The third quarter 2022 was a great one for BNB Chain, which is still among the biggest DeFi blockchains in terms of Total Value locked (TVL), being second to Ethereum. BNB is also a prevalent chain, and this quarter it emerged as the most popular protocol in terms of average daily unique active wallet activity (UAW), surpassing WAX.
PancakeSwap remains the most used DeFi dapp on BNB Chain with over 167 thousand daily UAW, being a significant reason for BNB’s success. Former leading games on BNB, such as MOBOX and BombCrypto, continue to decline. These dapps have been replaced by Era7, the most popular game on BNB with 23,625 daily average UAWs, and Tiny World, the fastest-growing game this quarter with 800% increase in UAW.
In this report we analyze on-chain data from BNB Chain during the third quarter of 2022.
- On October 10, 2022, the average daily volumes on BINANCE exchange were $14.46B on Spot and $47.97B on Futures.
- BNB Chain is the most active blockchain with an average of 427,134 UAW, which accounts for 20.26% of all UAWs.
- In Q3, BNB was the second biggest DeFi chain with a TVL of $7.6 billion, a 28.67% increase from Q2.
- Gaming UAW is up by 2% from Q2, but is still down by 33% from its Q3 2021 heights.
- NFT trading volume in Q2 2022 is up 232% from Q3 2021, despite a drop of 84% since Q2 2022.
- PancakeSwap is still the most used dapp on BNB, with over 167,000 daily average UAWs in Q3.
- Tiny World is the fastest-growing game this quarter, growing by over 800%.
- BNB’s price has been up by 30.8% since the beginning of July and shows signs of recovery.
- Highest wallet activity on the BNB Chain
- DeFi shows signs of recovery with a 28.67% increase from Q2
- Pancake Swap still is the most used dapp
- BNB chain NFT trading volumes are down this quarter
- BNB Chain leads with the most number of games
- BNB token outlook
- Conclusion
Highest wallet activity on the BNB Chain
In the third quarter of 2022 BNB Chain has surpassed WAX and it has the largest count of average daily Unique Active Wallets (UAWs). The chain reached 427,134 UAW, which means an 8% decrease in comparison to Q2. In terms of yearly performance, the decline has been by 34% compared to Q3 of 2021.
DeFi remains the most popular vertical in the third quarter on BNB Chain with 215,405 average daily UAWs. This product segment is followed by games with 116,210 UAW, while NFTs continue to be just a small portion with only 6,732 UAWs.
DeFi and NFT segments have decreased by 28% and 38% since last quarter. Games are the only segment that had an increase of 2%. The year-over-year performance is on the same trend. Game-related UAWs have decreased by 33%, DeFi by 47% and NFT by 68.78%.
DeFi shows signs of recovery with a 28.67% increase from Q2
In this quarter, BNB Chain has remained the second biggest DeFi chain, with a TVL of $7.6 billion. That’s a 28.67% increase from Q2.
DeFi soared to new heights last year, but the influence of Terra crash earlier this year still influences the segment’s year-over-year performance. It decreased by 93% from Q3 of 2021.
Despite a fall in TVL on the yearly performance, BNB Chain has managed to gain market share relative to other blockchains. In Q3, BNB Chain had the second-highest TVL in the DeFi ecosystem with a 10.55% market share, representing an increase of approximately 60% from a 6.6% market share at the start of the year. The collapse of the Terra blockchain partially contributed to the increase in dominance as TVL flowed to other L1s such as BNB Chain.
BNB Chain has a burgeoning DeFi ecosystem with more than 300 dapps. PancakeSwap is the largest DeFi dapp on BNB Chain with approximately 68.2% ($4.1B) share of TVL. It is followed by , with a 16.3% ($995M) share, and Alpaca Finance with 8.7% ($530M). The final two places are taken by BiSwap and Tranchess, having 5.4% ($328M) and 1.5% ($89M), respectively.
