Decoding BNB Chain's dApp Ecosystem: The State of dApps (Pt.2)

Decoding BNB Chain’s dApp Ecosystem 2023: The State of dApps on BNB Chain is the second part of the report exploring the dApps on BNB Chain. In the first part, we took a look at the landscape of BNB Chain including active addresses, daily transactions, the average transaction fee, the increase of verified smart contracts, unique addresses, and more. In this second part, we take a deeper look at the top dApps by TVL, the most used dApps on BNB Chain, dApps revenue and earnings, dApp categories, and dApp dominance.

Key Insights and Metrics

PancakeSwap and Venus Finance account for 65% of the total value of assets locked on BNB Chain.
At the start of 2023, dYdX captured over 75% of the derivatives trading market share which has since fallen to slightly over 50% in July 2023.
At the start of the year, PancakeSwap accounted for 62% of all the users on BNB Chain dApps which dropped to below 17% (730K MAUs) by mid-2023.
Polyhedra, Stargate, Playbux, NFPrompt, Ultimate Champions, 1Inch, and Angle Protocol entered the list of 15 most used BNB Chain dApps recording between 380K and 32K MAUs.
Meta Merge, BurgerCities, GAIMIN, and MatchNova entered the list of 21 BNB Chain gaming dApps with the highest users.
Based on a sample of dApps, 7 dApps generated positive earnings while 6 dApps generated negative earnings in the last 90 days.
Gameta registered over 123K monthly active gamers while SecondLive registered 705K monthly active transactions, the highest among gaming dApps.

dApps by TVL

TVL or Total Value Locked is defined as the total value of assets locked in smart contracts. In DeFi, TVL serves as an indicator of all the assets locked in a dApp or protocol. Web3 users use the TVL metric to gauge the popularity, usability, and liquidity of a DeFi platform.

According to DeFiLlama, BNB Chain recorded over $3.3B in TVL at the end of June 2023 across multiple dApp categories across DEXs, lending, yield-farming, liquid staking, derivatives, and more.

Taking a deeper look, two dApps (PancakeSwap and Venus Finance) account for 65% of the total value of assets locked on BNB Chain. PancakeSwap accounts for 44.81% of the TVL on BNB Chain while Venus accounts for 21.15% of the TVL on BNB Chain.

At the start of 2023, PancakeSwap recorded a TVL dApp dominance of 51.1%, which decreased to a dApp dominance of 44.81% over the first half of 2023. Over the same time, Venus recorded a dApp dominance of 13.9% at the start of the year, increasing to 21.15% by the end of June 2023 while the overall TVL on Venus remained relatively stable.

PinkSale (4.54%), Alpaca Finance (4.38%), BiSwap (3.09%), Radiant (2.21%), Stargate (2.18%), UNCX (2.02%), Thena (1.99%), and Tranchess (1.46%) make up the list of BNB Chain dApps with the most TVL or total value locked.

DeFi dApp Dominance

(Source: DappBay)

Dominance can change based on the time frame used. For example, based on the state of DeFi in 2023, a snapshot of dApp dominance according to users, transactions, and TVL in April 2023 shows PancakeSwap continues to dominate across all three categories.

The top dApps according to users, TVL, and transactions include:

According to users, PancakeSwap, 1Inch, and Uniswap ranked in first, second, and third respectively.
According to TVL, PancakeSwap, Venus, and Alpaca ranked in first, second, and third respectively.
According to transactions, PancakeSwap, 1Inch, and Venus ranked in first, second, and third respectively.

PancakeSwap launched PancakeSwap V3 in the first half of 2023 which contributed to lower fees and higher capital efficiency for traders.

Uniswap also integrated with BNB Chain in Q1 of 2023 and generated a significant number of users. The first half of 2023 also saw the launch of Trader Joe, Angle Protocol, and Thena on BNB Chain. By the end of the first half of 2023, Stargate emerged as the second most used DeFi dApp with 323K MAUs (behind PancakeSwap) on BNB Chain.

DeFi Derivatives

According to Binance Research, for the first half of 2023, 19 derivative and options protocols were deployed on BNB Chain. dYdX, GMX, Gains Network, Perpetual, Kwenta, MUX, Level Finance, and Vertex contribute towards a significant trading market share among derivative dApps.

(Source: BSCDaily)

At the start of 2023, dYdX captured over 75% of the trading market share which has since fallen to slightly over 50% in July 2023. Over the same period, Kwenta, Level Finance, and Vertex Protocol reported an increase in their trading market share in the derivatives market.

