It is true that July was one of the best months for the crypto market in a long time. The NFT bubble created quite a splash, and the DeFi sector basked in remarkable prosperity, too. On July 28, DeFi’s total value reached an all-time high of $270 billion. This was driven by robust user demand and an expansion of new liquidity into lending, trading, and tokenized assets in general. NFTs surged back into the collective consciousness. At the same time, the bull market provided big increases in trading volume and open interest on many platforms across the DeFi ecosystem. The overall number of transactions saw a modest decline since the national peak in mid-2021.
Tokenized Stocks and Real-World Assets Gain Traction
Within DeFi, tokenized stocks were a clear star performer during the month of July. Wallet interactions jumped from around 1,600 to more than 90,000, an impressive jump in user engagement.
The market capitalization of tokenized stocks grew even faster, up 220%. This uptick proves that there is increasing demand to bring real world, traditional financial assets onto the blockchain.
Real-world assets (RWAs) have been one of the hottest topics in DeFi over the last several months. This trend is indicative of a larger shift to increasing financial interoperability between traditional finance and decentralized finance world.
DeFi Platform Sees Derivatives Demand Surge
One emerging platform in the DeFi ecosystem saw a big spike in demand for derivatives. This platform currently accounts for more than 60% of the total 24h perp trading volume, highlighting its clear dominance in the derivatives market.
The platform features an incredible $15.3 billion in open interest. This figure serves to remind us just how active and confident traders were at the time. Additionally, the platform has facilitated $5.1 billion in USDC bridging, highlighting its role in facilitating the movement of stablecoins across different blockchains.
This dramatic increase in activity, not only highlights the increasing sophistication and institutionalization of the DeFi market. As higher quality, more sophisticated financial instruments make their way on-chain, the attraction of DeFi to institutional investors increases exponentially.
NFTs Make a Comeback
NFTs took the summer by storm in July, helping to spark what appears to be a resurgence of interest in the NFT – and digital collectibles – market. Zora especially made waves with its layer 2 solution and native ZORA token.
Zora’s innovative new approach to help creators reduce the costs of minting NFTs has played a big part in their meteoric rise in popularity. Further, reducing the friction that currently exists for both creators and collectors can drive more robust engagement in the NFT space.
In spite of the positive momentum, the overall NFT transactions volume decreased by 4% compared to July. Blockchain tops NFT market. Just 5 million NFTs traded hands during this one. While this all points to renewed interest, the market still faces a long climb back to the levels of activity seen during past peaks.
Blockchain Revenue and Market Performance
That’s pretty surprising considering Hyperliquid alone made up 35% of Solana’s entire blockchain revenue in the month of July. Doing so uncovers the powerful economic incentives that particular platforms can wield over the long-run success (or failure) of a blockchain network.
The sector hit a new overall all-time high—$270 billion—last Friday, July 28. This explosive growth was fueled by both increasing user demand and new liquidity injection through lending, trading, and tokenized assets.
The overall number of transactions dropped 4% in July. This overall decline is an indication of a market activity consolidation, with users possibly prioritizing transactions of higher value or going to platforms they are more familiar with.
