Decentralized applications’ (DApps) transaction volume and user activity have slumped in the third quarter of 2019, a new study shows.

DApp.com — an analytics platform for DApps built on Ethereum, EOS, Steem, Tron, TomoChain, IOST and Blockstack — revealed its recent findings in a news release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 7.

An overall market assessment showed that DApps built on the six aforementioned blockchains reported a total transaction volume of $2.03 billion in Q3, down 40% compared with Q2. Only 36% of the DApp users from Q2 used DApps at least once in Q3, which also indicates a notable drop.

Ethereum, Tron and EOS DApp performance

Although Ethereum DApps’ performance was generally steady when compared with the other blockchains, most of the active users in Q2 reportedly did not use any Ethereum DApps in Q3. Both Q2 and Q3 saw 80,000 Ether (ETH) holders using DApps.

EOS had the highest user retention among all reported blockchains, with 40% of old EOS DApp users being involved in Q3, while Ethereum and Tron reported 5% and 15% respectively. At the same time, the number of mainnet accounts and new DApp users for EOS showed the slowest growth in Q3, compared with Ethereum and Tron.

Tron has reportedly kept its position as the second-most popular blockchain to build DApps, following Ethereum, and the largest blockchain platform launched after 2017. Tron experienced a 500,000 user growth on the mainnet in Q3.

DeFi application performance

The study indicates that decentralized finance (DeFi) apps reported over $525 million in growth in Q3, with Ethereum-based DeFi apps contributing more than 88%, or 132,000 users, of the total volume in the finance sector. The report further states:

“500,000+ new users access to dapps in Q3. Over 138,000 (27.6%) of them started picking up dapps for Finance services and over 170,000 (34%) of them were bought into space by Gambling dapps.”

According to crypto analytics firm Diar, Ether volumes on DApps registered a new high in May, but new DApps coming on-chain were significantly low. At the time, it marked a four-month growth trend in on-chain volumes, with 776,000 ETH transacted.