DeFi had a successful Q1 with an increase in TVL, new focus on Arbitrum

DappRadar’s latest report on the state of DeFi showed that the industry saw a successful quarter, despite the difficulties it faced at the end of 2022.

The ongoing bear market only affected the number of active users interacting with DeFi apps. According to the report, the number of daily unique active wallets (dUAWs) decreased by almost 10% compared to the previous quarter.

However, this is in line with the overall drop in dUAWs across all crypto sectors since last quarter.

Graph showing the number of unique active wallets in the crypto industry by sector from September 2022 to March 2023 (Source: DappRadar)

The majority of these users are active on Binance, which saw 449,000 dUAWs this quarter. However, this is still a 28% decrease from the 629,000 dUAWs it registered last quarter, showing its dominance in DeFi could be decreasing.

Wax took second place with just under 400,000 dUAWs, a 9% increase over the past three months. Polygon saw a 25% increase in dUAWs, surpassing 197,000 unique wallets per day.

While most other blockchain platforms experienced some growth in terms of active users, none rival Arbitrum which saw its number of dUAWs increase by 125% compared to last quarter.

Chart showing the top blockchains by the number of dUAWs in Q1 2023 (Source: DappRadar)

Sponsored Business Content

Increased interest in Arbitrum also increased the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi. The DeFi sector closed the quarter with $83.3 billion in TVL — a 37% increase from the previous quarter.

Abirtrum’s long-awaited airdrop attracted a significant amount of users to the platform, pushing the whole sector forward. Data from DappRadar showed that Arbitrum saw a 118% increase In TVL, closing the quarter with $3.2 billion.

GMX, a decentralized exchange offering perpetual future trading, accounted for over 80% of all TVL in Arbirum.

Chart showing the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi from Q1 2021 to Q3 2023 (Source: DappRadar)

Arbitrum distributed over 1 billion ARB tokens to around 600,000 users, pushing the number of transactions on the blockchain to a record of 2.7 million, surpassing both Ethereum and Optimism.

Graph showing the number of transactions per day on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Optimism from November 2021 to March 2023 (Source: DappRadar)