Most Used BNB Chain dApps

The most used dApps are ranked according to the number of unique wallets (users) interacting with a dApp’s smart contract in the last 30 days. PancakeSwap was the most used BNB Chain dApp followed by Hooked, Gameta, and SpaceID in Q1 2023.

Based on Q1 2023 data by DappBay, PancakeSwap accounted for over 62% of the users on all BNB Chain dApps with over 1.36 million monthly active users (MAUs). Hooked recorded 469K MAUs, Gameta recorded 141K MAUs, and SPACEID recorded 46K MAUs.

The list of 15 most used BNB Chain dApps includes PancakeSwap, Hooked, Gameta, SPACEID, Era7, Meta Apes, MOBOX, ApolloX, PlayZap Games, X World Games, ApeSwap, CyberConnect, Tiny World, TopGoal, and SecondLive.

However, by the end of H1 2023, PancakeSwap accounted for below 17% (730K MAUs) of the users on all BNB Chain dApps. Polyhedra, Stargate, Playbux, NFPrompt, Ultimate Champions, 1Inch, and Angle Protocol entered the list of 15 most used BNB Chain dApps recording between 380K and 32K MAUs according to DappBay.

In August 2023, LifeForm registered over 1.2 million MAUs to become the most used BNB Chain dApp according to MAUs. In February 2023, LifeForm briefly displaced PancakeSwap to become the most used BNB Chain dApp after recording over 3 million monthly active users on BNB Chain.

In terms of transactions, PancakeSwap (4.97M), Hooked (2.9M), Playbux (1.8M), Polyhedra Network (1.68M), and LifeForm (1.21M) generated the most smart contract interactions towards the end of the first half of 2023.

Web3 Gaming

Web3 Gaming dApps generate the most transactions and users in Web3. 21 of the most played games on BNB Chain accounted for 5.59% of the total monthly active users on BNB Chain and 9.17% of the average daily transactions on BNB Chain.

(Source: DappBay)

The 21 most played BNB Chain games in H1 2023 include Gameta, PlayZap, Era7, SecondLive, MOBOX, Flappy Moonbird, Ultimate Champions, TopGoal, Gaimin, P12, MetaApes, X World Games, Playbux, Mystic Treasures, Tiny World, Tap Fantasy, Plant Crossing, Yuliverse, Thetan Arena, Monsterra, and Stella Fantasy.

Gameta registered over 123K monthly active gamers representing a dApp dominance in the gaming category of 27.5% (users). Playbux and Flappy Moonbird share second place with a gaming dominance of 11.1% each.

SecondLive registered 705K monthly active transactions representing a dApp dominance of 21.9% (transactions). Meta Apes has a dApp dominance of 14.4% and TopGoal has a dApp dominance of 10.3% in second and third based on transactions.

By the end of the first half of 2023, Meta Merge, BurgerCities, GAIMIN, and MatchNova entered the list of 21 BNB Chain dApps with the highest users.

Revenue and Earnings

According to Token Terminal, the top BNB Chain dApps by revenue and earnings feature Level Finance, PancakeSwap, Venus, MUX, Overnight, BetSwirl, and more.

Revenue is defined as the fees that go to the protocol (in the last 90 days). Earnings are defined as the profit or loss generated by a dApp (in the last 90 days) after subtracting costs from revenue.

7 dApps including Venus, MUX, Overnight, BetSwirl, AirSwap, Deri Protocol, and Solv Protocol generated positive earnings in the last 90 days.

6 dApps including Level Finance, PancakeSwap, Thena, ApeSwap, Premia, and Wombat Exchange generated negative earnings in the last 90 days.

Project Landscape

The BNB Chain project landscape condenses over 2100 listed dApps into some of the most popular dApps at the start of 2023 across DeFi, social, marketplaces, metaverse, gaming, and infrastructure dApps.

Not all dApps have utility, create value, or are beneficial for the wider Web3 community. In part 3, we explore the stats on some of the risky dApps and smart contracts on BNB Chain highlighted by Red Alarm and DappBay’s Risk Scanner respectively.

This report was developed by DappBay and TK Research.

Disclaimer: DappBay is an open platform for all developers building on BNB Chain to display their projects. Description and information on Dapps listed on DappBay are directly provided by the developers of the respective project. Projects featured on DappBay are not recommended, vetted or endorsed by BNB Chain Labs, BNB Foundation or any other affiliated entity. Do your own research - you are solely responsible for your investment decisions and your use of any project featured on DappBay is at your own risk. The material available in DappBay should not be construed as financial advice.