Flow emerges as the third-largest blockchain for NFT trades in 2022, remaining the leader in all-time trades.

Disclaimer: The report’s calculation for transaction count does not reflect all the transactions executed on a blockchain; it considers all the transactions from the dapps tracked by DappRadar on that specific network.In 2022, the Flow blockchain saw a significant increase in usage, with 91.3 million transactions recorded throughout the year. This represents an increase of 105.52% from the previous year, indicating steady growth in the adoption of Flow. 

Additionally, gaming represented 44.4% of the total chain’s activity. More than 30 games have been built using Flow’s technology. From those games, Solitaire Blitz and Trickshot Blitz stand out, with a peak of 44K and 31.8K daily Unique Active Wallets (dUAW), respectively, and generating 3.9 million transactions between both dapps. 

The NFT market on Flow was also noteworthy in 2022, with BloctoBay surpassing NBA Top Shot as the most dominant NFT marketplace, accounting for 64.5% of the total trading volume. Dapper Labs sports-oriented marketplaces like NFL All Day, UFC Strike, or LaLiga Golazos made their presence felt as well. 

Furthermore, important partnerships with Ticketmaster, Mattel and Meta were announced, while the Flow ecosystem launched a $725 million fund aimed at bringing further innovation and growth to their platform and Web3 in general. This report aims to analyze Flow’s performance throughout 2022, including the most relevant insights from this year. 

Key Takeaways 

Flow activity overview in 2022

The Flow protocol saw a variety of activity throughout 2022 with 28,669 average daily Unique Active Wallets, representing an increase of 4.62% from the 27,402 average dUAW in 2021.

When looking at the yearly performance, we can observe that since February 2022, the activity on the Flow protocol has been on a downward trend, reaching its lowest point of 8,784 dUAW on average in June. However, starting in July, activity on the Flow protocol experienced an uptick, attributed to the launch of gaming dapps such as Solitaire Blitz and Trickshot Blitz, reaching its highest point in September with 51,820 dUAW on average. Subsequently, following the industry trend, activity on the network has trended downwards, and by December 2022, the average dUAW recorded reached 19,733.

It’s worth noting that during the first half of 2022, NFT activity was quite high on Flow, and in the second half of the year, games became the dominant activity on the protocol. Overall, looking at the dominance in activity, we can see that NFT activity represents 55% of total activity, games activity represents 44.4%, and DeFi activity represents just 0.6%.

Overall, even though there were some fluctuations in activity, the Flow protocol has seen minor growth in its user base, which sets a positive outlook for the future.

Transactions on the rise: 105.52% increase in 2022

The Flow protocol has seen a notable increase in transaction count throughout the year of 2022. A total of 91.3 million transactions were recorded, representing an increase of 105.52% from the 44.4 million measured in 2021. This indicates a steady growth in the usage of the Flow protocol throughout the year. (Read disclaimer)

When analyzing the data quarter by quarter, it can be observed that in Q1 of 2022, the number of transactions recorded was 19.7 million, representing a 77.93% increase from the same period in 2021. In Q2 of 2022, the number of transactions recorded was 10.7 million, representing a decline of 24.72% in comparison to Q2 of 2021. This is the only quarter in which we observed a decline in comparison with the same period of 2021.

However, in Q3 of 2022, the number of transactions recorded was 30,499,869, representing a substantial increase of 306.40% in comparison to Q3 of 2021. Finally, in Q4 of 2022, the number of transactions recorded was 30,392,418, representing an increase of 161.44% in comparison to Q4 of 2021.

Surging adoption among developers

Flow saw an impressive increase in developer activity in 2022, with 7,000 new developers deploying contracts to testnet, according to Flow’s yearly town hall. This represents a 250% year-over-year increase and highlights the growing popularity and adoption of Flow among the developer community. In addition to this, the Flow Client Library was downloaded 630,000 times, a significant increase from the previous year. 

