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Decentralized applications had a breakout year in 2019, with dapps on the Ethereum, Tron, and EOS blockchains raking in some $23 billion in transaction volume, according to a new report from DappReview.
The data analytics site reports that the three leading smart-contract platforms accounted for more than 98 percent of the total on-chain dapp activity throughout the blockchain industry: Ethereum alone came in at $12.8 billion for the year, while EOS recorded $6 billion in transactions, and Tron rounding things out at just over $4 billion.
(Honorable mentions go to relative newcomers IOST and Steem, which came in as fourth and fifth on the charts at around $100 million and $50 million, respectively.)
The popularity of dapps in 2019 is primarily due to the emergence of blockchain gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, according to the report. Ethereum remains far and away the most popular blockchain on which to build and use dapps, and its $12 billion in transaction volume largely stemmed from the many ERC-20 tokens that have made their way onto its network.
According to DappReview, DeFi applications made up more than 90 percent of Ethereum dapp transaction volume for the year. The network was host to more than 22 million total transactions in 2019 across roughly 1,200 active dapps. And while Ethereum does have its fair share of blockchain games and active gamers on its network, they don’t account for much volume, since they often make use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and do not “involve token or asset transfers,” the report states.
Tron, on the other hand, is heavily dependent on gaming in terms of volume. Of its $4.4 billion total for the year, $3.9 billion came from gaming. More than 60 percent of the users of the “Las Vegas on the blockchain” network, as it’s referred to in the report, make use of casino dapps. In all, casino-based applications make up more than 90 percent of Tron’s volume, while only 8 percent is the result of DeFi activity.
EOS, meanwhile, still boasts greater transaction volume than Tron, but the network has suffered from congestion issues and cyberattacks which have seen both users and developers begin to migrate to competing platforms. Tron has now overtaken EOS in terms of both the number of active dapps and active users on their networks.