFi under pressure amid policy debate
- NFT trading volume surges 30% as sales hit 2025 high
- $38M lost to exploits, down 76% MoM
- Closing words
1. Dapp activity slows down
Q3 ended on a less positive note for dapp activity, showing a 22.4% drop compared to the previous quarter, as detailed in our Q3 report. Unfortunately, this downtrend continued in October. We recorded an average of 16 million daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW), marking a 3% decrease month-over-month.
Why is this happening? The slowdown mirrors what’s going on across the broader crypto and traditional markets. It’s a challenging time globally, both economically and politically. Massive layoffs are announced almost daily, and the ongoing U.S. government shutdown continues to fuel uncertainty across financial sectors.
This also reflects a shift in user behavior. Many are becoming more selective, engaging mainly with dapps that deliver consistent value and real utility rather than short-term hype.
If we look at sector dominance, we can better understand how users are navigating this moment.
Blockchain gaming remains the dominant force in the dapp industry with over 4.5 million dUAW, a 1% increase from last month, reaching a 27.9% dominance, the highest level of the year. It’s also the only sector that recorded growth month-over-month.
The rest of the sectors show a mild decline:
- NFTs – 3.2M dUAW, down 0.5% MoM
- DeFi – 2.9M dUAW, down 5% MoM
- AI – 2.2M dUAW, down 4% MoM
- Social – 700K+ dUAW, down 7% MoM
What can we conclude? Blockchain gaming continues to thrive, driven by the ability to keep users engaged through fresh experiences and consistent innovation, as highlighted in our Q3 State of Blockchain Gaming report. The social sector, however, seems to have lost its momentum, while NFTs are gradually regaining traction through community-driven projects and new use cases.
2. Most used dapps in Web3 in October 2025
As always we closely monitor which dapps attracted the most users, and here’s what our Rankings show for October 2025:
What stands out? DeFi dapps continue to dominate the rankings, with five of the top positions belonging to the DeFi category. This trend makes sense given the ongoing momentum around stablecoins, RWAs, and yield-oriented protocols, which continue to attract users toward decentralized financial systems. Moreover, uncertainty in the market makes people trade their assets. In fact, it seems that the stablecoins market cap has increased by 3% this month reaching $307 billion.
Blockchain gaming also makes a strong appearance, reinforcing what we saw in the first chapter. The sector’s dominance is near an all-time high and is clearly reflected in user engagement on World of Dypians, Pixudi and Sugar Senpai.
These are just a few of the standout performers, but you can explore real-time data and updated rankings directly on our Rankings page.
3. 46% of global VC funding goes towards AI
AI entered our lives only a couple of years ago, and it truly went mainstream in 2025. Naturally, it found its way into the dapp industry as well. That’s why we’ve built a dedicated AI Narrative page, where you can explore the most trending and innovative AI-powered projects.
This month, we have several newcomers in our top 10 AI dapps:
- Kindred Labs – lets users interact with lifelike AI versions of famous characters and brands. These emotionally intelligent companions can chat, help, and engage across devices, making digital experiences more personal and immersive.
- Vibely – allows users to create and own their own AI companion that learns and evolves over time. Built on BNB Chain, it combines the fun of chatting with the security of blockchain ownership. Your AI’s personality, memories, and style are uniquely yours and stored onchain.
- TradeOS – empowers anyone to create autonomous trading agents. Instead of manually switching between apps, users can build “agentic flows”, AIs that automatically discover, analyze, and trade speculative assets safely.
- Venice – a privacy-first, open-source AI platform for text, image, and code generation. It runs entirely in your browser, ensuring no data collection, no censorship, and full control over your conversations and creations.
You can explore all of them and more on our AI Narrative Page, featuring top AI dapps and tokens driving this fast-growing sector.
As mentioned earlier, 2025 is the year of AI. Startups in this space continue to attract unprecedented levels of funding. In Q3 2025, nearly 46% of all global venture capital went to AI-related companies. Global VC investment for the quarter reached $97 billion, up 38% year-over-year, with almost half directed toward AI projects.
But with great innovation comes the need for responsibility. Around the world, governments are stepping in to regulate AI use and ensure safety:
- United States: California became the first U.S. state to enact comprehensive AI safety laws in October 2025. The Transparency in Frontier AI Act (SB 53) requires major firms like OpenAI and Google to disclose risk assessments, while additional bills target AI use in policing and child protection. With Congress still debating national frameworks, California’s law could become a model for federal policy, or lead to a fragmented, state-by-state approach.
- Europe: The EU’s AI Act, in force since August 2024, is now being implemented across member states. In October 2025, Italy became the first EU country to pass its own AI law, introducing oversight bodies and criminal penalties for misuse, including deepfakes. The European Commission also launched a “Digital Omnibus” consultation to align AI compliance across the region.
