• 22 percent increase in DeFi TVL shows gradual recovery from the Terra network collapse.
• The combination of various factors caused the NFT market’s failure to hit a $1 billion transaction volume for the first time since June last year.

The crypto industry is still feeling the effects of the Terra network crash. Consequently, it isn’t surprising that the market is still bearish. However, the latest report by blockchain analytics firm, DappRadar, showed some bright spots.

DeFi’s gradual recovery

The decentralized finance (DeFi) industry is experiencing an overall increase in total worth as the crypto market recovers slowly and steadily. The total value locked (TVL), the basis for measuring the efficiency of decentralized apps (dApps), rose throughout July 2022.

It rose by 22 percent between July 1 and 31, 2022, increasing from $67.3 billion to $82.3 billion. However, it was still some way off its peak of $253.91 billion in December last year. The report also indicated that Ethereum still owns the lion-share of all TVL. Ethereum TVL was about $46 billion on July 1 but ended the month at more than $57.9 billion.

After the Terra crash, the BNB chain became the network with the second-biggest TVL. TVL on the BNB chain rose from $5.97 billion on July 1 to $6.9 billion on July 31. There were also similar increases in TVL on other networks throughout the month. Notable mentions include Tron, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, and Cronos.

NFT trade volume fails to hit $1 billion

The report also highlights various reasons the NFT market failed to hit the $1 billion transaction volume mark last month. It is the first time since June last year that this market would fail to do so. According to the report, the market is in its worst bearish period. The drop in the value of cryptos has further caused a decline in liquidity.

There isn’t as much profit from reselling NFTs. Hence, many creators or NFT advocates are liquidating their investments in the NFT market. Others are moving into what is known as ‘holding positions,’ where they can block trades until the crypto winter is over. Yuga Lab’s four projects, which dominate the entire NFT market, were responsible for 20 percent ($160 million) of the total transaction volume in the NFT market last month.

The four projects are CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Otherdeed For Otherside, and Bored Ape Yacht Club. There has been a huge increase in NFT utilities, especially Ethereum Name Service domain names. The total transaction volume for these domain names was $20 million last month. The report notes a “hyper-centralization of activity with blue-chip NFT collections retaining most of the value.”

The gaming sector defies bear market

Despite the bear market, there was $857 million worth of transactions and one million daily unique active wallets (UAW) in the gaming sector last month. The top blockchain games continue to prove they have real engagement by retaining their player base despite competition from metaverse-based gaming ventures.

According to the report, the latter continued to gather more venture capital last month. It is worth noting that the UAW games’ dominance surged from 52 percent to 57.39 percent month-on-month. Thus, indicating strong bullishness.