Q3 was wild for crypto L1s,... | Dami-Defi OKX Feed

Q3 was wild for crypto L1s, AI, RWA, L2s, DeFi all saw action But only one narrative led in both performance & attention I pulled price, volume, usage, and search data from Jul–Sep. Here’s who actually came out on top (with receipts)🧵

Methodology: Window: Jul 1–Sep 30, 2025. I grouped tokens into narratives: - AI/Agents+DePIN - RWA - L1s - DeFi etc. I then compared: - Returns - Trading volume share - Usage - Mindshare

1️⃣ AI / Agents & DePIN #AI market cap grew 14.44% from $27.7b to $30.7B in Q3 By September, 41.8M+ devices were powering DePIN networks across various projects Fees across top #DePIN projects jumped +194.6% from $24.3k to $71.6k in Q3 Mindshare: AI Agents: 3% DePIN: 2.7%

2️⃣ RWA RWA TVL hit $30B in Q3, up 10x from 2022 U.S. Treasuries & private credit constitute nearly 90% of RWAs The market grew 14.23% in Q3 Adoption: As of today, there are 225 issuers and 420,609 asset holders in the RWA eco Mindshare: 2%

3️⃣ L2s Active addresses across all L2s grew from 45.8M in Q2 to 49.1M in Q3 2025, +7.21% Fees saw a 19.12% QoQ growth, from $31.9M to $38M Txn count also saw a double-digit % QoQ growth: +15.79% from 1.9b to 2.2b Mindshare: 2.3% Price: -10.7% Volume share: $1.1B | 0.1%

Standouts @base: - DAUs saw -14.29% QoQ drop from 1.4M to 1.2M - Txn count rose 16.26% from 806.2M to 937.2M - Fees rose +15.16% from $14.38M to $16.56M @arbitrum: - DAUs: +35.27% from 262.4K to 354.9K - Txn: +26.05% from 219.1M to 276.2M - Fees: +26.53% from $4.9M to $6.2M

4️⃣ Major L1s ($ETH /$SOL) $ETH saw +66% price growth in Q3 vs $SOL which rose 35.14%. $ETH: - Quarterly Daily Fees growth: +21.65% from $103M in Q2 to $125.3M in Q3 DAUs: +24.28% from 413.8K to 514.3K

$SOL - Fees: 1.19% QoQ growth from $121.16M to $122.6M - DAUs: -28.21% QoQ drop from 3.9M to 2.8M $SOL still leads in DAUs, but its lead is weakening Both $ETH & $SOL beat $BTC, which only rose 6.57% in Q3 Mindshare: 37.9% Price Change: +6.6% Volume share: $103.9M | 0.1%

5️⃣ Gaming Sector Market Cap grew 9.70% from $16.5B to $18.1B. DAUs grew +14.29% QoQ from 1.4M to 1.6M in Q3 Number of token holders fell 2.32% from 716.5k to 699.9k QoQ @worldofdypians accounts for 71.6% of gaming with 969.7K DAUs Mindshare: 5.2% Price: +15.3%

6️⃣ Meme Coins Sector market cap grew +25.97% in Q3 Return dispersion: wide Volume saw a sharp spike in July-August

flipped across all metrics but $PUMP was back at the top by August By Sep daily volume had fell to $90M & daily graduates fell to 79 Mindshare: 14.1% Price: -22.9%

7️⃣ DeFi & Perps Perp volume in Q3 grew +29.41% from $557.17B to $721B Mcap grew from $15.5B to $20B+, up nearly 30%. Perp wars got heated toward the end of the quarter: -$ASTER's daily perp volume shot up from $300M in August to $85B on Sept 28. Monthly volume hit $420B

In September, $ASTER pulled in $134M in fees, 3rd highest in all of crypto Other Perp DEXs like $AVNT, Lighter & edgeX also rose to challenge $HYPE $HYPE's monthly perp volume fell 30% in Sep

Fees also dropped from $114M to $87M Trading was concentrated on $ASTER, $HYPE & $AVNT Sector Mindshare: 18.1% Price: +26.2% Volume Share: 57.1B | 4.3%

➤ Leaderboard - Top By Returns: DeFi & Perps | +26.2% - Top By Volume Share: DeFi & Perps | 4.3% - Top By Mindshare: L1s | 37.9% DeFi & Perps emerges the winner, by dominating 2 of our 2 key metrics.

➤ Over-talked vs Under-talked • Over-talked but under-used: Meme Coins • Under-talked but over-used: Gaming, DeFi That’s where Q4 risk/reward is

➤ Rotation map (Q4 setup) • Liquidity → DeFi & Perps • Momentum → L2s • Mindshare → DeFi & Perps / #AI Reply with the narrative you think will lead in Q4, I’ll track the data again in Q1

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