Report shows consolidation of cryptocurrencies in third quarter

A recently released report by DappRadar, which cites on-chain metrics and reflects the results of this year’s third quarter, allows concluding that there are some signals of cryptocurrency markets starting to recover from the unstable market environment.

The third quarter turned out to be tense for cryptocurrency markets due to a range of factors. Not the last role in this was played by Ethereum’s Merge. It represented a successful transferring to proof-of-stake, which had a significant impact on layer-2 activity preceding the mentioned event. The report also shed light onto a partial recovery of general market capitalization of cryptocurrency markets. It is still at the level below $1 trillion.

The information on the third quarter results also demonstrates growth of the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization by 8.5% for a period from July to late September of the current year. Certain signs of consolidation were also spotted in the space of decentralized finance, where the total value locked (TVL) grew by 2.9%, reaching the level of $69 billion. Most of TVL is still attributed to Ethereum, as $48 billion is locked in smart contracts.

The DappRadar company has also highlighted an increased amount of unique active wallets in the ecosystem of cryptocurrency, which reached the number of 1.8 million. The mentioned increase was by 12% in comparison with the results of the previous quarter. The gaming sector has made an important contribution to this, with a registered increase of unique wallet addresses by 8% for a period from August to September.

Increase of unique active wallets number by 30% for said time period was also noted for ImmutableX, while volume of trading of NFT grew by 87% in comparison with the previous quarter. The figures of Polygon go in a similar direction – number of its unique active wallets increased by 17% and reached 148000.

DappRadar has separately highlighted the importance of wider macroeconomic factors and the impact they have on the global economy.

As current macroeconomic environment is crucial for cryptocurrency markets as well, it’s difficult to forecast the cryptocurrency spreading all over the world with a lack of overall revival of traditional financial markets.

This point of view is less than optimistic, although it’s partially dismissed by a series of positive news in the third quarter of the year. A recent approval of the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulatory plan, made by The European Union, might be an indication that the governments intend to start managing the industry properly.

Similar actions were performed by the White House with their publishing of the “First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets” this September. It was done in an attempt to provide protection for investors, which is a clear signal of cryptocurrencies becoming a fully-established industry.