New research from DappRadar shows the number of daily active decentralized application users has surged to its highest level since 2022 at 5.3M throughout January.

DappRadar said the figure marks an 18% monthly increase, marking a sustained increase in on-chain activity. Web3 games accounted for 1.5M or 28.3% of active users, followed by DeFi with 1M or 19% of users. Socialfi dApps were the third most active sector with 868,000 daily users after jumping 262% month-over-month.

Near was the leading network by active users with 10.2M despite a 31% decline, followed by BNB Chain with 7.8M after a 45.6% gain, and ZkSync Era with 5.45M.

Solana led the pack by transaction volume despite hosting just 2.5M users, with more than 343M transactions executed last month. Wax came in second by transaction count with 160M after a 9% slump, followed by BNB Chain with 41.6M after a 64% increase, and a steady 40M on Near.

Kai-ching, a Near-based social platform, was the most active dApp for the second-consecutive month despite a 37% pullback. MotoDex, a multi-chain game with 3.6M users, was second, followed by the BNB Chain-based game, Sleepless AI, with 2.65M after growing 69%, and the social platform Carv with 1.5M users after an 83% gain.

In terms of monetary value, Ethereum-based dApps topped the list with $131B, followed by Arbitrum with $28.5B, BNB Chain with $20.9B, and Polygon with $7.9B. Despite Near’s impressive number of active users, the network processed just $77.8M worth of transactions.

NFT volume remains strong

NFT trading volume tagged $1.5B from nearly 903,500 active wallets, with volume posting a modest pullback from $1.8B in Decmeber.

Blur continues to lead NFT activity with a 47% dominance over volume despite accounting for only 4% of total sales. The data results from the majority of activity converging around high-value NFTs, with the average sales price sitting at $3,260 in January.

For comparison, OpenSea, the dethroned former long-term leader in the NFT space, drove $102M in trades or 6.6% of volume — an all-time low — despite hosting 14% of NFT sales.

The OKX NFT marketplace held strong in second place with $213M worth of trades, followed by Magic Eden with $110M.