Overall, DeFi has become very competitive since the beginning of this year, and many dapps fought to fill the void left by the collapse of Terra.
PancakeSwap still is the most used dapp
BNB Chain owes its relative success to the performance of PancakeSwap, which is the most used dapp with over 167,000 UAWs in Q3. Other popular dapps in terms of average daily UAWs include 1inch Network (5,681), ApeSwap (3,164), Autoshark Finance (1,693), and Mdex (113). As one can see, the dominance of PancakeSwap is almost unrivaled.
PancakeSwap has launched many adjustments to its tokenomics model during the past few months. In particular, in the second version of its tokenomics model, PancakeSwap approved a proposal to limit the quantity of CAKE to 750 million. Currently, CAKE is inflationary, but the ultimate goal is to make it emission-neutral or deflationary. Assuming that the current emission rate stays the same, there will be a runway of approximately three years before the maximum 750 million CAKE supply is exhausted.
Additionally, the DEX enhanced the utility of its native CAKE token by enabling additional use cases for locked CAKE in the form of weighted voting, increased farm yields, and increased initial farm offerings (“IFO”) allocations.
BNB Chain NFT trading volumes are down this quarter
The depreciation of the BNB coin has drastically affected the trading volume for BNB NFTs.
Compared to the last quarter, the NFT trading volume on BNB Chain has decreased by 84% ($14.8M), but is still up 232% from Q3 2021. The sales count, though, has only decreased by 30% from Q2, but is up by 714% from the previous year.
When we look at the unique trader’s count, it decreased by 45% (66,696) from the previous quarter, but is still up by 16% from Q3 2021.
BNB Chain leads with the most number of games
BNB Chain hosts one of the industry’s most extensive blockchain gaming ecosystems and dominates the sector with a 36.6% market share. The second largest two networks for Web3 gaming are Ethereum with 20.2% and Polygon with 11.8%. The three blockchain ecosystems make up almost 70% of the GameFi market.
Blockchain gaming is also the second most crucial vertical for BNB, contributing 34.35% of all on-chain activity.
This quarter, Era7 Games of Truth continued its growth with a 199% increase from Q2. This makes the dapp currently the most played game on BNB Chain with over 23,625 average daily unique active wallets in Q3. Era7: Games of Truth is an NFT trading-card game inspired by Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering.
In second place, we have X World Games with 21,327 daily average UAWs in Q3 2022, a 62% increase from the previous quarter. After that we have Tiny World, the top game performer of this quarter. It increased 814% from the previous quarter, and in the third quarter of 2022 had 11,364 daily average UAW. The team behind Tiny World wants to create a gaming experience that combines NFT, DeFi and gaming.
MOBOX: NFT Farmer and Bomb Crypto didn’t perform well this quarter. These two dapps decreased their amount of daily Unique Active Wallets by 66% and 89% respectively in the past quarter.
BNB token outlook
The token that powers the Binance blockchain network has increased by 30% this quarter. On the 1st of July, the token price was $217, while on the 30th of September it was $281.
Overall, BNB has fared better than most of its altcoin brethren, having ‘only’ dropped 60% since its May 2021 all-time high of $686, according to CoinGecko.
Leading gaming and metaverse tokens such as SAND, MANA, AXS, and ENJ are all down more than 90% from their peaks.
Conclusion
While TVL and transaction activity in DeFi have declined significantly since the beginning of the year. Our metrics indicate that not all is doom and gloom. Projects that have survived the economic slump continue to improve their platform and use this opportunity to consider how to achieve more sustainable growth.
Regarding user metrics and transaction volume, BNB Chain is one of the most dynamic DeFi ecosystems overall. By providing fast throughput and cheap transaction costs, BNB Chain is well-positioned to entice new DeFi protocols to build on the chain and, in turn, attract more network users. While the days of sky-high yields during the bull market have passed, the present market climate is perhaps better suited for a more sustainable future.