On the mainnet, Flow developers deployed a total of 2,430 contracts, a testament to the productivity and success of the community, as it was launched on 22 June. The FCL Discovery tool has also been consistently popular since its launch, serving an average of 128,000 requests per month.

Source: Twitter

To support and encourage the development of new ideas and contributions to the open-source ecosystem, Flow introduced developer grants in 2022. A total of 90 grant proposals were received, with 35 being accepted and 69 grant milestones approved. This resulted in the distribution of $677,000 worth of FLOW tokens to grantees. 

These grants have supported a range of projects and initiatives, including tools and services such as the Flowser CLI integration and Outblock’s iOS and Android SDKs, as well as educational initiatives like Buildspace, LearnWeb3, and Emerald Academy, which have run boot camps, courses, and offered on-chain certificates.

Solitaire and Trickshot Blitz top performers in 2022

In 2022, the Flow protocol saw significant activity in the blockchain gaming space, with several games emerging as leaders in the industry. Currently, there are over 30 games built on the Flow technology, with gaming activity representing 44.4% of chain activity.

One of the most popular Flow-based games in 2022 was Solitaire Blitz, a card-playing mobile game developed by Joyride Games Inc. The game allows players to participate in PvP tournaments, weekly challenges, and leagues, and win RLY tokens. Since its launch, Solitaire Blitz has gained immense popularity, with over 44,000 daily Unique Active Wallets in August and 4 million transactions. However, its activity seems to have been on a downward trend since then, with 5.2K dUAW and 2.3 million counted transactions in December.

Another standout game in the Flow-based gaming space is Trickshot Blitz, a classic 8-ball pool mobile game with blockchain-integrated features also developed by Joyride Games. The game launched on August 15, 2022, for mobile devices and allowed players to compete via matchmaking while earning RLY rewards by winning matches. In its first two weeks, the game had over 31.8K dUAW and made 3.7 million transactions, with activity and sales count starting to trend downwards from October, with the game closing the year with 5.8K dUAW and 1.6 million transactions count.

As mentioned above, both of these games use RLY, an ERC-20 utility token, which is the native token of Rally, a protocol that allows creators to launch tokens and build a digital economy. By using this existing token as in-game currency, the games benefit from exposure to the RLY community as it is already traded on multiple platforms. Players can earn RLY tokens by participating in matchmaking tournaments, and these tokens can be stored in the Joyride wallet and deposited using the Metamask wallet.

Flow protocol NFTs: resilient despite market challenges

In 2022, the NFT market on Flow experienced significant fluctuations in trading volume and sales count. The first quarter of the year was particularly strong for NFTs, with February recording the highest trading volume at $195 million and 2.1 million in sales count. 

However, after Q1, the NFT market began to decline. By June, the trading volume and sales count had reached their lowest point of the first part of 2022, with $10.79 million in trading volume and 503,694 in sales count. 

Despite this decline, the NFT market seemed to rebound in the second half of the year. In September, the trading volume reached its highest point for the second part of 2022 at $38.93 million, with 835,346 sold NFTs. After September, the market appeared to experience another downturn, closing the year with $6.77 million in trading volume and 394,299 in sales count.

Overall, the trading volume on Flow in 2022 was $634 million, a 21.95% decline from the $812 million in 2021. Despite this decline, it’s important to note that the FLOW token price decreased by over 92% in 2022, making the trading volume result more impressive. 

Additionally, the trading volume on Flow in 2022 represented 2.7% of the total NFT trading volume for the year. This placed Flow in the third position, behind Ethereum, which had 83.9% dominance ($19.6 billion) and Solana, with 7.9% ($1.57 billion).

BloctoBay and NBA Top Shot: top NFT marketplaces on Flow

One of the most dominant NFT marketplaces on Flow in 2022 was BloctoBay, with over $419 million in trading volume. This marketplace, which specializes in NFT collectibles and virtual land, saw significant growth in popularity and activity throughout the year, representing 64.5% of the total NFT trading volume on Flow.