- India: In October 2025, India introduced its AI Governance Framework for 2025–26, establishing a risk-based classification system for AI uses and banning biometric emotion recognition in sensitive sectors. It also calls for rigorous audits and certifications, aligned with NIST and ISO 42001 standards.
- China: China’s Cyberspace Administration proposed new rules to protect minors online, extending oversight to AI platforms. The draft requires “minor modes,” annual AI impact assessments, and stricter accountability for social responsibility, building on previous generative AI and deepfake regulations.
- South Korea: The Personal Information Protection Commission advanced plans to ease certain AI rules to support innovation. These updates clarify the fair use of copyrighted materials for AI training, establish compensation mechanisms for creators, and expand access to public datasets for AI development.
As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives and onchain experiences, responsible use is key. Transparency, safety, and accountability will define the next era of AI-driven dapps.
4. DeFi under pressure amid policy debate
As mentioned in the first chapter, the global macroeconomic situation remains challenging, and DeFi hasn’t been immune. The sector’s total value locked (TVL) fell 6.3% month-over-month to $221 billion. Fast forward to the first five days of November, and we’ve already seen an additional 12% drop, bringing TVL down to $193 billion.
What added even more uncertainty was the renewed debate among U.S. lawmakers on how to regulate DeFi. Senate Democrats introduced a new ‘DeFi Proposal’ that would classify front-end operators as regulated intermediaries under SEC or CFTC oversight, require full KYC/AML compliance, and give the U.S. Treasury authority to blacklist protocols deemed ‘insufficiently decentralized’. This approach goes completely against what DeFi and decentralized exchanges were built to represent.
The proposal contrasts sharply with the House’s Clarity for Digital Assets Act and the GOP-led RFIA draft, both advocating for a lighter touch on decentralized systems. By the end of October, three competing crypto frameworks were on the table, leaving comprehensive regulation stalled until at least 2026.
And the impact was visible, even the top 10 DeFi chains showed a reaction to the macro and policy uncertainty.
Ethereum remains the dominant DeFi ecosystem. In October 2025, developers were finalizing the “Fusaka” upgrade, aimed at improving data availability and lowering Layer-2 transaction costs. Set for mainnet activation in December 2025, this upgrade is expected to reduce Layer-2 fees by 15–40%.
Despite the headwinds, October also brought several positive developments across DeFi and traditional finance integration.
A new era for crypto ETFs may have started in October. The first U.S. Solana, Litecoin, and Hedera ETFs went live, some by default due to an SEC review freeze during the brief government shutdown.
Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) launched on October 28 with $222 million in seed capital, $56 million in first-day volume, and a 0.20% management fee (waived for the first three months). Trading surged to $72 million on day two, and AUM reached $420 million within a week.
Grayscale Solana ETF (GSOL) followed a day later on NYSE Arca, becoming the first U.S. ETF to offer staking rewards, though initial inflows were smaller (~$1.4 million). It charged a 0.35% fee. Despite demand, SOL’s price dropped ~8% post-launch, partly due to whale sales from Jump Crypto.
Citigroup partnered with Coinbase to develop digital asset payment services for institutional clients, starting with smoother fiat on/off ramps between banks and crypto markets. The collaboration may later expand to fiat-to-stablecoin payouts, signaling growing institutional interest in crypto-integrated treasury systems.
Anchorage Digital Bank selected U.S. Bank to custody dollar reserves backing its fully collateralized stablecoins. The partnership enhances regulatory trust and demonstrates how major U.S. banks are entering the digital asset space, seeing stablecoins as bridges between traditional finance and blockchain payments.
The Bank of North Dakota launched a pilot for “Roughrider Coin,” a USD-backed state-issued stablecoin developed with Fiserv. Designed for interbank settlements, the pilot aims to demonstrate faster, cheaper domestic transfers, potentially inspiring other U.S. states to test permissioned stablecoins for institutional payments.
The European Central Bank advanced its digital euro project, awarding a €153 million contract to Italian firms Almaviva and Fabrick to build the official wallet app. This marks the move from research to implementation as the ECB prepares the legal groundwork to modernize Europe’s payment infrastructure.
As highlighted before, 2025 continues to be a transformative year for crypto and DeFi. While regulation and macro conditions create uncertainty, innovation across ETFs, stablecoins, and infrastructure upgrades point toward a maturing, more interconnected financial ecosystem.
5. NFT trading volume surges 30% as sales hit 2025 high
As mentioned in the first chapter, NFTs have quietly expanded their footprint in the dapp industry. This growth is becoming increasingly visible in the data.
