The number of active blockchain addresses also declined, averaging about 322,000 a day in the latest week, down 31% from mid-September. That suggests less activity, though it doesn’t necessarily mean 31% fewer people are using the network. One person can control multiple addresses, and automated trading programs can generate thousands of transactions.
Less trading, steady balances
Spot exchanges, where users buy and sell tokens directly, handled $7.45 billion during Oct. 2–8, down 21% from $9.46 billion the week before, according to CoinDesk calculations using DefiLlama. Uniswap, an app that lets people swap tokens with each other without a company in the middle, handled roughly 77% of that.
However, the decline in trading doesn’t mean users are pulling their money out.
Deposits in the chain’s lending and trading apps rose about 2% over the week to $1.04 billion, and the supply of stablecoins, tokens pegged to the dollar, ticked up to roughly $1.10 billion. That suggests the pile of money is simply being traded less, with traders keeping their funds on Robinhood Chain and waiting.
One area is still growing, however: Trading in perpetual futures, which allow investors to bet on price movements without owning the underlying tokens.
DefiLlama’s rolling seven-day figures on Friday showed about $7.35 billion in perpetual futures volume, contracts that let traders bet on prices without owning the tokens, up 26%.