Another notable player in the Flow NFT marketplace was NBA Top Shot, which had over $201 million in trading volume in 2022, representing 29.5% of the total trading volume on Flow. This marketplace, which allows users to purchase and trade officially licensed NBA collectibles in the form of NFTs, saw a surge in popularity and activity this year, particularly with the release of several highly sought-after drops.It’s important to note that NBA Top Shot is not only a marketplace but also a game, where fans can compete and collect limited-edition, serialized digital collectibles that feature their favorite players and moments. Moreover, the platform has a strong connection with real-world basketball, as players, teams, and leagues are also involved. NBA Top Shot creates a sense of scarcity, authenticity, and exclusivity, while also tapping deeply into fandom. 

The NFT store contract Form V1 and V2, which this year made 58,4 million and had a dominance of 8.5%, respectively. The NFT Store Contract Form allows creating a NFT marketplace on the Flow blockchain, making it simple for sellers to list NFTs in specific marketplaces. 

Lastly, there is the nWayPlay marketplace, which saw $2.8 million in trading volume in 2022, representing a small but steady activity in the gaming NFT space. This marketplace specializes in NFT collectibles and items for gaming platforms.

The rise of NFTs in the world of sports

The sports industry has become one of the main Web3 adopters. From big partnerships in the major leagues to digital collectibles, fan tokens, and even fantasy games, the footprint of sports continues to ascend in the blockchain industry – and Flow was one of the bigger catalysts. 

In January 2021, one could argue that NBA Top Shot kickstarted the tremendous run for NFTs. And following the same trend, more sports collectibles arrived at Flow last year. In 2022, the Vancouver-based blockchain launched three additional marketplaces partnering with top sport leagues to complement the NBA dapp. 

NFL All Day, which launched on August 18, 2022, has seen particularly impressive numbers. In 2022, the collection had $36.1 million in trading volume and 1.2 million in sales count. The collection allows football fans to collect and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called “Moments” that capture highlights of great passes, touchdowns, and other plays. 

UFC Strike, another NFT collection on Flow, launched on January 23, 2022, recording $3.56 million in trading volume and 197,785 in sales count in 2022. The collection, which Dapper Labs created in partnership with the UFC, offers fans the opportunity to own the most iconic moments in the history of the sports fighting league. Each UFC Strike Moment NFT captures a specific instance of UFC history, with robust audio and video content.

LaLiga Golazos launched on October 27 and had $1.05 million in trading volume and 9,312 in sales count. The collection allows fans to collect Moments that capture the highlights of LaLiga Santander and its players, including iconic plays from all the clubs since the 2005-2006 season, and the key plays from each matchday of the current season. LaLiga Golazos brings fans closer to the sport they love, in both Spanish and English languages.

All of these collections demonstrate the growing popularity of sports NFTs as a way for fans to connect with their favorite teams and moments. The use of blockchain technology and the ability to buy, sell, or trade these digital collectibles on a peer-to-peer marketplace has added a whole new dimension to the world of sports memorabilia. 

Increment Finance: powering DeFi growth on the Flow blockchain

Flow’s decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) has seen a steady increase since the launch of Increment Finance, the only DeFi dapp that has TVL locked on Flow, in July 2022. According to the data provided, on December 31st, 2022, Flow’s TVL reached $4.84 million, representing a 85.23% increase from the launch date.

Increment Finance is a leading DeFi platform on Flow, focused on building DeFi infrastructures to boost on-chain volumes and liquidity. The core team consists of blockchain veterans who have been building in the industry since 2018, with extensive experiences in smart contract development, DeFi, oracles, and security.

Increment Finance offers a range of DeFi services, including a permissionless automated market maker (AMM) swap, a decentralized money market, and non-custodial liquid staking. These services allow users to access a wide range of DeFi products and services on the Flow blockchain, increasing the overall liquidity and functionality of the network.

Additionally, on January 5th, 2023, Increment Finance announced that the security auditing of their Liquid Staking Protocol has been completed, with no major vulnerabilities found, and all issues fixed. This highlights the platform’s commitment to ensuring the security and integrity of their DeFi services, further increasing trust in their products and services among users.