In October, NFT trading volume reached $546 million, marking a 30% increase since September. Even more impressive, the number of sales hit 10.1 million, a record high for 2025 — up 28% month-over-month. We also registered 820,945 NFT traders, a slight 1% increase from the previous month. On average, this means each trader made around 12 sales in October.
Why is this happening? There are several reasons behind this surge. Looking at the top NFT collections by trading volume, we can already get a sense of the drivers.
DX Terminal took the second spot, surpassing BAYC by trading volume. What is DX Terminal? It’s an NFT collection on Base that gained popularity thanks to its low entry barrier and potential upcoming airdrop, a combination that continues to attract traders.
In fact, this month Base surpassed Solana and Polygon in NFT trading volume, reaching $88 million. Ethereum remained dominant with $263 million, about three times higher. Still, Base’s rapid rise shows once again how airdrop expectations can boost user activity.
Next, Courtyard also made it into the rankings. The project has been gaining significant traction thanks to its real-world utility, using NFTs to authenticate physical goods and combat counterfeiting. Furthermore, people also like to buy verified digital trading cards, redeemable for a professionally rated physical card.
Another factor supporting activity is the decline in average NFT prices.
Back in January 2025, the average NFT sold for around $321. By October, that figure dropped to $54, meaning NFTs are six times cheaper now, making them far more accessible to new collectors.
Notable events in October
Yuga Labs x Amazon
Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, partnered with Amazon to release Boximus, a limited-edition 3D avatar NFT for the upcoming Otherside metaverse. Priced around $66, the collection went live on Amazon’s gaming front page on October 30 and sold out within a day.
This drop marked Amazon’s first retail entry into NFTs and introduced Yuga’s ApeChain network, allowing users to purchase NFTs directly with fiat via Amazon Gaming.
Doodles x Froot Loops
Ethereum collection Doodles partnered with Kellogg’s Froot Loops to launch 500 limited-edition cereal boxes bundled with NFTs, priced at $50 each. Featuring Doodles’ pastel characters and the Froot Loops toucan, the boxes sold out within hours on October 1. Each included a digital collectible minted on Coinbase’s Base network, marking another step in Doodles’ move into mainstream retail after collaborations with McDonald’s and Adidas.
OpenSea’s SEA Token Announcement
OpenSea announced it will launch its SEA token in Q1 2026, with 50% of the supply going to the community. Users with historical platform activity and participants in rewards programs will receive separate allocations. The token will be integrated into OpenSea’s core experience, enabling users to stake SEA behind collections and share in platform revenue.
At launch, half of OpenSea’s revenue will be used to buy back SEA, marking a new phase in OpenSea’s evolution and potentially re-energizing its user base.
NFTs might have been quiet for much of the year, but October proved the market still has strong momentum. With major brand collaborations, platform tokenization, and cheaper entry points, NFTs are setting the stage for a more utility-driven and accessible phase in 2026.
6. $38M lost to exploits, down 76% MoM
By the end of October 2025, the REKT Database recorded around $38 million lost to hacks and exploits, a 76% decrease from the previous month. This makes October the second-lowest month of 2025 in terms of total losses.
I’d usually be optimistic about this, but even though this report focuses on October data, the start of November already brought a massive $120 million exploit from Balancer. So, we can already tell November will be rough, bad actors are still active and persistent.
For October itself, there were 11 hacks and exploits recorded, a 31% decrease compared to September.
Top 3 incidents of the month:
Hyperliquid – October 10, 2025:
A user lost approximately $21 million after their private key was leaked to an attacker. The hacker gained full wallet access and bridged the stolen funds to Ethereum, including $17.75 million in DAI and $3.11 million in liquidity positions, without exploiting any smart contract vulnerabilities.
Garden Finance – October 30, 2025:
The cross-chain DeFi platform suffered a major exploit resulting in $10.8–11 million in losses across multiple blockchains.
Typus Finance – October 15, 2025:
The protocol was hit by an oracle manipulation exploit that drained approximately $3.44 million from the Typus Liquidity Pool (TLP) contract on the Sui blockchain.
These incidents remind us that security in Web3 remains a work in progress. Whether you’re active in DeFi, NFTs, or AI dapps, always:
- Double-check smart contract permissions.
- Avoid suspicious links.
- Use hardware wallets whenever possible.
7. Closing words
As 2025 nears its end, the dapp industry stands at a turning point. Growth may have slowed in some areas, but the foundations for the next cycle are being built right now. AI agents, tokenized assets, and user-centric innovation are shaping what’s next.
The data shows a maturing ecosystem: users are becoming more selective, protocols are evolving faster, and real-world adoption is steadily catching up. The year ahead will test how well onchain projects can deliver utility, security, and transparency at scale.
If 2025 was about proving resilience, 2026 will be about unlocking the next wave of Web3 adoption — where every wallet, token, and interaction moves closer to mainstream relevance.