NFTs in entertainment: partnerships with Ticketmaster and Meta

In 2022, the Flow protocol saw significant partnerships with two major companies in the entertainment industry: Ticketmaster and Meta.

Ticketmaster, a leading ticket sales and event management company, announced a partnership with Flow on 31 August, 2022 to explore the use of NFTs in the ticketing industry. Through this partnership, Ticketmaster aimed to leverage the security and scalability of the Flow blockchain to create unique and authenticated digital tickets for events, allowing for the creation of exclusive experiences for fans and preventing ticket fraud. 

Similarly, the tech giant Meta Platforms announced on August 5 the international expansion of its digital collectibles featured on its platform, Instagram. As part of this expansion, Meta declared support for NFTs created on the Flow blockchain, allowing for the creation of unique and verifiable digital assets on its platform. This partnership with Flow allows Meta to provide a secure and transparent platform for the creation and trading of NFTs, while also boosting on-chain volumes and liquidity.

These partnerships with Ticketmaster and Meta demonstrate the growing interest and adoption of the Flow protocol in the entertainment industry. The security and scalability of the Flow blockchain make it a suitable choice for the creation and management of unique and verifiable digital assets, such as tickets and collectibles, while also facilitating the creation of exclusive experiences for fans and preventing fraud. These partnerships set a positive outlook for the potential use cases of the Flow protocol in other industries as well. 

Flow’s $725 million ecosystem fund aims to accelerate blockchain adoption

On 10 May 2022, Flow protocol announced the launch of its Ecosystem Fund, a $725 million fund aimed at supporting the growth and development of the Flow community. This fund is the largest joint commitment made towards any blockchain ecosystem and is set to hypercharge innovation and growth across the Flow community.

The fund, which will provide existing and future developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain, includes participation from industry-leading firms such as a16z, AppWorks, Cadenza Ventures, Coatue, Coinfund, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Dispersion Capital, Fabric Ventures, Greenfield One, HashKey, L1 Digital, Mirana Ventures, OP Crypto, SkyVision Capital, Spartan Group, Union Square Ventures, and Dapper Ventures.

The Ecosystem Fund’s focus is to enable more distributed and equitable Web3 opportunities for developers around the globe, with a specific emphasis on gaming, infrastructure, decentralized finance, content, and creators. The resources provided by the fund will be used by developers for product development, product scaling, team expansion, user acquisition, and general operating expenses. 

In addition to financial support, the developers in the Flow ecosystem will be able to leverage expertise via informational events, office hours, accelerators & incubators, subsidized office space, and similar initiatives. For example, investors will provide Flow teams office space in cities such as Berlin (Greenfield One) and Asia (for AppWorks Accelerator program), and Liberty City Ventures will be providing two scholarships for college students to work on Flow-related projects. As a Venture Partner for Bybit and BitDAO, Mirana Ventures will also help catalyze strategic collaboration opportunities for Flow projects. 

In total, in 2022, more than 40 teams have received funding from Flow Ecosystem Fund partners.

Conclusion

Flow had a strong performance in 2022, despite the challenging market conditions. With over 91 million transactions recorded, representing a 105.52% increase from the previous year, it’s evident that the protocol has continued to see growth in usage. 

The Flow protocol has also seen a steady performance in the NFT space, with over $778 million in trading volume, representing 2.7% of the total NFT trading volume for the year and placing it in the third position behind Ethereum and Solana. 

Additionally, partnerships with major companies in the entertainment industry, such as Ticketmaster and Meta, have further demonstrated the potential of the Flow protocol and its ability to provide secure and transparent platforms for the creation and management of unique and verifiable digital assets. 

Overall, Flow has proven to be a resilient protocol with a promising future as it continues to build and expand its use cases.

https://dappradar.com/blog/flow-blockchain-ecosystem-performance-analysis-2022